Cultural History of Technology

Assignments

The work for the course consists of a brief (750-1500 word) paper interpreting the significance of each week’s assigned reading in illuminating the process by which “technology” - the word, the concept - has been constructed. Each student also will write a longer final paper summing up his or her conclusions about the character of the process, and the meaning and value of “technology” - the word, the concept. Students in effect will be writing the final paper as they proceed, week by week, keeping track of the cumulative effect of each session on their personal effort to enlarge, refine, and sharpen their sense of the historical development of the concept of technology. The weekly papers will provide a sort of running journal of thoughts on this subject; the final paper will reorder, collate, and summarize this ongoing work.