Results for: Explorations of Mars

Explorations of Mars - Novel Knowledge Series

  • Course Level:
  • Department: Graham School
  • Year: 2022-23
  • Term: Autumn
  • Tuesdays | 9/27/22 – 11/15/22 | 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
  • Jordan Bimm

Everyone is talking about Mars. Whether you have no prior knowledge of Mars or are someone deeply fascinated with space exploration, this course will prepare you to join and lead Mars conversations happening across society. Through non-technical readings, activities, and discussions focused on the history and culture of Mars exploration we will build an understanding of important figures, events, ideas, and trends.

Course in the Novel Knowledge Series at the Graham School. Register here. 

Explorations of Mars

  • Course Level: Graduate; undergraduate with permission
  • Department: Environmental and Urban Studies, History, History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science and Medicine
  • Year: 2022-23
  • Term: Autumn
  • T/Th 12:30-1:50 pm
  • KNOW 36070 / HIST 35200 / ENST 26070 / HIPS 26070
  • Jordan Bimm

Mars is more than a physical object located millions of miles from Earth. Through centuries of knowledge-making people have made the “Red Planet” into a place that looms large in cultural and scientific imagination. Mars is now the primary target for human exploration and colonization in the Solar System. How did this happen? What does this mean? What do we know about Mars, and what’s at stake when we make knowledge about it? Combining perspectives from the social sciences and humanities, this course investigates how knowledge about Mars is created and communicated in not only science and technology fields but across public culture. A major focus will be learning how Mars has been embedded within diverse social and political projects here on Earth. Through reading-inspired group discussions and instructor-led experiential research projects, the course will move from the earliest visual observations of Mars to recent robotic missions on the planet’s surface. In doing so, this seminar will critically grapple with evolving human efforts to make Mars usable. No prior knowledge of Mars is required. This course fulfills the elective requirement for a new MAPSS concentration on the Formation of Knowledge 

Explorations of Mars

  • Course Level: Graduate; undergraduate with permission
  • Department: History, History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science and Medicine, MAPSS, Environmental Studies
  • Year: 2021-22
  • Term: Autumn
  • T/Th 12:30-1:50 PM
  • KNOW 36070, HIST 35200, ENST 26070, HIPS 26070
  • Jordan Bimm

Mars is more than a physical object located millions of miles from Earth. Through centuries of knowledge-making people have made the “Red Planet” into a place that looms large in cultural and scientific imagination. Mars is now the primary target for human exploration and colonization in the Solar System. How did this happen? What does this mean? What do we know about Mars, and what’s at stake when we make knowledge about it? Combining perspectives from the social sciences and humanities, this course investigates how knowledge about Mars is created and communicated in not only science and technology fields but across public culture. A major focus will be learning how Mars has been embedded within diverse social and political projects here on Earth. Through reading-inspired group discussions and instructor-led experiential research projects, the course will move from the earliest visual observations of Mars to recent robotic missions on the planet’s surface. In doing so, this seminar will critically grapple with evolving human efforts to make Mars usable. No prior knowledge of Mars is required. This course fulfills the elective requirement for a new MAPSS concentration on the Formation of Knowledge https://ifk.uchicago.edu/mapss/

KNOW 36070: Explorations of Mars

  • Course Level: Graduate; undergraduate with permission
  • Department:
  • Year: 2020-21
  • Term: Spring

Jordan Bimm

Mars is more than a physical object located millions of miles from Earth. Through centuries of knowledge-making we have made the “Red Planet” into a place that looms large in cultural and scientific imagination. Mars is now the primary target for human exploration and colonization in the Solar System. How did this happen? What does this mean? What do we know about Mars, and what’s at stake when we make knowledge about it? Combining perspectives from history, anthropology, and sociology, this course investigates how knowledge about Mars is created and communicated in science and technology fields. A major focus will be learning how Mars has been embedded within wider social and political projects including theological debates, Manifest Destiny, The Cold War, and the commercialization of spaceflight. Through reading-inspired group discussions and instructor-led experiential projects, the course will move from the earliest visual observations of Mars to recent robotic missions on the planet’s surface. In doing so, this dynamic research group will critically grapple with problems posed by the potential discovery of extraterrestrial life, the organization of future Mars colonies, and evolving human efforts to make Mars usable.  

This course fulfills the elective requirement for a new MAPSS concentration on the Formation of Knowledge