This Thing Called Science (2023-I)

Course description

In modern life, science is everywhere. The products of biomedical science and technology may help achieve a healthy society and economic progress. They may prolong life and make it more agreeable at the same time. But how much do we really know about the production, implementation and evaluation of scientific knowledge? What, exactly, is the basis for our belief in science? What sets it apart from common knowledge? Who should we trust in case two scientists disagree in a hotly debated issue? Is science a vocation or just another profession? Is scientific knowledge something special to be emulated, or ‘just another opinion’? How does science really work? Are scientific facts discovered or rather socially constructed and considered ‘true’ only after fierce debate? How are science and technology embedded in society and how do they change over time?

If you would like to become a scientist – either an academic researcher or a scientifically educated professional with a job outside academia -, you should be aware of these and similar questions. You should not just know about the contents of scientific knowledge, but about its context as well.

Learning objectives

This course sets out to create that awareness, aiming for broad scientific literacy. In nine Friday afternoon sessions, the historical, philosophical, sociological, commercial, ethical, political and personal dimensions of the biomedical sciences will be discussed. For those of you who are interested in a public debate that is now going on with regard to science and the university, see www.scienceintransition.nl, https://www.vsnu.nl/en_GB/Recognition-and-rewards-of-academics.html, http://www.wetenschapsagenda.nl and https://woinactie.blogspot.com/.

Instructional method

Every month, an expert is invited to speak about an issue in their field. Speakers will provide one or two articles on the topic of their lecture, for pre-course reading. You are all expected to have them read before the meetings. For every session, five students will be appointed as (collective) chair. Together, they are responsible for the quality of the debate and the success of the meeting. They are expected to prepare for the meeting by formulating theses (stellingen in Dutch) on pre-circulated literature and post it to the community, in order to facilitate debate. Their theses will be discussed during the session.

Socializing with drinks: after every session (that is, after COVID-19 has subsided), there will be drinks and an opportunity to ‘meet the speaker’. Grab this opportunity: these are experts in their field.

Trainer

During each session two speakers, who are experts in their field, will set the scene for a highly interactive session.

Course Committee:

Ms Ingrid Hille (secretariat: i.l.b.hille@umcutrecht.nl)
Prof Frank Huisman, PhD (coordinator)
Saskia Ebeling, PhD
Prof Frank Miedema, PhD
Prof Gerard Pasterkamp, PhD
Prof Berent Prakken, PhD
Prof Harold van Rijen, PhD
Ghislaine van Thiel, PhD
Ms Bianca Zomer

Group size            

35 to 45 participants

Number of credits                                 

2.0 EC

Course schedule

You can find the full schedule including topics and speakers here.

Study load

In addition to the scheduled sessions, you should take into account an extra study load of approximately 28 hours in total. Before every session, you have to prepare the session by reading several articles (15-20 pages).

Course certificate                                

You will receive a course certificate after actively participating in at least 7 out of 9 sessions. You are expected to be active as participant, which means that you prepare the topic and, even more important, that you take part in the general discussion.

Cancellation and No-show policy

This course is free for GSLS PhD candidates. However: free of charge does not mean free of responsibility. Once you have signed up for a course, we expect you to attend. For every late cancellation or no-show we have had to disappoint others who would have liked to attend. This is our policy:

• You may cancel free of charge up to 4 weeks before the start of the course. After this date you can only cancel if you have a GSLS PhD candidate to replace you in the course. Send the name and contact information of your replacement to pcc@uu.nl, at least 2 working days before the start of the course;
• We expect that you actively attend the full course, but at least 80%. It is mandatory to attend the first session. If you are absent the first session you cannot follow the remaining of the course;
• Not meeting the above requirements means you will be charged a no-show fee (€ 218). We will send the invoice after the course has ended. We are unable to make any exceptions, unless you have a valid reason (i.e., illness or death in the family 1^st/2^nd degree or partner). Your supervisor has to send an e-mail to pcc@uu.nl indicating the reason.

Unfortunately we don’t offer this course for participants not part of the GSLS. Our courses tend to be fully booked by GSLS PhD candidates.

Do you have doubts, critiques or bugs about science? This is a good place where to address them. This course made me a better scientist, and a better informed layman. I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in science.

Becoming aware of these dilemmas really helped me to get a better idea of how science is evolving and it helped me decide if and how I would like to continue in academia. The course also encouraged me to reflect on the bigger picture of my own PhD project and guided me in the direction that I want to pursue the project.