FYS: Language, Advertising, and Propaganda

3 Credits.

This First Year Seminar examines the relationships between science, politics, and democracy in the U.S., from World War II to the present. We will start with Vannevar Bush's Science, The Endless Frontier, sometimes considered the blueprint for postwar science policy, and trace the evolution of science policy, universities, and the U.S. innovation system since. Through a mix of primary readings and scholarly analyses from a range of fields---including economics, history, meta-science, and the science of science and innovation--- students will engage and analyze perennial debates on government funding of science, priority setting, peer review, basic and applied research, the geography of funding, patent policy, the politics of expertise, and the roles of science in a democracy, and connect to current policy debates and controversies.