Spring 2015 GHP 405/ANT 481 Energy and Health: From Exhausted Bodies to Energy Crises Electrical wires above street in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India (2013). Photo by Bharat Venkat. Time Location Tuesdays 7:30–10:20pm 29 Robertson Hall Instructor Bharat Venkat bvenkat@princeton.edu Office Hours: Wednesday 2–4pm, 354 Wallace Hall Description Energy makes it possible to run the equipment in hospitals, manufacture pharmaceuticals in large quantities, coordinate patient information and transport people, equipment and drugs across long distances. At the level of the body, energy makes life possible. However, energy and its infrastructures also have less benign effects on health. Hydroelectric dams threaten to destroy fragile ecosystems and equally fragile livelihoods. After Chernobyl, and more recently, the multiple meltdowns in Japan, nuclear power has lost much public support. Attempts to extend the world’s reserves of fossil fuels have led to the widespread use of controversial techniques like fracking, poisoning the environment and the people who live in it. Along with the atmospheric damage caused by energy consumption, we also have to worry about the environmental destruction caused by energy extraction. In this course, we will attempt to produce more nuanced accounts of how the production and consumption of energy are linked to questions of health. We will examine how 1 philosophers, public health experts, filmmakers, anthropologists, historians, science studies scholars and novelists have thought about energy. This class will treat energy as a broad concept, ranging from the metabolic productions of the body to the carbon fixations of democracy. We will also examine what energy sustainability might mean in the face of repeated infrastructural failure and the concurrent loss of life. Finally, we will look to the past and present of nuclear energy, as a source of hope and a looming threat. Throughout the semester, we will think collaboratively about a few critical questions: How does energy make life possible while simultaneously posing a danger to health? How can we think about different forms of energy across scales and sites? How does our location in the world affect the way in which we experience energy as scarce or abundant? If health and energy are truly global concerns, where does responsibility lie? Finally, is it possible to imagine alternatives to the apocalyptic future threatened by ever-increasing energy consumption and climate change? Requirements On Reading The materials for this course include scholarly essays, book reviews, selections from novels, shorts stories and films. Students will be expected to do the readings each week and be prepared to discuss them critically. I highly encourage you to takes notes while you read, as this will help you process the materials. Please bring the readings to class so that we can refer to specific passages in the texts. In general, you will have about 100 pages of reading per week, and no more than 150 pages. If you have any concerns about the reading, please do not hesitate to come to my office hours. On Writing Writing is an opportunity to work through ideas, to make them sharper, to expose the gaps in your logic, to take chances, to suffer, and to experience pleasure. If you have difficulties with or would like to improve your writing, I highly encourage you to make an appointment with the Writing Center. All writing for this class must be free of typos and grammatical errors, and fully referenced. Use double-spacing, 12-point font, 1-inch margins, and the “Author-Date” standard from the Chicago Manual of Style: www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. During the semester, you will write: Response Papers: During any six weeks of your choosing, you will write response papers (about 350 words each) to the assigned readings. Responses should be uploaded to Blackboard by Monday at 9pm (the day before class). Please read your fellow classmates’ responses so that we are all on the same page for class discussion. A response paper is a first attempt at grappling with ideas from the readings and putting texts into conversations. In your response papers, make sure to describe the major ideas raised by the texts, as well as the forms of evidence used by the authors to make their claims. Include any questions you have about the readings, as these will help jumpstart our conversation in class. Final Paper: The final paper should be 10–12 pages long, double-spaced. It should have a clear argument and substantively engage with at least 4 of the texts or films 2 from the class. These papers should stick closely to the texts or films in the class, and should not require outside research. Submit on Blackboard and deposit a hard copy in my mailbox on the third floor of Wallace Hall. Due May 12 (Dean’s Date) by 5pm. On Speaking This is a seminar class, where the primary mode of in-class participation is conversation. A good conversation sharpens your thinking and exposes you to new ideas. If you fear speaking in class, challenge yourself to make a comment or ask a question a certain number of times each week. There will also be formalized opportunities for speaking in class: Reading Introduction: Each student will be responsible for introducing the readings for one class. You should prepare a presentation of roughly 15 minutes that summarizes and critiques the readings, draws out and critically assesses key points for class discussion, and includes at least three discussion questions. Presenters are required to incorporate questions and comments from their classmates’ response papers. Workshops: Similar to a studio art or design course, students will have two opportunities to “workshop” their ideas with classmates and receive helpful feedback. This is a chance for students to learn from one other, brainstorm, revise their work and develop the capacity to offer productive critique. • During the first opportunity, students should speak about a question they would like to engage with in their final paper, as well as suggest texts from the class that they might use. The aim is to