Honors Collegium
Science Rhetoric and Social Influence
Enrollment: Instructor Consent; Juniors and above
Enforced requisite: English Composition 3 or 3H or English as a Second Language 36
Requirements fulfilled: Writing II
Course Description: Science writing, particularly scientific texts, both contemporary and historical, that have been used to communicate science to and influence large groups of people’s beliefs and behavior. What is it about certain scientific texts that changes the way we think and has the potential to affect social policy? Texts cover a variety of topics from evolution to nutrition and the food industry to current debates about climate change. Students are encouraged to practice science writing themselves.
I was a first-generation college student who attended UCLA for undergraduate and graduate school. I began in the electrical engineering major, but then moved through computer engineering, cybernetics, and math before sticking with English. My last year at UCLA, I fell in love with Gertrude Stein’s writing, so I went on to get a PhD in English and publish a book on Stein. I have taught at Middlebury College in Vermont and at Santa Monica College, but I’ve mainly taught at UCLA: in English, in Honors, for classes cross-listed with Women’s Studies, and for Writing Programs and Electrical and Computer Engineering. So all that work in EE has come in handy after all! My most recent published research project was about Robert Frost and nature, with some economics thrown in there. I am passionate about science communication and the use of scientific data in public policy, although I will add that I also feel strongly about the need to save room in our lives for the ineffable and the unquantifiable. I was awarded one of UCLA’s Distinguished Teaching Awards in 2018.
What is your home department at UCLA? UCLA Writing Programs and Electrical and Computer Engineering
How long have you been teaching your HC seminar? The last time I taught 43c was in 2015, and I had taught it a couple of times before that. A lot has happened since 2015, so the class will be updated some!
What is your favorite part about teaching this HC seminar? I love working with students who want to use science and communication to solve problems, to address controversies, to connect to as many people as possible. The bringing together of many different fields and skills into one project always leads to wonderful surprises! I also like how much students teach me along the way–either about the topics of their writing or about the possibilities of multimodal projects!
What do you find to be the most compelling about the subject matter of this seminar? I began this class because I felt that scientists needed to learn how to communicate; I thought this was a reason that the world was not addressing climate change with enough gumption. And there were (and still are!) wonderful examples of climate change scientists and writers trying out everything they can think of to move governments and people to act. (I love studying those attempts.) But as time has passed, and more investigative reporting has been done (another power of writing!), I’ve become more aware of the powerful forces working against that climate crisis message, recognizing that the problem is not all communication. I’m sure you’ve heard that the pen is mightier than the sword, but I’m interested in our exploring how the pen (and voice, and video, and podcast, and Twitter thread, and novel, and slide presentation…) is (or can become) mightier than money.
And this is no longer about only climate change: it’s about environmental justice, Covid-19 and healthcare in general, and they ways the scientific method itself (hypotheses, growing and changing knowledge, and an understanding of probability and risk) is difficult to translate to non-scientists.
What are the learning objectives for this course?