Course Schedule

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At a glance:

Assumptions in Background

Like most 500/600-level courses there are not specific pre-requisites for this course. But like any course, there are some expectations about what you would already know before the term. My goal in this section is to try and spell out such expectations in case you find you need to catch-up.

• I am assuming that you are aware that Canada is a settler colonial state that has committed genocide towards the Indigenous communities whose lands we live on now. If you are unfamiliar with this history, I suggest you read:
  • The report of the Truth and Reconciliaton Comission of Canada
• I am assuming that you followed the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests and have read up on anti-racism, but if you did not, here's starting points:
  • Watch: Kimberly Jones on BLM protesters, Ta-Nehishi Coates on Reparations, and For Harriet interview with Ibram X Kendi
  • Dismantling Racism Works Web Workbooks
  • PBS primer on race
  • Dixson, A. D., & Rousseau, C. K. (2005). And we are still not saved: Critical race theory in education ten years later. Race ethnicity and education, 8(1), 7-27.

Week 1 (Jan 13): Oppression in Design

• Read before class:
  1. If you are new to using Microsoft Teams, here's a video on how the chat works and here's a video on how the videoconferencing works and one on how the breakout rooms work
  2. Caroline Criado-Perez in The Guardian: The deadly truth about a world built for men - from stab vests to car crashes
  3. Watch short videos on: Colour film, Redlining, Liberalism, and Racism
  4. Chapter 1 of Ruha Benjamin's Race After Technology
  5. [If in COMP 599] Zunger, Yonatan. Asking the Right Questions About AI. 2017.
  6. [Elective for all] Tian Wong's blog post series: How to use math for evil (all four parts)
  7. [Elective for COMP 599] Ch 2 of Wajcman, Feminism Confronts Technology
• Do before class:
  • Introduce yourself in the IntroduceYourself channel of the MS Team. (Pet pictures are encouraged! :D )
• In class
  • Welcome to the course
  • Setup of course: first half on science/math/computing as a social instition, then second half on how to teach/design accordingly
  • Discussion: How the design of technoscientific objects embodies oppression
  • Discussion: Who is the acceptable target of violence in science? Science education?
  • Slides and Worksheet
• For more
  • Wajcman, J. (1991). Feminism confronts technology. Penn State Press.
  • Benjamin, R. (2019). Race after technology: Abolitionist tools for the new jim code. Social Forces.

Week 2 (Jan 20): Closure and Boundary Work

• Read before class
  1. Watch: Wall-E as Sociological Storytelling and Political Theory: Marx
  2. Glover J. (2000) Exclusions: American Women of Science. In: Campling J. (eds) Women and Scientific Employment. Palgrave Macmillan, London.
  3. Natalie Wexler's review of The Teacher Wars: A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession
  4. Jesse Singal in The Cut: These Are the Most Prestigious Diseases
  5. [If in COMP 599] Chapter 5 of Patitsas, E. "Explaining Gendered Participation in Computer Science Education"
  6. [Elective for all] Witz Chapter 4 (Medical Men and Midwives)
  7. [Elective for all] Abbate Ch 2
  8. [Elective for COMP 599] Abbate Ch 3
• In class
  • Slides
  • Worksheet
  • Lecture: Marx, Weber, and neo-Weberian sociology
  • Apply paths of least resistance to medical research
  • Apply closure theory to teaching as occupation
• For more
  • Witz, A. (2013). Professions and patriarchy. Routledge.
  • Goldstein, D. (2015). The teacher wars: A history of America's most embattled profession. Anchor.
  • Glover, J. (2000). Women and scientific employment. Springer.
  • Abbate, J. (2012). Recoding gender: Women's changing participation in computing. MIT Press.
  • Amrute, S. (2016). Encoding race, encoding class: Indian IT workers in Berlin. Duke University Press.

