Group sign-up

• Remember to sign up for a group using the “Group sign-up” sheet (also available as a tab in the General channel on Teams)
• Minimium of 4 students—groups with 3 or fewer will be combined
• Students who do not sign up for a group by September 15 will be randomly assigned to a group
  
  

Final project details Monday

• I will talk about the format, grading, and options for the final project on September 16
  https://soci325.netlify.com/pages/poster.html

Gould (1981) Measuring Heads — required

• Case study of 19th century craniologist Paul Broca
• Examines the role of objectivity and numerical measurement in supporting racial, gender, and class hierarchies

Maintenence Phase (2021, podcast) The Body Mass Index — optional

• Discussion of the history of the Body Mass Index (BMI) as a health measure
• Links BMI to gender, race, class, and body politics

Daston and Galison (2010), Epistemologies of the Eye — optional

• History of scientific ideals and the concept of objectivity
• Discusses different forms of objectivity, and the
  role of interpretation in contemporary ideals of objectivity

In theory:

• Removing the influence of personal bias, opinions, or feelings.
• Knowledge that exists apart from human influence.
• Epistemic virtue

In practice:

• Represents one ideal to strive toward.
• Many techniques:
  Mechanization, replication, peer review, …
• These methods can be deceptive
  (e.g. Gould 1981; Benjamin 2019).

Historically:

• Scientific objectivity was a 19th-century invention (Daston & Galison 2010).

Required reading

• Wolfe (2018)
  Introduction to
  Freedom's laboratory: the Cold War struggle for the soul of science