Tpc in the Hist of Stats

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Statistics is one of the most important tools in the 21st century for conducting scientific research, assessing the benefits of public policy, and understanding business administration and management. Yet despite its ubiquity the prominence of statistical reasoning we see today is of a relatively recent date. This course will introduce students to important topics in the history of statistics, tracing its emergence in the 19th to its use and misuse in the public health crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. While broadly chronological, the course will also be organized topically and will address both the content of evolving statistical techniques as well as its social and political contexts. A central theme for this subject will be the complex dynamic between claims that statistics represent facts about the world while at the same time being the product of competing social, political, racial, and cultural interests. We will look at multiple aspects of this interplay including how the intended use of statistics has shaped the development of its techniques and methods; the dependence it has had on certain data-gathering institutions and the role governmental and corporate power plays in such data gathering; and the relationship between statistics, misinformation, and objectivity. By the end of this course you will be able to better appreciate the different criticisms of statistics within their historical context as well as articulate its benefits and the important role it plays in understanding the world today.