Week 3 (Jan 27): Intersectionality

• Read before class
  1. Watch: Stella Young: I'm not your inspiration, thank you very much
  2. Center for Disability Rights' Disability Writing & Journalism Guidelines
  3. Harriet Tubman Collective's open letter: The Vision for Black Lives is Incomplete Without Disability Solidarity
  4. CCPA article on “Updates from the long road to deinstitutionalization”
  5. Erevelles, N., & Minear, A. (2010). Unspeakable offenses: Untangling race and disability in discourses of intersectionality. Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, 4(2), 127-145.
  6. [COMP 599] 99% Invisible podcast episode "Curb Cuts"
  7. [Elective for all] Rose Eveleth in Wired: It's Time to Rethink Who's Best Suited for Space Travel
  8. [Elective for all] Chapter 2: The Social Construction of Disability from Wendell (The Rejected Body)
  9. [Elective for COMP 599] s.e. smith in Vox: Disabled people don't need so many fancy new gadgets. We just need more ramps.
• In class
  • Slides
  • Worksheet
  • Disability 101, social model, affirmation model
  • Liberal vs critical views of race, gender, disability
  • Types of intersectionality
• For more
  • Wendell, S. (1996). The rejected body: Feminist philosophical reflections on disability. Psychology Press.
  • Davis, L. J. (Ed.). (2006). The disability studies reader. Taylor & Francis.

Week 4 (Feb 3): DisCrit versus the Ongoing Legacy of Eugenics

• Read before class
  1. Contra* Solidarity Chat with Jay Dolmage
  2. Contra* Solidarity Chat with Michelle Murphy
  3. Aubrey Clayton in Nautilus: How Eugenics Shaped Statistics
  4. Annamma, S. A., Connor, D., & Ferri, B. (2013). Dis/ability critical race studies (DisCrit): Theorizing at the intersections of race and dis/ability. Race Ethnicity and Education, 16(1), 1-31.
  5. [COMP 599] Hettie O'Brien in New Statesman: The disturbing junk science of craniometry is enjoying a resurgence
  6. [Elective for all] Gould Ch 3 on craniology
  7. [Elective for all] Gould Ch 5 on IQ testing
  8. [Elective for COMP 599] Keyes, O. (2018). The misgendering machines: Trans/HCI implications of automatic gender recognition. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 2(CSCW), 1-22.
• In class
  • Slides and Worksheet
  • How science socially constructs disability, race; notion of debility
  • History of IQ & personality testing
  • History of special education
  • What eugenics looks like today *cough*Covid*cough*
• For more
  • Gould, S. J., & Gold, S. J. (1996). The mismeasure of man. WW Norton & company.
  • Dolmage, J. T. (2017). Academic ableism: Disability and higher education. University of Michigan Press.
  • Annamma, S. A. (2016). DisCrit: Disability studies and critical race theory in education. Teachers College Press.

Week 5 (Feb 10): Ways of Knowing

• Read before class
  1. Wikipedia articles on: Problem of Induction, Pramana, Indigenous Ways of Knowing (at least on Nov 22, 2020 they are good --- As of Jan 30 the article on Indigenous Ways of Knowing was deleted on Wikipedia, see the google drive for a copy)
  2. George Nicholas in Maclean's: How Western science is finally catching up to Indigenous knowledge
  3. Watch video summaries of Tuhiwai Smith and Orientalism
  4. Chapter 3 (Colonizing Knowledges) of Smith, L. T. (2013). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. Zed Books Ltd..
  5. [COMP 599] Nathan, Lisa P., Kaczmarek, Michelle, castor, maggie, Cheng, Shannon and Raquel Mann. "Good for whom? Unsettling research practice." In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Communities and Technologies, p. 290-297. ACM 2017.
  6. [Elective for all] Watch: Philosophy Tube on Is Philosophy Just White Guys J3rk!ng Off?
  7. [Elective for all] Chapter 1 of Shiva, Monocultures of the Mind: Perspectives on Biodiversity and Biotechnology
  8. [Elective for COMP 599] Chapter 1 (Imagining the Indian IT Body) from Amrute's Encoding Race, Encoding Class: Indian IT Workers in Berlin
• In class
  • Slides and Worksheet
  • Intro to epistemology
  • What is SCIENCE?
• For more
  • Smith, L. T. (2013). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. Zed Books Ltd.
  • Shiva, V. (1993). Monocultures of the mind: Perspectives on biodiversity and biotechnology. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Harding, S. G. (1998). Is science multicultural?: Postcolonialisms, feminisms, and epistemologies. Indiana University Press.

