Twin Cities campus

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Twin Cities Campus

History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Minor

History of Science & Technology
Graduate School
Link to a list of faculty for this program.
Contact Information
Program in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, University of Minnesota, 585 Shepherd Labs, 100 Union Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (612-624-7069; fax: 612-301-1442)
Email: hstm@umn.edu
Website: http://cse.umn.edu/hstm
  • Program Type: Graduate minor related to major
  • Requirements for this program are current for Fall 2022
  • Length of program in credits (master's): 6
  • Length of program in credits (doctoral): 12
  • This program does not require summer semesters for timely completion.
The program offers opportunities for advanced research and study in the history of science and technology (with particular expertise in the history of the physical sciences, history of the biological sciences, history of technology, and history of American science and technology) and in the history of medicine.
Program Delivery
  • via classroom (the majority of instruction is face-to-face)
Prerequisites for Admission
Special Application Requirements:
Students interested in the minor are strongly encouraged to confer with their major field advisor and director of graduate studies, and the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine director of graduate studies regarding feasibility and requirements.
For an online application or for more information about graduate education admissions, see the General Information section of this website.
Program Requirements
Use of 4xxx courses towards program requirements is not permitted.
Courses must be taken on the A-F grade basis, unless only offered S/N, with a minimum grade of B earned for each course. The minimum required GPA for the minor is 3.00. Students are strongly encouraged to take minor field coursework from multiple faculty members.
Minor Courses (6-12 credits)
Master’s students select 6 credits, and doctoral students select 12 credits from the following in consultation with the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine director of graduate studies. Coursework should reflect both an identifiable focus and breadth. HSCI or HMED 8112 is strongly recommended.
HMED 5075 - Technology and Medicine in Modern America (3.0 cr)
HMED 5940 - Topics in the History of Medicine (3.0 cr)
HMED 8001 - Foundations in the History of Early Medicine (3.0 cr)
HMED 8002 - Foundations in the History of Modern Medicine, 1800-present (3.0 cr)
HMED 8112 - Historiography of Science, Technology, and Medicine (3.0 cr)
HMED 8113 - Research Methods in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine (3.0 cr)
HMED 8220 - Seminar: Current Topics in the History of Medicine (3.0 cr)
HMED 8830 - Topics in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine (3.0 cr)
HSCI 5211 - Biology and Culture in the 19th and 20th Centuries [CIV] (3.0 cr)
HSCI 5242 - Navigating a Darwinian World (3.0 cr)
HSCI 5244 - Nature's History: Science, Humans, and the Environment (3.0 cr)
HSCI 5246 - History of (Un)Natural Disasters (3.0 cr)
HSCI 5331 - Technology and American Culture (3.0 cr)
HSCI 5332 - Science in the Shaping of America (3.0 cr)
HSCI 5401 - Ethics in Science and Technology (3.0 cr)
HSCI 5421 - Engineering Ethics (3.0 cr)
HSCI 8112 - Historiography of Science, Technology, and Medicine (3.0 cr)
HSCI 8113 - Research Methods in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine (3.0 cr)
HSCI 8124 - Foundations for Research in Ancient Science (3.0 cr)
HSCI 8125 - Foundations for Research in the Scientific Revolution (3.0 cr)
HSCI 8131 - Industrial Revolutions (3.0 cr)
HSCI 8421 - Social and Cultural Studies of Science (3.0 cr)
HSCI 8441 - Women in Science: Historical Perspectives (3.0 cr)
HSCI 8830 - Topics in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine (3.0 cr)
HSCI 8920 - Seminar: History of Biological Sciences (3.0 cr)
HSCI 8950 - Seminar: Science and Technology in Cultural Settings (3.0 cr)
Program Sub-plans
Students are required to complete one of the following sub-plans.
Students may not complete the program with more than one sub-plan.
Masters
Doctoral
 
