This session was structured around presentations on several newly developed educational resources. The presenters welcomed feedback from participants and discussion of opportunities and challenges in “teaching biopolitics.”
One presentation described a case study module titled “Oocytes: Gifts and Commodities,” which is part of a semester-length non-majors interdisciplinary undergraduate course titled “Stem Cells and Social Justice.” This project is funded by the New York State Empire State Stem Cell Board, and will result in the publication of a freely available modular curricular that can be used across the liberal arts. “Oocytes: Gifts and Commodities” has been delivered in multiple contexts in liberal arts courses that train students to challenge the normative assumptions and practices surrounding new biotechnologies.
Two presentations described courses targeted at senior level high school students, one titled "Contemporary Social Issues" and the "Medical Ethics." They represent examples of current efforts to engage students in moral and ethical examination of emerging medical technologies and other quandaries associated with efforts to improve the human condition. Leveraging the history of eugenics, these courses strive to engage students in deeper examinations of the ways in which the past informs the present. Both were developed by teachers who were exposed to the Facing History and Ourselves case study, Race and Membership in American History: The Eugenics Movement.
Documents Related to This Session