Week 6 (Feb 17): Performativity and Social Constructionism

• Draft project proposals due to peers
• Read before class
  1. Philosophy Tube on What is Gender and Contrapoints on Postmodernism
  2. Ava Kofman in the New York Times: Bruno Latour, the Post-Truth Philosopher, Mounts a Defense of Science
  3. Lab Muffin on Scientism or “Science-Washing” in Beauty
  4. Van den Brink, M., & Benschop, Y. (2012). Gender practices in the construction of academic excellence: Sheep with five legs. Organization, 19(4), 507-524.
  5. [COMP 599] Nafus, D. (2012). ‘Patches don’t have gender’: What is not open in open source software. New Media & Society, 14(4), 669-683.
  6. [Elective for all] Berenstain, N. (2016). Epistemic exploitation. Ergo, an Open Access Journal of Philosophy, 3.
  7. [Elective for all] Chapter 5 (The Cognitive and Social Authority of Medicine) from Wendell (The Rejected Body)
  8. [Elective for COMP 599] Ymous, Anon, et al. ""I am just terrified of my future" - Epistemic Violence in Disability Related Technology Reserach" CHI 2020.
• In class
  • Slides and Worksheet
  • Preparation for reading Haraway; Harding strong objectivity
  • Standpoint theory
  • How to read philosophy
• For more
  • Van den Brink, M. (2010). Behind the scenes of science: Gender practices in the recruitment and selection of professors in the Netherlands. Amsterdam University Press.

Week 7 (Feb 24): Postmodernism

• Proposals due
• Read before class
  1. Watch: Sandra Harding: On Standpoint Theory's History and Controversial Reception
  2. Haraway, Donna. "Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective." Feminist studies 14, no. 3 (1988): 575-599.
  3. Hamraie, Aimi, and Kelly Fritsch. "Crip technoscience manifesto." Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience 5, no. 1 (2019).
  4. [COMP 599] Suchman, Lucy. "Working relations of technology production and use." Computer Supported Cooperative Work 2, no. 1-2 (1993): 21-39.
  5. [Elective for all] Danya Glabau on Cyborg Feminism and the Future of Technology
  6. [Elective for all] It's Lit video on Afrofuturism
  7. [Elective for COMP 599] Vogel, S. (2019). Power, Discourse, and Knowledge in Computer Science Education Advocacy: An Analysis of Popular Code. org Videos.
  8. [Elective for COMP 599] Mellström, U. (2009). The intersection of gender, race and cultural boundaries, or why is computer science in Malaysia dominated by women?. Social studies of science, 39(6), 885-907.
• In class
  • Slides and Worksheet
  • Feminist and queer epistemologies
  • Ecofeminism & cyborg feminism
  • Mid-term feedback
• For more
  • Kafer, A. (2013). Feminist, queer, crip. Indiana University Press.
  • Haraway, D. J. (2016). Staying with the trouble: Making kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press.
  • Hamraie, A. (2017). Building access: Universal design and the politics of disability. U of Minnesota Press.

Week 8 (Mar 3)

Week 9 (Mar 10): Learning

• Read before class
  1. Bradley Busch: Four neuromyths that are still prevalent in schools – debunked
  2. Illeris, Knud. "An overview of the history of learning theory." European Journal of Education 53, no. 1 (2018): 86-101.
  3. [EDEC 646/647] Gutiérrez, Rochelle. "The sociopolitical turn in mathematics education." Journal for Research in Mathematics Education 44, no. 1 (2013): 37-68.
  4. [COMP 599] Hope Reese on Medium: The One Laptop Per Child Program Was Supposed to Revolutionize the Developing World—Then It Imploded
  5. [COMP 599] Keyes, O., Hutson, J., & Durbin, M. (2019, May). A mulching proposal: Analysing and improving an algorithmic system for turning the elderly into high-nutrient slurry. In Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-11).
  6. [Elective for all] Daniel Willingham's FAQ on learning styles
  7. [Elective for all] Season 4 of The Wire
  8. [Elective for COMP 599] Audrey Watters on Hack Education: Education Technology and the New Behaviorism
• In class
  • Slides and Worksheet
  • Discussion: Introducing sociocultural approaches to education
  • Discussion: The contemporary spectre of behaviourism
• For more
  • Lagemann, E. C. (2002). An elusive science: The troubling history of education research. University of Chicago Press.
  • Cuban, L. (2009). Oversold and underused. Harvard university press.
  • Ames, M. G. (2019). The charisma machine: The life, death, and legacy of One Laptop per Child. Mit Press.

