HC 424H, Honors College colloquium Pens and Needles: Seven Centuries of Women Writing Science
Bishop, Winter '06| 308 Chapman | (541) 346-0733 | lmbishop@uoregon.edu
Office hours:
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Monday, 10:00 am to 11:00 am, 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm |
Wednesday, 10:00 am to 11:00 am; 2:00 pm. to 3:00 pm |
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and by appointment |
Sign-up sheet on office door
Princeton writing lab here
Class hours: Mon. and Wed. noon to 1:20 pm
| Requirements | Texts | Grading | Reading schedule | Paper format instructions | Presentation schedule
Scientia is Latin for knowledge. In this course we will examine the
texts of four women writers to assess their attachment to, interest in, and
use of science as a body of knowledge, a rigorous discipline, and a framework
for sapientia, wisdom.
Our first writer, Hildegard of Bingen, wrote her medico-scientific treatises
during the first half of the twelfth century. Both her Physica, a “natural
history,” and Causes and Cures, a compendium of medicine some argue
derives from Hildegard’s own experience, reveal her immersion in the learned
texts of her day as well as her unique additions to a received corpus. Trota,
author of the Trotula and a teacher at the first medical school in Europe,
wrote a medical treatise roughly contemporary with Hildegard’s. In true
medieval fashion, the Trotula acquired other medical texts while retaining
Trota’s name and her gender in its title. The Trotula was widely
disseminated throughout Europe, in both Latin and vernacular languages, into
the seventeenth century. We will then move from the western pre-modern to its
modern. Margaret Cavendish, Countess of Newcastle, authored a “poetry of
science” in the mid-sixteenth century, using atomic theory and mathematics,
literally and metaphorically, for understanding the science of human existence.
Jane Marcet wrote a chemistry book at the beginning of the nineteenth century
to teach chemistry to interested parties, including women. Marcet pens a dialogue
between “Mrs. B” and her two female charges in order to answer questions
about chemical properties and experiments.
These four authors provide a wide-ranging journey through women writing science
in the past. The final woman writing science will be at the choice of each member
of the class. Each student will research a modern (beginning in the nineteenth
century) woman writing science (or can delve more deeply into one of our four
women writing science). Students may also choose to work collaboratively on
particular figures. Among the candidates for further research are Barbara McClintock,
Sophie Germain, Rosalind Franklin, Marie Curie, Ada Byron Lovelace, and Rachel
Carson. Students are not in any way limited to this particular list. Students
are encouraged to treat science broadly - medicine, “natural philosophy,”
and mathematics all reside under the “science” umbrella - and to wrestle
with social and literary meanings of women writing science. The goal of the
class is, through "literary attention" (the "discursive,"
particular words, metaphors, treating books and texts as "things"
with various effects, concepts and practices of authors and authority, and feminist
practice) to evaluate the "march of science": its institutional shape,
its hold on readers and language, and contests over its management and meanings
for women and men in the 21st century.
See below for requirements.
Three texts have been ordered at the UO Bookstore, and all are available: Hildegard of Bingen's Holistic Healing (Liturgical Press), The Trotula, edited by Monica Green (Penn State), and a Cavendish reader, called Paper Bodies (Broadview). Cavendish readings are also available on the Web, via Early English Books Online (enter the title on the library home page, then click to enter the resource). Jane Marcet's Conversations on Chemistry (1818) will be available soon at The Copy Shop, on 13th Street. (Back to top of page)
Other readings are available in a timely fashion in the Honors College library in the "Bishop" box or will be handed out in class.
1. Word paper. You'll start at the beginning of the term to become an expert in one of four words: science, history, nature, woman. For Wednesday, January 18, you'll write a short (500 words) paper that provides as many definitions for your word as you can find (list all sources, including web resources). You'll also speculate about the kinds of issues your word will bring up in class. Completing this assignment on time and with some acuity counts 10 % towards your final grade.
2. "Summary" paper for each of our four primary authors. Your summary will present your reflection on our authors: what most struck you as different in the text? What questions were answered, and what questions do you still need answers for? Include a short passage on the relationship between your "word" and the text. I will read these papers, comment on them, and grade them pass/no pass. Normally, a no-pass paper lacks a thesis and/or contains egregious writing errors. Four passing papers will count as a 4.0, three as a 3.0, two as a 2.0, one as a 1.0. You may also request that I give any response paper a "grade," meaning the grade it would get were it a graded assignment. I would "grade" the paper in order to give you an idea of how grading works on formal papers, but the grade won't "count," per se. 20% of your final grade.
3 . Thesis question and annotated bibliography. See this page for a guide for writing an annotated bibliography. By week SIX of the term, you'll have decided on your topic for your final paper. The range of choices is broad. On the one hand, as an arts and letters course, requirements include work with a primary text of some sort. We will include in the designation "primary text" biographies written by women scientists about other women scientists. Your paper will pay attention to "literary" qualities in your chosen research topic while, at the same time, you can skew your topic towards your own particular disciplinary interest. 20% of your final grade.
4 . Class presentation. See the presentation schedule. The last three class meetings will have you presenting to the class your 20th- or 21st-century woman writing science (or, if you wish, you can explore further one of our class selections). You may work in teams or groups if you wish. Your grade will be a composite of my grade along with the class's grades of your presentation. 15% of your final grade.
