Introductory description

Science today is a big part of political life. From the COVID-19 pandemic through to the climate emergency, much of contemporary political debate concerns science and technology. This, however, is not a recent phenomenon. Scientists have long been involved in political debate, whether that was during the anticolonial campaigns of the 1930s or the environmental movements of the 1970s. If we want to understand the politics of science and technology today, we therefore need to look to the past. In this module, we do just that, exploring the political history of science, moving from the early twentieth century through to the present. Topics covered include the history of socialism, fascism, feminism, anti-racism, environmentalism, and anticolonialism. Throughout the course, there is an emphasis on exploring the history of science as part of global political history. The politics of science in Europe is studied alongside that in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

No scientific knowledge is required to take this module.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Term 1

1. Thinking Politically About Science: Then and Now
2. Suffragettes in the Laboratory
3. Fascist Science
4. British Science and Socialism
5. Stalin and the Scientists
6. Reading Week
7. Science, Maoism, and the Cultural Revolution
8. Science and Swadeshi in Colonial India
9. Nehruvian Science in Postcolonial India
10. Decolonising Science in Sub-Saharan Africa

Term 2

1. Latin American Development
2. Middle Eastern Techno-Politics
3. Science, Technology, and the State of Israel
4. Nuclear Politics
5. Feeding the World
6. Reading Week
7. Science, Racism, and Anti-Racism
8. Feminist Science
9. Environmentalism
10. Climate Emergency

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate a systematic knowledge and understanding of the history of science and global politics from 1900 to Present
• Critically analyse and evaluate a broad range of primary sources relating to the history of science and global politics from 1900 to Present
• Effectively communicate ideas, and make informed, coherent and persuasive arguments, relating to the history of science and global politics from 1900 to Present
• Critically review and consolidate theoretical, methodological, and historiographical ideas relating to the history of science and global politics from 1900 to Present

Indicative reading list

Indicative Reading List
Agar, Jon. Science in the 20th Century and Beyond. Polity, 2012.
Arnold, David. Science, Technology and Medicine in Colonial India. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Bell, Alice. ‘The Scientific Revolution That Wasn’t: The British Society for Social Responsibility in Science’. Radical History Review 127 (2017)
Bolin, Bert. A History of the Science and Politics of Climate Change: The Role of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Brown, Kathryn L. Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Burton, Elise K. Genetic Crossroads: The Middle East and the Science of Human Heredity. Stanford University Press, 2021.
Creager, Angela N. H., et al. Feminism in Twentieth-Century Science, Technology, and Medicine. University of Chicago Press, 2001.
Cueto, Marcos. Missionaries of Science: The Rockefeller Foundation and Latin America. Indiana University Press, 1994.
Dauben, Joseph W. Mr. Science and Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution: Science and Technology in Modern China. Edited by Chunjuan Nancy Wei and Darryl E. Brock. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2012.
El-Haj, Nadia Abu. The Genealogical Science: The Search for Jewish Origins and the Politics of Epistemology. University of Chicago Press, 2012.
Fara, Patricia. A Lab of One’s Own: Science and Suffrage in the First World War. Oxford University Press, 2018.
Gil-Riaño, Sebastián. ‘Relocating Anti-Racist Science: The 1950 UNESCO Statement on Race and Economic Development in the Global South’. The British Journal for the History of Science 51 (2018)
Hays, Samuel P. A History of Environmental Politics Since 1945. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000.
Hurt, R. Douglas. The Green Revolution in the Global South: Science, Politics, and Unintended Consequences. University of Alabama Press, 2020.
Ihsanoglu, Ekmeleddin. The House of Sciences: The First Modern University in the Muslim World. Oxford University Press, 2019.
Jackson, John P., and Nadine M. Weidman. Race, Racism, and Science: Social Impact and Interaction. Rutgers University Press, 2006.
Kozhevnikov, A. B. Stalin’s Great Science: The Times and Adventures of Soviet Physicists. Imperial College Press, 2004.
Kumar, Neelam. Women and Science in India: A Reader. Oxford University Press, 2009.
Mitchell, Timothy. Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity. University of California Press, 2002.
Osseo-Asare, Abena Dove. Atomic Junction. Cambridge University Press, 2019.
Phalkey, Jahnavi. Atomic State: Big Science in Twentieth-Century India. Permanent Black, 2013.
Pollock, Ethan. Stalin and the Soviet Science Wars. Princeton University Press, 2006.
Saldaña, Juan José. Science in Latin America: A History. University of Texas Press, 2009.
Saraiva, Tiago. Fascist Pigs: Technoscientific Organisms and the History of Fascism. MIT Press, 2016.
Schmalzer, Sigrid. Red Revolution, Green Revolution: Scientific Farming in Socialist China. University of Chicago Press, 2016.
Slotten, Hugh Richard, Ronald L. Numbers, and David N. Livingstone. The Cambridge History of Science: Volume 8, Modern Science in National, Transnational, and Global Context. Cambridge University Press, 2020.
Solingen, Etel. Scientists and the State: Domestic Structures and the International Context. University of Michigan Press, 1994.
Sukumar, Arun Mohan. Midnight’s Machines: A Political History of Technology in India. Penguin Random House India Private Limited, 2019.

Collections of primary sources, indicative examples include:

Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. Houghton Mifflin, 1968.
Lenin, Vladimir. Materialism and Empirio-criticism. Zveno Publishers, 1909.
Li, C. C. ‘Genetics Dies in China’. Journal of Heredity 41 (1950)
Nehru, Jawaharlal. Jawaharlal Nehru on Science and Society: A Collection of His Writings and Speeches. NML, 1988.
Reports of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (available free online via NASA website)
Speeches Delivered at the 1956 Chinese Genetics Symposium (translated in Chinese Law and Government)
Statement on Race. UNESCO, 1950.
Tuana, Nancy. Feminism and Science. Indiana UP, 1988.
UN Food and Agricultural Organization documents (available free online via UN website)
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change First Assessment. Cambridge UP, 1990

Subject specific skills

See learning outcomes.

Transferable skills

See learning outcomes.