FAK3101 Perspectives on Science, Technology and Landscape in Time and Space 15.0 credits

The course is divided into eight main course themes. The main course themes are:

1) Science and Technology Studies: Collectives, Practices, Ontologies, Genealogies  

2) Geophysical sciences and modern earth systems

3) Social and cultural production of landscapes

4) Spatializing climate justice

5) Natural resources and geopolitics

6) Constructing the past of contested futures

7) Oral sources for Political Ecology and Environmental History

8) Filmmaking as academic practice

To each of the four course topics a set of literature is assigned that consists partly of canonical international scholarship, partly of state-of-the-art readings that provide an overview of recent developments in the field. The literature accounts for about 400 pages in total for each course moment. Part is obligatory, part voluntary reading.

Teaching takes the form of seminars, with shorter introductions to the literature given both by teachers and students. Particular weight will be put on students’ active discussion of the course material. Students will also write and present short text reflections in different academic formats: review, brief overview essay, introduction to, conference paper manuscript, “classics revisited” etc. Each student shall answer to at least one such small text task per course moment/thematic area (ca. 1,000 words). Each student shall also write one course essays of ca. 4,500 words on a topic of choice that relates to the main topics discussed in the course and that does not form an immediate part of the student’s own PhD research. Students shall also develop and present a poster in the end of the course.

Each thematic area will take up the equivalent of one week of full-time studies. Beyond the full-day seminars, which take place once per thematic area, the students are encouraged to meet in smaller groups at least once per course part. The written tasks will be reviewed and commented by the teachers. In connection to the final essay, supervision will be provided. 

The aim of this course is to provide students with an overview and knowledge about established as well as recent research in the fields of history of science, technology, and environment, and neighboring fields like the environmental humanities, industrial heritage studies, science policy studies. Special attention will be given to spatial aspects in the history of science, technology and environment and to spatial theory.

After completing the course, students should be able to account for, discuss, analyze and apply important themes and problems in the fields of history of science, history of technology, environmental history and related disciplinary fields. Students should also be able to identify and critically evaluate some of the more recent theoretical developments within these fields, especially concepts and perspectives related to spatial and temporal aspects, and questions of how past, present and future are intertwined in the materialities of built environments and infrastructures, landscapes and living beings. The students are encouraged to reflect on these perspectives in relation to their own ongoing research.

Eligible applicants are students who meet the requirements for admission to graduate studies in history or other humanities and social sciences.

Eligibility to be accepted in the graduate programme in Historical Studies of Science, Technology, and the Environment.

Will be announced one month before the course starts.

If the course is discontinued, students may request to be examined during the following two academic years.

• UPP1 - Essay, 15.0 credits, grading scale: P, F

Based on recommendation from KTH’s coordinator for disabilities, the examiner will decide how to adapt an examination for students with documented disability.

The examiner may apply another examination format when re-examining individual students.

To pass the course, the students will have to attend at least 80 % of the course events. Students have to actively participate in seminars and group exercises; they must pass the written examinations in the form of short review essays; and they must pass the course essay task of submitting a 4,500-word paper and develop material for visual presentation of their topic for a poster, which is presented in the end of the course

Sverker Sörlin

• All members of a group are responsible for the group's work.
• In any assessment, every student shall honestly disclose any help received and sources used.
• In an oral assessment, every student shall be able to present and answer questions about the entire assignment and solution.

The course can, if needed, be given in English.