Academic Programs
Contents
Teaching Cyborg Anthropology
Planning to teach Cyborg Anthropology? See Course Materials for syllabi and book recommendations. Looking for books? See Books.
I've been asked many times if there are any degrees or programs in the subject area of cyborg anthropology or digital ethnography. There are few. Many are related to the history of science and technology, the anthropology of science, or science and technology studies.
I've gathered the few courses I've been able to find through contacts or on the web. This is not an exhaustive list and I need your help. If you teach a course in Cyborg Anthropology, Digital Anthropology, or Science and Technology Studies please contact me at case@cyborganthropology.com.
Educational Institutions
Current Academic Programs
Program in History & Philosophy of Science and Technology
Stanford University
The Program in History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at Stanford teaches students to examine the sciences, medicine and technology from myriad perspectives, conceptual, historical and social. Our community of scholars includes core faculty and students in History and Philosophy and affiliated members in Classics, Anthropology, English, Political Science, Communication and other disciplines. Together, we draw upon the multiple methods of our disciplines to study the development, functioning, applications and social and cultural engagements of the sciences.
Stanford's Program in History and Philosophy of Science and Technology is a collaborative enterprise of the Departments of History and Philosophy. Each department has its own undergraduate and graduate degree programs in this area, but these overlap and interact in several ways. First, because of the interdisciplinary structure of requirements, students who come into the program through each department take courses and work with faculty in the other. This helps to create a single community of students and faculty, as does the colloquium series, which brings everyone together regularly throughout the year. The faculty from the two departments also team-teach core courses in which students do joint coursework, and the graduate students conduct joint activities including an annual conference, Critical Conversations.
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/
Lewis & Clark College
SOAN 390 Cyborg Anthropology
Content: Cultural practices surrounding the production and consumption of technoscientific and biomedical knowledge. Articulation between different constituencies, both inside and outside the scientific community, and the asymmetries that shape their relations. Heterogeneity of science, including contrasts between disciplinary subcultures and different national traditions of inquiry. Political economy of science, including the allocation of material and symbolic resources. Networks of associations that link human and nonhuman allies, such as medical prosthesis, robotics, information. Representation of science and technology in popular culture.
Prerequisite: Sociology/Anthropology 100 or 110, and two 200-level sociology/anthropology courses; or consent of instructor.
Taught: Alternate years, 4 semester credits.
Graduates: Amber Case | MJ Petroni
Professor: Deborah Heath
SOAN 395 Anthropology of the Body Deborah Heath
Content: The body in society. How bodies are the loci of race, class, and gender. The body as a way of examining health and healing, symbols and politics, discipline and resistance. Social and ritual functions of reproduction (including new technologies) and of adornment, scarification, other forms of bodily decoration in classic and contemporary literature, film, dance. Formerly Sociology/Anthropology 295.
Prerequisite: Sociology/Anthropology 100 or 110, and two 200-level sociology/anthropology courses; or consent of instructor.
Taught: Alternate years, 4 semester credits.
New York University
ITP is a two-year graduate program located in the Tisch School of the Arts whose mission is to explore the imaginative use of communications technologies — how they might augment, improve, and bring delight and art into people's lives. Perhaps the best way to describe us is as a Center for the Recently Possible.
The department, which began in 1979, grew out of the work of the Alternate Media Center which was founded in 1971. ITP and AMC have developed an international reputation for pioneering work in demonstration and research in the field of interactive media. 2009 marks the 30th anniversary of the Interactive Telecommunications Program.
ITP Website http://itp.nyu.edu/itp/ ITP Website
Graduates: Sally Applin
Berkeley School of Information
The School of Information is both UC Berkeley's newest and its smallest school. Located in the center of campus, the I School is a graduate research and education community committed to expanding access to information and to improving its usability, reliability, and credibility while preserving security and privacy. This requires the insights of scholars from diverse fields—information and computer science, design, social sciences, management, law, and policy.
In UC Berkeley's historic South Hall, roughly 100 graduate students and 15 faculty members form a small, multi-disciplinary collective of scholars and practitioners.
The I School offers a professional master's degree and an academic doctoral degree. Our master's program trains students for careers as information professionals and emphasizes small classes and project-based learning. Our Ph.D. program equips scholars to develop solutions and shape policies that influence how people seek, use, and share information.
http://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/about
Graduates: danah boyd
UC Santa Cruz - History of Consciousness
History of Consciousness is an interdisciplinary graduate program centered in the humanities with links to the social sciences, natural sciences, and the arts. It is concerned with forms of human expression and social action as they are manifested in specific historical, cultural, and political contexts.
The program stresses flexibility and originality. Interest is focused on problems rather than disciplines. Although students are prepared to teach in particular fields, the emphasis is on questions that span a number of different approaches.
Professor(s): Donna Haraway
Western Washington University
ANTH 440 - Cyborg Anthropology.
"The cyborg is a life form that is part human and part machine. This course examines the shifting conceptual and physical boundaries between humans and their techno-scientific creations through theoretical works, ethnographic accounts and popular cultural artifacts such as film".
