- Inter-faculty Studies in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
- Bachelor's degree, first cycle programme, Computer Science
- Bachelor's degree, first cycle programme, Mathematics
- Master's degree, second cycle programme, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
- Master's degree, second cycle programme, Computer Science
- Master's degree, second cycle programme, Mathematics
(in Polish) Feminist Bioethics 3501-FB19-S-OG
The seminar devoted to grasping the feminist approach to bioethics is designed to develop three main thematic areas: ethics of care, the basics of feminist science and technology studies and debates concerning specific issues (sex, race, environment, etc.).
First of all, we will focus on the specificity of feminist approach to ethics, especially ethics of care as was developed from 1982 when the important book by Carol Gilligan In a Different Voice was published. We will look into how this originally psychological account was transformed into ethical and political proposition developed by other feminist thinkers for example Nel Noddings, Sara Ruddick or Joan C. Tronto. Importantly, in recent posthumanist feminist research one can observe a turn to care of a sort. We will discuss works by authors such as Karen Barad, Deborah Bird Rose, Thom van Dooren, Donna Haraway, Natasha Myers, Maria Puig de la Bellacasa, or Astrid Schrader to find out what does “to care” mean today.
Secondly, the basics of feminist science and technology studies will be presented. We will reflect on ways, in which feminist reflection on values enters into dialogue with biology and medicine: Does science have sex? What could that mean? And why does it matter?
Thirdly, we will analyze specific phenomena that emerge in recent feminist bioethics, such as transsexuality (transgender studies), race, issues concerned with reproductive rights and reproductive technologies, genetics and epigenetics, the so called “environmental diseases”, questions of animals in laboratory and of environment (the problem of anthropocene).
Type of course
general courses
Mode
Prerequisites (description)
Learning outcomes
Knowledge: Students have comprehensive knowledge and in-depth understanding of the role of feminist philosophy in the formation of culture; have comprehensive knowledge and in-depth understanding of the chosen trends and standpoints of contemporary philosophy in the field of feminist bioethics; have greater awareness of relationships between the formation of philosophical concepts and changes in culture and society.
Skills: Students interpret philosophical texts independently, comment on theses originating from different sources and have the ability to confront them; detect interdependencies between the formation of philosophical concepts and cultural and social processes as well as determine relations between those interdependencies.
Social Competence: Students are actively involved in social and cultural life, have interest in novel philosophical concepts and in their connections with other parts of cultural and social life.
Assessment criteria
Activity during class (presentation initiating discussion, taking parts in debates) (25% of the final grade);
Written assessment (50% of the final grade).
Bibliography
(tentative list, the final literature will be announced in the first seminar)
Ethics of the Body. Postconventional Challenges, ed. M. Shildrick, R. Mykitiuk, MIT Press, Cambridge MA 2005.
Gender: Matter, ed. S. Alaimo, Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks, Farmington Hills, MI: Macmillan Reference USA, 2017. (especially chapters: Bodily Technologies, Breast Cancer, Genetics and Epigenetics, Reproductive Technology, Transgender Matters).
The Transgender Studies Reader, vol. 1, ed. S. Stryker, S. Whittle, Routledge, New York 2006.
S. Alaimo, Bodily Natures: Science, Environment, and the Material Self, Indiana University Press, Bloomington 2010.
K. Barad, M. Juelskjær, N. Schwennesen, Intra-active Entanglements – An Interview with Karen Barad, „Kvinder, Køn & Forskning” 1-2, 2012, pp. 10-23.
V. Despret, What Would Animals Say If We Asked the Right Questions?, transl. B. Buchanan, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 2016 [2007].
E. Fox Keller, The Century of the Gene, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA 2000.
C. Gilligan, In A Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development (wiele wydań).
D. Haraway, Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective, “Feminist Studies” 14(3), 1988, pp. 575-599.
D. Haraway, When Species Meet, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 2008.
M. Puig de la Bellacasa, Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More than Human Worlds, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 2017.
A. Schrader, Abyssal intimacies and temporalities of care: How (not) to care about deformed leaf bugs in the aftermath of Chernobyl, “Social Studies of Science” 45(5), 2015, pp. 1-26.
J.C. Tronto, Women and Caring: What Can Feminists Learn About Morality From Caring?, in: Gender/Body/Knowledge: Feminist Reconstructions of Being and Knowing, ed. Alison M. Jaggar & Susan Bordo, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick 1989, pp. 172-187.
Additional information
Information on level of this course, year of study and semester when the course unit is delivered, types and amount of class hours - can be found in course structure diagrams of apropriate study programmes. This course is related to the following study programmes:
- Inter-faculty Studies in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
- Bachelor's degree, first cycle programme, Computer Science
- Bachelor's degree, first cycle programme, Mathematics
- Master's degree, second cycle programme, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
- Master's degree, second cycle programme, Computer Science
- Master's degree, second cycle programme, Mathematics
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: