Module POL3247 for 2021/2
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
POL3247: Politics of Biology
This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:
- 19th century appropriations of Darwinian theory by both laissez-faire capitalist and socialist/anarchist ideology;
- The role of biological ideas in 20th century eugenics movements and the phenomenon of ‘dehumanisation’;
- The notions of ‘nature’ and ‘human nature’ in debates around issues such as gender, sexuality, disability, and the use of bio-technologies;
- The implications of contemporary understandings of development and evolution for our ideas of identity, diversity, the individual and society.
Learning and Teaching
This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
---|---|---|
22 | 128 | 0 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
Category | Hours of study time | Description |
---|---|---|
Scheduled Learning & Teaching Activity | 22 | 11 x two-hour seminars |
Guided Independent Study | 50 | Private study reading and preparing for weekly seminars |
Guided Independent Study | 78 | Preparation and completion of assessments: independent research and writing |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
How this Module is Assessed
In the tables below, you will see reference to 'ILO's. An ILO is an Intended Learning Outcome - see Aims and Learning Outcomes for details of the ILOs for this module.
Formative Assessment
A formative assessment is designed to give you feedback on your understanding of the module content but it will not count towards your mark for the module.
Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
---|---|---|---|
Draft Research Report & Essay Plan | 1000 words | 1-10 | Oral or written |
Summative Assessment
A summative assessment counts towards your mark for the module. The table below tells you what percentage of your mark will come from which type of assessment.
Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
---|---|---|
100 | 0 | 0 |
...and this table provides further details on the summative assessments for this module.
Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
---|---|---|---|---|
Research Report & Essay Plan | 25 | 1000 words | 1-10 | Written |
Essay | 75 | 3000 words | 1-10 | Written |
Re-assessment
Re-assessment takes place when the summative assessment has not been completed by the original deadline, and the student has been allowed to refer or defer it to a later date (this only happens following certain criteria and is always subject to exam board approval). For obvious reasons, re-assessments cannot be the same as the original assessment and so these alternatives are set. In cases where the form of assessment is the same, the content will nevertheless be different.
Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
---|---|---|---|
Research Report & Essay Plan | Research Report & Essay Plan (1000 words) | 1-10 | August/September reassessment period |
Essay | Essay (3000 words) | 1-10 | August/September reassessment period |
Re-assessment notes
Re-assessment assignments will take the same form as the original summative assessments.
Indicative Reading List
This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.
Meloni, M. (2016) Political Biology: Science and Social Values in Human Heredity from Eugenics to Epigenetics (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan)
Lewontin, R. (1991) Biology as Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA (New York: Harper Collins)
Nelkin, D. & Lindee, M. S. (1995) The DNA Mystique: The Gene as a Cultural Icon (New York: W. H. Freeman and Co.)
Latour, B. (2004) Politics of Nature: How to Bring the Sciences Into Democracy (Harvard University Press)
Nayar, P. K. (2014) Posthumanism (Polity Press)
Mills, C. (2018) Biopolitics (Abingdon: Routledge)
Barker, G. (2015) Beyond Biofatalism: Human Nature for an Evolving World (New York: Columbia University Press)
Lewens, T. (2015) The Biological Foundations of Bioethics (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
Habermas, J. (2003) The Future of Human Nature (Cambridge: Polity Press)
Smith, D. L. (ed.) (2017) How Biology Shapes Philosophy: New Foundations for Naturalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
Oyama, S. (2000b) Evolution’s Eye: A Systems View of the Biology-Culture Divide (Durham, NC.: Duke University Press)
Kevles, D. J. & Hood, L. (eds.) (1992) The Code of Codes: Scientific and Social Issues in the Human Genome Project (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press)
Hubbard, R. (1990) ‘The Political Nature of “Human Nature”’, in Rhode, D. L. (ed.) Theoretical Perspectives on Sexual Difference (New Haven: Yale University Press), pp. 63-73
Lloyd, E. A. (2008) ‘Normality and Variation: The Human Genome Project and the Ideal Human Type’, in Lloyd, E. A., Science, Evolution and Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 133-147
Smith, D. L. (2016) ‘Paradoxes of Dehumanization’. Social Theory and Practice, Vol. 42 (No. 2), pp. 416-443