2017-18 Academic Catalog

Diamond and copper--we use these mined resources in electronics, computers, homes, and cars every day. We will explore rich and intersecting issues that arise with this type of resource extraction in landscapes at risk, globally and in Minnesota. These perspectives include the environment, science, climate change, wilderness, water quality, social justice, employment, risk management, war and atrocity, history, politics, and culture. The course will include a required three-day field trip to Northern Minnesota to talk with parties connected to copper-nickel mines proposed by PolyMet and Twin Metals Minnesota near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

Science and technology have led to profound effects upon public life over the past century. This course will study the social and political impacts of scientific and technological developments on modern life. We will investigate particular cases drawn from across the sciences, such as genetics, energy production and consumption, nuclear weapons, and the information revolution. The relationship between government, the public, and the science/technology enterprise will be examined. What is, and what should be the role of the practitioners themselves?