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HMED 5075 - Technology and Medicine in Modern America
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: HMed 3075/HMed 5075
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Fall Odd, Spring Even Year
How technology came to medicine?s center-stage. Impact on medical practice, institutions, consumers, production of medical knowledge, professionalization, health policy, gender/race disparities in health care. prereq: instr consent
HMED 5940 - Topics in the History of Medicine
Credits: 3.0 [max 15.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall, Spring & Summer
Selected history of medicine topics not covered in regular courses.
HMED 8001 - Foundations in the History of Early Medicine
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Fall
History of Western medicine, from professionalization of healing in Greco-Egyptian antiquity to association of postmortem pathology with disease and clinical movement of early 19th-century Paris.
HMED 8002 - Foundations in the History of Modern Medicine, 1800-present
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Spring
History of Western medicine in Europe and America, from the Paris School and pathological anatomy in early 19c France through germ theories of disease, bacteriological revolution, reform of medical education, pharmaceutical revolution, growth of biomed research establishment, and comparative health care delivery systems.
HMED 8112 - Historiography of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: HMed 8112/HSci 8112
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Fall
Models of practice, different schools. Work of representative historians of science, technology, and medicine. prereq: instr consent
HMED 8113 - Research Methods in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: HMed 8113/HSci 8113
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Spring
Introduction to sources, methods, and problems of research in history of science, technology, and medicine. Preparation of major research paper under faculty supervision. prereq: instr consent
HMED 8220 - Seminar: Current Topics in the History of Medicine
Credits: 3.0 [max 9.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Topics vary. prereq: instr consent
HMED 8830 - Topics in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Credits: 3.0 [max 9.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Historical literature of topics common to history of science, technology, and medicine. prereq: instr consent
HSCI 5211 - Biology and Culture in the 19th and 20th Centuries (CIV)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: HSci 3211/5211
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Changing conceptions of life and aims and methods of biology; changing relationships between biology and the physical and social sciences; broader intellectual and cultural dimensions of developments in biology.
HSCI 5242 - Navigating a Darwinian World
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: HSci 3242/HSci 5242
Typically offered: Every Spring
In this course we grapple with the impact of Darwin's theory of evolution in the scientific community and beyond. We'll examine and engage the controversies that have surrounded this theory from its inception in the 19th century through its applications in the 21st. What made Darwin a Victorian celebrity, a religious scourge, an economic sage and a scientific hero? We'll look closely at the early intellectual influences on theory development; study the changing and dynamic relationship between science and religion; and critically analyze the application of Darwin's theory to questions of human nature and behavior.
HSCI 5244 - Nature's History: Science, Humans, and the Environment
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: HSci 3244/5244
Typically offered: Every Fall
We examine environmental ideas, sustainability, conservation history; critique of the human impact on nature; empire and power in the Anthropocene; how the science of ecology has developed; and modern environmental movements around the globe. Case studies include repatriation of endangered species; ecology and evolutionary theory; ecology of disease; and climate change.
HSCI 5246 - History of (Un)Natural Disasters
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: HSci 3246/HSci 5246
Typically offered: Periodic Spring
Earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, wildfires, epidemic disease, and technological failures. This course will examine large scale natural events in American and world history, the social, technological, and environmental conditions that underlie them, and their historical consequences. Human societies have long been embedded in physical landscapes where they are subject to specific environmental conditions and physical risks: eight thousand-year-old wall paintings in Turkey depict the eruption of Hasan Dag volcano over the city of Catal Huyuk, for example. But then and now, it takes a certain combination of social conditions and environmental events to create a natural disaster. In this course, we will use historical natural disasters to explore the interconnections between the structures and ideas of human society and environmental forces. Humans have not been simply the random victims of natural disasters; where and how they chose to live influenced the impact of any disastrous event. Examining these events in a historical context will help us see the social, technological, scientific, and environmental systems that have been constantly interacting, but which are normally taken for granted until they break down.
HSCI 5331 - Technology and American Culture
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: HSci 3331/5331
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Development of American technology in its cultural/intellectual context from 1790 to present. Transfer of technology to America. Establishment of an infrastructure promoting economic growth. Social response to technological developments.
HSCI 5332 - Science in the Shaping of America
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: HSci 3332/5332
Typically offered: Periodic Spring
The British colonies of North America were founded in precisely the same centuries as a revolution in European’s understanding of nature, transformed by the ideas of Galileo, Newton, and Linnaeus and by the technologies of the industrial revolution. Native Americans and African Americans had their own knowledge of nature, and their close understanding intersected with the increasingly scientific techniques brought with European settlers and enhanced the survival and intellectual capacities of the newcomers. By demonstrating the diversity of scientists in the ever changing demographics of an immigrant nation, the course argues that this diversity and the capacities of newcomers contributed to the national success in science and engineering. The engagement with science at points were used to try to limit access by women or African-Americans, but sciences was also used to discredit false theories through ever expanding emphasis on empiricism as well as attention to the social and economic consequences of innovation. The goal is to demonstrate those historical linkages in particular places and institutions as they influenced and reinforced specific scientific work, while, at the same time, being attentive to how scientific ideas and practices were shaped by American culture.
HSCI 5401 - Ethics in Science and Technology
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: HSci 3401/5401
Typically offered: Periodic Fall
Historical issues involving ethics in science. Ethical problems posed by modern science/technology, including nuclear energy, chemical industry, and information technologies.
HSCI 5421 - Engineering Ethics
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: HSci 3421/HSci 5421
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Engineering ethics in historical context, including the rise of professional engineering societies; ethical problems in engineering research and engineers' public responsibility; ethical implications of advanced engineering systems such as the production of nuclear weapons; development of codes of ethics in engineering.
HSCI 8112 - Historiography of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Fall
Models of practice, different schools. Work of representative historians of science, technology, and medicine.
HSCI 8113 - Research Methods in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: HMed 8113/HSci 8113
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Spring
Introduction to sources, methods, and problems of research in history of science, technology, and medicine. Preparation of major research paper under faculty supervision.
HSCI 8124 - Foundations for Research in Ancient Science
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Periodic Fall
Development of natural/mathematical science in ancient Near East and Classical Greece. prereq: Grad HSci major or minor or instr consent
HSCI 8125 - Foundations for Research in the Scientific Revolution
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Fall Even, Spring Odd Year
Development of sciences/natural philosophy, 1500-1725. prereq: Grad HSci major or minor or instr consent
HSCI 8131 - Industrial Revolutions
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Spring Even Year
Development of industrial society, from 1700 through 1850. Emphasizes developments in mechanical/engineering sciences. Scientific, economic, political, and social dimensions of industrialization.
HSCI 8421 - Social and Cultural Studies of Science
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Review of recent work; theoretical and methodological differences among practitioners; selected responses from historians and philosophers of science.
HSCI 8441 - Women in Science: Historical Perspectives
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Key literature dealing with patterns of participation in science and medicine since the 18th century. The ways in which modern science is perceived to be gendered, particularly in its practice and in ways that seem to influence theory and applications. prereq: instr consent
HSCI 8830 - Topics in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Credits: 3.0 [max 9.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Historical literature of topics common to history of science, technology, and medicine. prereq: instr consent
HSCI 8920 - Seminar: History of Biological Sciences
Credits: 3.0 [max 6.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
For advanced graduate students; topics in development of natural, biological, and medical sciences from Aristotle to the present. prereq: instr consent
HSCI 8950 - Seminar: Science and Technology in Cultural Settings
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
For advanced graduate students; topics in development of science and technology in or across specific geographic regions or particular cultures. prereq: instr consent