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History of Technology
Graduate introductory course to the history and historiography of technological change. The emphasis is placed on the history of technology in modernity. Selected comparisons between modern and pre-modern technologies are also included.
Special Topics in the History of Technology: History of Engineering
Topics included: engineering sciences, engineering disciplines, engineering practices, engineering education (polytechnic and other), engineering professionalism (e.g. engineering chambers), and engineering ideologies (e.g. technocracy).
History of Computing and Telecommunications (Course taught to students of the Informatics and Telecommunications Department, University of Athens, www.di.uoa.gr)
Topic covered: the analog-digital debate, the emergence and establishment of the software-hardware demarcation and the persistence of a software crisis, the transition from the ideal of a computer utility to the realities of personal computing, the history of human computers, the transition from the computer being a mathematical machine to the computer being a communication device, continuities and discontinuities from the history of the telegraph to the history of the internet, the convergence of computing, telecommunications and the emergence of nanotechnology.
History of Technology
This is a freshman course, designed as an introduction to special courses in the history of technology and as an introduction to courses on technology, and the way it relates to society in general and to societal issues ranging from economic development to environmental protection in particular. First year students have been introduced to the history of technology during their secondary education, which included general and special courses in technology. This course starts by a critical overview of the presentation of the history of technology in the secondary education and then moves on to cover the following topics: Objects, concepts and practices of the history of technology. Chronological, geographical, and thematical demarcations. Issues. History, institutional development, connections with other disciplines. Interactions with sociology, anthropology, and philosophy of technology. History of technology in the web. Antiquity and Middle Ages. Revolutions, from the Scientific to the Industrial. Mass production: taylorism and fordism. Machines to nets: energy, transportation, and telecommunication technologies. Recent and emerging technologies: information and biomedical technologies. Technological communities: engineers and technicians. Technological exclusions: gender and technology. Technological competition. Technological successes and failures.
History of Technology and Science Policy
Introduction to the emergence and development of (national and international) state and business institutions and practices that affected technology and science in recent centuries. The course is focused on the post-World War II decades. Examples discussed: activities of executive, legislative, and judicial authorities, firm and inter-firm actions, initiatives of scientific and professional institutions (societies, clubs, associations, councils, committees, chambers, etc.), the place of regulatory and standardization institutions, the role of award and patent related institutions.
History of Recent Technologies: Computing, Telecommunications, Biotechnology and Science Policy
Topic covered: the analog-digital debate, the emergence and establishment of the software-hardware demarcation and the persistence of a software crisis, the transition from the ideal of a computer utility to the realities of personal computing, the history of human computers, the transition from the computer being a mathematical machine to the computer being a communication device, continuities and discontinuities from the history of the telegraph to the history of the internet, early histories of biotechnology, the hegemony of molecular biology and changes in the orientation of biotechnology, the convergence of computing, telecommunications, and biotechnology, the emergence of nanotechnology.
Science, Technology and Society
The course maps critical approaches to the science, technology, and society relationship, which come from a range of disciplines and interdisciplinary fields, including the history, sociology, anthropology, and philosophy of technology and science. Included in the topics covered is the connection between technology/science and economic issues (e.g., work and unemployment, development and pollution), ideological issues (e.g., national and gender identity construction), and political issues (e.g., peace and war, democracy and totalitarianism).
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