Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL3247: Politics of Biology

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

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