Week 10 (Mar 17): Paradigms

• Read before class
  1. Gholson, Barry, and Peter Barker. "Kuhn, Lakatos, and Laudan: Applications in the history of physics and psychology." American Psychologist 40, no. 7 (1985): 755.
  2. [EDEC 646/647] Brickhouse, Nancy W. "Teachers' beliefs about the nature of science and their relationship to classroom practice." Journal of teacher education 41, no. 3 (1990): 53-62.
  3. [COMP 599] Tedre, M., & Sutinen, E. (2008). Three traditions of computing: What educators should know. Computer Science Education, 18(3), 153-170.
  4. [COMP 599] Chapter 2 of Halmaghi, H. 2019. "Learning computer science was hard. Unlearning computer science was harder."
  5. [Elective for all] Lampert, Magdalene. "When the problem is not the question and the solution is not the answer: Mathematical knowing and teaching." American educational research journal 27, no. 1 (1990): 29-63.
  6. [Elective for all] Disability Visibility podcast on Climate Action
  7. [Elective for COMP 599] The Received Wisdom: Episode 8: Facial Recognition, Algorithmic Inequality, and a Racial Reckoning ft. Virginia Eubanks
• In class
  • Slides and Worksheet
  • The relationships between epistemology and teaching practice
  • Epistemic cultures
• For more
  • Cetina, K. K. (2009). Epistemic cultures: How the sciences make knowledge. Harvard University Press.
  • Harding, S. G. (1998). Is science multicultural?: Postcolonialisms, feminisms, and epistemologies. Indiana University Press.

Week 11 (Mar 24): Reframing Practice Pt 1

• Due: Milestones to peers
• Read before class
  1. Wanosts’a7 Lorna Williams and Gloria Snively: Chapter 3 – “Coming to Know”: A Framework for Indigenous Science Education
  2. Connor, David J., and Jan W. Valle. "A socio-cultural reframing of science and dis/ability in education: Past problems, current concerns, and future possibilities." Cultural Studies of Science Education 10, no. 4 (2015): 1103-1122
  3. [EDEC 646/647] Borden, Lisa Lunney. "What’s the word for…? Is there a word for…? How understanding Mi’kmaw language can help support Mi’kmaw learners in mathematics." Mathematics Education Research Journal 25, no. 1 (2013): 5-22.
  4. [COMP 599] Disability Visibility on Cyborgs
  5. [COMP 599] Bennett, C. L., & Rosner, D. K. (2019, May). The Promise of Empathy: Design, Disability, and Knowing the" Other". In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-13).
  6. [Elective for all] Cedillo, C. V. What Does it Mean to Move?: Race, Disability, and Critical Embodiment pedagogy. Association of Teachers of Advanced Compositions (vol. 39). 2018.
  7. [Elective for all] Chapter 1 of Dolmage, "Steep Steps".
  8. [Elective for COMP 599] Flashforward on Exoskeletons
• In class:
  • Voting on topics for week 14
  • Tips on peer feedback
  • Slides
  • Worksheet
• For more
  • Battiste, M. (2017). Decolonizing education: Nourishing the learning spirit. UBC press.

