The next step.

So, for those of you who haven't had the chance to hear this from me in person, the update.  I'm going to be teaching at Berkeley next year.  It's a one-year lecturer position, and I'm doing two classes each semester. 

This fall, I've got one lecture course and one seminar.  The seminar will be what the history department calls a 103S, the 103 meaning it's a reading seminar for advanced undergraduates (as opposed to a 101, which is an independent research seminar), the S meaning it's in history of science.  I haven't finalized the course description for the seminar yet, but it looks like I'll finally get to do the "Biology, Evolution, and Human Nature" course that I've been wanting to teach for about four years now. 

The lecture course is going to be interesting.  I'm teaching History 30A, the first half of the general history of science survey course, loosely defined as "from antiquity to Newton."  This is a pretty standard type of course; I did a quick run through online syllabi from other schools and confirmed my impression that there's a standard narrative for this type of course.  Cover the Babylonian and Egyptian advances in writing, paper, and other technology, then the first attempts at science in early Greece.  The Aristotelian cosmology, early attempts at physics, Greek geometry.  That knowledge transfers to the Romans, who make mainly technological advances on it, and from the Romans to the early Europeans.  When Europe descends into the chaos of the Middle Ages, this scientific knowledge is preserved both by the Catholic Church and by Islamic scholars, who then pass it back to European scientists at the end of the Middle Ages, ushering in the dawn of the Scientific Revolution.

There's a reason this narrative is standard--it's a good solid story that provides a framework for understanding the origins of modern science.  You have transmission of knowledge across cultures, you have both conflict and cooperation between science and religion, the genuinely interesting clashes among cosmological theories, so on and so forth.  And I'm certainly not planning on throwing it away.  What I am planning on doing, and what I've been thinking about doing since the idea of teaching this course was first raised, is expanding the scope a little bit.  Cover not just the European science and its precursors, but also the work being done in China, in India, in the Islamic world.  It's pretty common in introductory history of science courses to treat Egyptian science as basically Hellenistic, but I've seen some interesting indicators that it was equally influenced by other African civilizations, and I'd like to open the course up to include things like metallurgy and mathematics in the Sahelian kingdoms. 

And yes, it has occurred to me that I may be trying to cover too much material in just one semester, and I do worry that by trying to achieve this breadth of subject mater I'll end up sacrificing depth and real understanding of the material.  I don't want to, for instance, end up doing only a cursory job with Galileo or the Copernican revolution.  But this feels really exciting to me, structuring the course this way, and more to the point, it feels necessary.  Once I started thinking about the class this way, I found that I couldn't really go back to thinking about it any other way. 

So that's what comes next.  This fall, a seminar on evolution and a lecture course on early science.  Next spring, another seminar (probably a research seminar) and another lecture course (History 30B, the second half of the survey, History of Science from the Scientific Revolution to the Present).  In between, I'll be job-hunting again, still running the magazine, picking up freelance writing work if/when it becomes available. 

And in anticipation of questions:  Yes, I do realize that it's inevitable that my students (and prospective future employers) will eventually discover this weblog, but I really don't think I'm going to flip out and pull the whole thing down again.   And no, I'm not just on vacation this summer, although I'm certainly giving myself room to take things a little easier.  I'm doing prep work for next fall, writing lectures and developing reading lists.  I've also still got that work for the Encyclopedia of Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy, and I want to start working up sections of my dissertation for publication.  I've also got a book to promote, long-neglected friends to catch up with, a birthday to celebrate in Las Vegas, and some sunshine to re-acquaint myself with. 

So that's where we are for now.

Comments

[David Moles]

Not being able to make it to Vegas is one of the things making me very sad. Promise me that if you win a bajillion dollars at the tables you'll throw another party over here, say in Monte Carlo?

It's also making me very sad that you won't be able to teach the truth about the flying saucers. But some day: Tenure!

(N.b. for students and prospective employers: Kidding! About the flying saucers.)

[Jackie M.]

When you started describing "the standard narrative," I thought: b-but- but what about China? What about the Middle East? But then you said it and my stomach lurched out when I realized the scope. Wow. Susan, that is So. Awesome. Both the job and your plan. I really, really want to sit in on your class. Really really really.

-----
So, okay. This is how the pool is going to work:

I'll set up a P.O. box. Everybody who wants in send an envelope enclosing your name, your address, US$5.00, and a date between 7/1/06 and 12/31/06. The pool will be split between the two people who guess closest to the dates on which 1.) this weblog disappears and 2.) a new weblog appears somewhere else. And by "closest," I mean before or after the actual date, none of this Price is Right can't-guess-over nonsense. If you write "never", you only win if this journal is still in service on 12/31/06 and no new journal has appeared elsewhere in cyberspace. The winners will be announced on 2/1/07.

... and hopefully Susan will have forgiven me by then. *cringes*

[Mary Anne Mohanraj]

I want to take your course!

[Cabell]

That sounds great! I took a history of math course where we did a little stuff with Asian mathematics, but not that much that I remember. It's important that students get a fuller picture.

And I wouldn't worry about the weblog. It doesn't seem like you say anything that's in any way incriminating...

[Greg van Eekhout]

Yay, job!

Wish I could take your class. Might learn me something.

[Heather Shaw]

I'd love to take your course too! Sounds awesome!

[Susan]

Jackie! I have forgiven you already. I couldn't get through the day without a good sense of humor about myself. :)

[Dan Percival]

That course isn't around the middle of the day, is it? Because I would totally sneak my lunch in for that. And then lord it over everyone else.

Jackie, I'm in on your pool, provided you define "in service."

[Jackie M.]

Hee. I don't think I'd really like to do it -- I believe Susan when she says she's not planning on switching again this year, but I also think it's impossible to anticipate what will happen while she's teaching/job searching. And I think it would be nice for her to know we're all 100% behind her whatever she does, and not standing around with stopwatches snickering.

Susan, you should know that that's the 2nd vote I've received for "never," the other being David M. These boys, they are loyal as dogs.

[David Moles]

*bark, wag tail, snarl at Ivan Tribble*

[David Moles]

(If you can't be De Graz, you might as well be Prochenko.)