HST.930J | Fall 2005 | Graduate

Social Studies of Bioscience and Biotech

Assignments

Short papers 7-10 pages reflecting either

  • upon your experiences in scientific laboratories or biotech firms on topics covered in class; or
  • topics raised by speakers in class combined with readings on and beyond the syllabus.

Papers this year included:

  • Reflections on how Chinese postdocs negotiate American laboratory experiences;
  • Comparative regulatory structures in different countries for stem cell research;
  • How different motivational and career structures are coordinated in a research laboratory run by a physician-scientist;
  • Reflections on how organizationally to represent the professional interests of physician-scientists;
  • A fieldwork paper following oncologists and primary care physicians to watch how patient-doctor communication is negotiated: language code-switching, use of statistics, framing of narratives of hope, etc.