develop a rigorous and creative paper topic. • During the second opportunity, students should lay out the preliminary structure of their argument, explaining in detail how their argument engages with materials from the class. Each student should speak for about 7–8 minutes. Class policies (the fine print) We will take a 10–15 minute break in the middle of class. Please minimize use of laptops and other electronic devices. We want to create an environment that encourages good conversation. Feel free to text/email/etc. during the break. Turn work in, on time. Late work means that you are not keeping up with the class. If you have to turn work in late, let me know beforehand (if possible). Come to class, on time. Each unexcused absence will result in the loss of 2% of your overall grade. Excused absences are permitted with an appropriate letter (e.g. note from doctor or dean). If you will be absent for an extended period, notify me in advance. In case of emergency, update me as soon as possible. Proofread your papers. Ask a friend to proofread it again, or take your paper to the Writing Center. Major spelling and grammar errors, as well as typos, will negatively affect your grade. 3 Office Hours. Please attend office hours at least twice during the semester to discuss your presentation and final paper, as well as to address any difficulties with course readings. Sign up for office hours at: bvenkat.youcanbook.me. If you have irreconcilable scheduling conflicts, email me and we will find another time. Evaluation Reading introduction: 10% Workshops: 10% Response papers: 24% In-class participation: 20% Final paper: 36% Required texts There are seven required books for this course, available for purchase at Labyrinth Books at 122 Nassau Avenue and placed in reserve at Firestone Library. All other readings will be available online on Blackboard. Students are required to bring physical copies of all texts to class. The required books are: 1. Timothy Mitchell. Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil 2. Sunila Kale. Electrifying India: Regional Political Economies of Development 3. Joseph Masco. The Nuclear Borderlands: The Manhattan Project in Post-Cold War New Mexico 4. Gabrielle Hecht. Being Nuclear: Africans and the Global Uranium Trade 5. Adriana Petryna. Life Exposed: Biological Citizens after Chernobyl 6. David Nye. When the Lights Went Out: A History of Blackouts in America 7. Wolfgang Schivelbusch. Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century Academic honesty and plagiarism The University policies on academic honesty and plagiarism can be found at http://www. princeton.edu/pr/pub/integrity/pages/intro. If you have any questions, especially about citing other people’s work, please ask me. Communications Official course communication will occur in class and via email. Any changes to the syllabus will be sent via email. Final grades will be posted to Blackboard two weeks after you submit your final papers. If you have any questions or concerns about your performance in the course, please contact me via email or come to office hours as early as possible. The longer you wait, the more difficult it will be to get back on track. Accommodations If you require any accommodations, please speak with me, as well as with the Office of Disability Services (ODS) at: www.princeton.edu/ods/student_services_process 4 COURSE SCHEDULE Week 1 Feb 3, 2015 Introduction Review syllabus, logistics and expectations for course. Week 2 Feb 10, 2015 Energetic Bodies and Things Leslie White. “Energy and the Evolution of Culture.” Hannah Landecker. “Postindustrial Metabolism: Fat Knowledge.” Ray Bradbury. “I Sing the Body Electric!” Stefan Helmreich. “Potential Energy and the Body Electric.” Jane Bennett. Vibrant Matter: a Political Ecology of Things, Ch. 2 Week 3 Feb 17, 2015 The Power to Rule Karl Marx. “The Future Results of British Rule in India.” Michel Foucault. “Right of Death and Power over Life,” pp. 135–145. Paul Rabinow and Nicholas Rose. “Biopower Today,” pp. 195–198. Timothy Mitchell. Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil, Introduction Cymene Howe. “Anthropocenic Ecoauthority: The Winds of Oaxaca.” Dominic Boyer. “Energopower: An Introduction.” Week 4 Feb 24, 2015 From Coal to Oil Émile Zola. “Zola’s Notes on the Mines at Anzin.” Émile Zola. Germinal. Ch. 1 Timothy Mitchell. Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil, Ch. 1–3 In-class screening of There Will be Blood (2007) Week 5 Mar 3, 2015 Making Oil Amitav Ghosh. “Petrofiction: The Oil Encounter and the Novel.” Brian Larkin. “The Politics and Poetics of Infrastructure.” pp. 327–330. Hannah Appel. “Walls and White Elephants: Oil Extraction, Responsibility & Infrastructural Violence in Equatorial Guinea.” David Bond. “Governing Disaster: The Political Life of the Environment During the BP Oil Spill.” Timothy Mitchell. Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil, Ch. 4–6 Week 6 Mar 10, 2015 Illuminations Wolfgang Schivelbusch. Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century, selections TBA. Mar 17, 2015 No Class (Spring Recess) 5 Week 7 Mar 24, 2015 Blackouts David Nye. When the Lights Went Out: a History of Blackouts in America, Introduction, Ch. 1, 3, 5 Week 8 Mar 31, 2015 Stealing Power Sunila Kale. Electrifying India: Regional Political Economies of Development, Ch. 1–3 In-class screening of Powerless (2013) Week 9 Apr 7, 2015 Economies of Power Sunila Kale. Electrifying India: Regional Political Economies of Development, Ch. 4–6 Michael Degani. “Emergency Power: Time, Ethics, and Electricity in Postsocialist Tanzania.” (Begin reading Masco.) Week 10 Apr 14, 2015 The Nuclear Option, Part 1 Joseph Masco. The Nuclear Borderlands: The Manhattan Project in Post-Cold War New Mexico, Chapters 1, 3, 5 Week 11 Apr 21, 2015 The Nuclear Option, Part 2 Gabrielle Hecht. Being Nuclear: Africans and the Global Uranium Trade, pp. 1–84, 293–318 Week 12 Apr 28, 2015 The Nuclear Option, Part 3 Adriana Petryna. Life Exposed: Biological Citizens after Chernobyl, Ch. 1–4 Hugh Raffles. Insectopedia, “Chernobyl.” May 12, 2015 (Dean’s Date) Final papers are due by 5 pm 6