Week 12 (Mar 31): Reframing Practice Pt 2

• Due: Peer feedback on milestones
• Read before class
  1. Social Science Bites podcast: Jo Boaler on Fear of Mathematics
  2. Barwell, Richard. "The mathematical formatting of climate change: critical mathematics education and post-normal science." Research in Mathematics Education 15, no. 1 (2013): 1-16.
  3. [EDEC 646/647] Archer, L., Nomikou, E., Mau, A., King, H., Godec, S., DeWitt, J., & Dawson, E. (2019). Can the subaltern ‘speak’ science? An intersectional analysis of performances of ‘talking science through muscular intellect’by ‘subaltern’students in UK urban secondary science classrooms. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 14(3), 723-751.
  4. [COMP 599] The Received Wisdom: Episode 3: Considering Ethical Responsibility in Science and Technology ft. Nicholas Carr
  5. [COMP 599] Becker, C., Betz, S., Chitchyan, R., Duboc, L., Easterbrook, S. M., Penzenstadler, B., ... & Venters, C. C. (2015). Requirements: The key to sustainability. IEEE Software, 33(1), 56-65.
  6. [Elective for COMP 599] Jennifer, Gabrys. Silicon Elephants: The transformative materiality of microchips. Digital Rubbish: A Natural History of Electronics. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2013.
  7. [Elective for all] Paperson, L. (2014). A ghetto land pedagogy: An antidote for settler environmentalism. Environmental Education Research, 20(1), 115-130.
  8. [Elective for all] Carlone, Heidi B. "The cultural production of science in reform‐based physics: Girls' access, participation, and resistance." Journal of Research in Science Teaching 41, no. 4 (2004): 392-414.
  9. [Elective for all] The interview portion of the Received Wisdom podcast Episode 14: Equity in Science and Technology Policy and the Promise of Vaccines Ft. Maya Goldenberg (starts at 00:25:55)
• In class:
  • Slides and Worksheet
  • Dish With One Spoon
  • Making connections to the land, maintaining good relations
• For more
  • Oreskes, N., & Conway, E. M. (2011). Merchants of doubt: How a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.

Week 13 (Apr 7): Queering All The Things

• Due this week: milestones
• Read before class
  1. Philosophy Tube on Queer
  2. Introduction (p. 1-37) of Barad, Karen. Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Duke university Press, 2007.
  3. [EDEC 646/647] Rands, Kathleen. "Mathematical Inqu [ee] ry: beyond ‘Add-Queers-and-Stir’ elementary mathematics education." Sex Education 9, no. 2 (2009): 181-191.
  4. [COMP 599] Landström, Catharina. "Queering feminist technology studies." Feminist Theory 8, no. 1 (2007): 7-26.
  5. [Elective for COMP 599] Tran, J., & Patitsas, E. (2020). The Computer as a Queer Object.
  6. [Elective for all] Costello, C. G. (2016). Intersex and trans* communities: Commonalities and tensions. In Transgender and Intersex: theoretical, practical, and artistic perspectives (pp. 83-113). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
  7. [Elective for all] Moira Weigel in The Guardian: The foul reign of the biological clock
• In class
  • Info on final portfolio
  • Queering things!
  • Slides and Worksheet

Week 14 (Apr 14): Climate Crisis

• Read before class
  1. Chapter 2 "Capital's Id: Whole Fods, Conscious Capitalism and Sustainability" from Aschoff, N. (2015). The new prophets of capital. Verso Trade.
  2. Flashforward episode: One Child to Rule Them All
  3. Contra* Solidarity Chat with Max Liboiron
  4. [COMP 599] Anusas, M., & Ingold, T. (2013). Designing environmental relations: From opacity to textility. Design Issues, 29(4), 58-69.
  5. [Elective for all] Kafer, A (2017). Bodies of Nature: The Environmental Politics of Disability.
  6. [Elective for all] Overland, I., & Sovacool, B. K. (2020). The misallocation of climate research funding. Energy Research & Social Science, 62, 101349.
  7. [Elective for COMP 599] Berdahl, J. L., Cooper, M., Glick, P., Livingston, R. W., & Williams, J. C. (2018). Work as a masculinity contest. Journal of Social Issues, 74(3), 422-448.
• In class
  • Slides and Worksheet
  • Redistribution and anti-capitalism
  • Capitalism as root of climate crisis
  • Roles of scientism, eugenics, racism, toxic masculinity in climate crisis
  • Problematizing "population control"