5. Term project. While I'm quite happy for you to write a standard term paper (approximately 2500-3000 words), and a good portion of the work must be written, you may include other types of research, such as images or music. And, as mentioned above, you can certainly collaborate on particular women writing science, but each class member must write an individual term paper. 25% of your final grade. (Back to top of page)
The word paper constitutes 10% of your grade; the summary papers collectively, 20%, the thesis question and bibliography, 20%; class presentation, 15%; participation, 10%; and the term paper, 25% of your grade. Please note the University's "grade point value" system effective 9/90, as I will be using this system (unless otherwise noted):
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A+ = 4.3 |
B+ = 3.3 |
C+ = 2.3 |
D+ = 1.3 |
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A = 4.0 |
B = 3.0 |
C = 2.0 |
D = 1.0 |
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A- = 3.7 |
B- = 2.7 |
C- = 1.7 |
D- = 0.7 |
Note that a grade of "C" is, according to academic regulations, "satisfactory," while a "B" is "good." That means that a "B" is better than average, better than satisfactory, better than adequate. The average grade, then, is a "C"; a grade of "B" requires effort and accomplishment.
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January 9 Intro to class; film of Evelyn Fox Keller, VT 06065 (available at the Knight Library).. |
January 11 Two readings about "feminist science" by Helen Longino. Is there a "feminist science"? |
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January 16 NO CLASS
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January 18 Word paper due Hildegard,
to page 164. The relationship between theology and science: medieval philosophy.
Check out the good web bibliography by Dorothy Disse at http://home.infionline.net/~ddisse/hildegar.html –Do Fox Keller's ideas about good science "diverging from the norm" help us in reading Hildegard? –What is Hildegard's idea of knowledge? –How does reading Hildegard disrupt our sense of science? –How does Hildegard use metaphor? –Does Hildegard engage your sympathy for the Middle Ages? See my little "medieval science" site here. And here's what I think are this week's big topics:
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January 23 Hildegard, to the end of the book. Classification and close reading. In-class debate: Is Hildegard a "science writer"? Answer: depends on the definition of "science": is it "explanation"? "reproducibility"? How about the "contemplation of elastic horizon"? Its tie to "knowledge" shows us that, following Fox Keller, we produce knowledge, even knowledge about data and that which comes from observation, within linguistic (metaphor) and institutional (university) parameters.
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Summary paper on Hildegard due |
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January 30 Trotula, Conditions and Treatments, pp. 65-112 What patterns, if any, do you see emerging in these texts? Other questions: Evaluate Green's assertions about theory and practice in the text. What do these distinctions mean for "women's medicine"? How does The Trotula fit into our questions about "science writer"? |
February 1 Meet in the Reed room in the Knight library: room no. 235 (second floor, close to the ladies' and gents' rooms next to the stacks).
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February 8 Summary paper on Trotula due Moving to from the pre-modern to the modern. Margaret Alic, "The Rise of the Scientific Lady," from her book Hypatia's Heritage, and notes on the "scientific revolution" |
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February 13 Cavendish, Paper Bodies, intro and chronology (pp 9-37), and a selection of her poetry, pp. 252-63. Note the four "modes" for thinking about Cavendish: she's secular, she's interested in hybrids, she uses experimental forms, and she's encyclopedic. |
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February 22 Annotated bibliography and thesis question due Cavendish conclusion with an in-class debate: Was there a "scientific revolution" and, if so, what was its effect on women and science? |
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February 27Summary paper on Cavendish due
See the Marcet website, http://www.rsc.org/Library/LICHelp/HistoricalChemistry/Conversations/ |
March 1 Marcet, conversations 4 and 5: heat and electricity Things to think about:
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March 13 Summary paper on Marcet due Presentations You'll be evaluating presentations on three main areas
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March 15 presentations concluded |
Helen E Longino, "Can There Be A Feminist Science?," Women, Science, and Technology (Routledge, 2001), 216-222 (also in Tuana)
Helen E Longino, "Subjects, Power, and Knowledge: Descriptions and Prescription in Feminist Philosophies of Science," The Gender of Science (Prentice-Hall, 2002), 310-21
Donna Haraway, "Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective," The Gender of Science (Prentice-Hall, 2002), 361-71 (vision, bodies)
Naomi Scheman, "Though This Be Method, Yet There is Madness In It: Paranoia and Liberal Epistemology," The Gender of Science (Prentice-Hall, 2002), 371-91
Londa Scheibinger has written extensively on women and botany in 18th and 19th century western letters.
Jan S. Emerson, "A Poetry of Science: Relating Body and Soul in the Scivias," Hildegard of Bingen: A Book of Essays (Garland 1998), 77-102.
Marcia Kathleen Chamberlain, "Hildegard of Bingen's Causes and Cures: A Radical Feminist Response to the Doctor-Cook Binary," Hildegard of Bingen: A Book of Essays (Garland 1998), 53-73
Kenneth F. Kitchell and Irven M. Resnick, "Hildegard as a Medieval 'Zoologist': The Animals of the Physica," Hildegard of Bingen: A Book of Essays (Garland 1998), 25-52
Sarah Hutton, "Science and Satire: The Lucianic Voice of Margaret Cavendish's Description of a New World Called The Blazing World," Authorial Conquests (FDU 2003), 161-78.
Article on Cavendish and cyber theory: http://www.shu.ac.uk/emls/si-14/wallspir.html; available from UO library by finding title "Early Modern Literary Studies," going to website, and clicking on volume 14
Greg Myers, "Fictionality, Demonstration, and a Forum for Popular Science," Natural Eloquence: Women Reinscribe Science (Wisconsin 1997), 43-59
M. Susan Lindee, "The American Career of Jane Marcet's Conversations on Chemistry," Isis 82 (1991): 8-23
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