Dr. Anne Kapuscinski and Dr. Emily Pullins
Teaching Assistant:  Brent Sewall

Classes

This course will be taught through a series of lectures, guest speakers, discussions, and student activities.  Class will meet on Wednesday from 3:00 pm to 3:50 pm in 490 Hodson Hall.  Work group and discussion periods will be held on Fridays from 1:55 pm to 3:50 pm in 19 Green Hall. 

Introduction

How shall the new high-tech genetic and reproductive technologies be used for the maximum benefit of all society, and with minimal negative impacts on society, health, and the environment? This question has loomed large for the quarter of a century since the first genes were spliced with recombinant DNA techniques.  In the 1970s, scientific leaders in the biotechnology arena held implicit and sometimes explicit beliefs that biotechnology would be controlled for the benefit of all. These leaders also argued that scientists would evolve ways of dealing with the potentials and problems that the new technologies would raise. They further argued that governmental bodies would regulate the uses of the new technologies through bureaucratic agencies. These beliefs gave way to a new set of ideas in the 1980s that the wisdom of the marketplace would regulate the new technology for the maximum benefit and safety of all. In the last decade, the large-scale commercialization and international trade of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in agriculture and the food supply was coupled with scientific studies that documented specific ecological and human health hazards that exposed important gaps in understanding about GMOs. Scientists and regulators did not evolve adequate mechanisms to ensure the equitable and safe use of genetic engineering, as evidenced by the contamination of the U.S. food supply by Aventis StarLinkã corn in 2000. In this course, we will move beyond the pitched battles over whether the GMO industry will continue (it will) and overstated reassurances about the risks of these developments. This course seeks to explore how the real tradeoffs in the genetics revolution can be openly examined and democratically managed for safety by independent scientists, governments, industry, and concerned citizens.

Objectives

By the end of the course the student will be able to:

• access and understand diverse perspectives on genetic engineering,
• critically analyze environment and human health safety issues relating to genetic engineering using a multi-disciplinary perspective,
• engage their communities in in-depth discussions about genetic engineering, and
• develop and submit an original piece to a peer-reviewed academic journal.

Student Activities

The student will participate in the following activities during the course:

• Participate in class discussions
• Read and discuss scientific papers and other assigned reading
• Attend the Sesquicentennial symposium on Thursday, February 1, 2001
• Attend the Safety First Workshop, Friday and Saturday, March 2-3, 2001
• Write and present a 3-5 page individual paper
• Write and present a group paper suitable for submission to a refereed journal

Individual Paper and Presentation

The individual paper is due during the sixth week of class (Feb 23).  It is a 3-5 page essay, and can be written from the disciplinary perspective of the student.  This paper can be a literature review on a topic related to genetic engineering or an analysis of some aspect of a genetically modified organism.  The intention of this assignment is to introduce students to the topic of genetic engineering, and to make clear the links between their discipline and genetic engineering.  All students will present their papers to the class during lecture (Feb 21), and this will introduce students to the breadth of the interdisciplinary nature of genetic engineering.

Symposium Events

All students are expected to attend the Sesquicentenial conference, “Governing GMOs: Developing Policy in the Face of Scientific and Public Debate” to be held at the Cowles Auditorium, Hubert H. Humphrey Conference Center on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota on February 1, 2001 from 8:30am to 5pm.  For more information on this event, see

http://www.jointdegree.org/gmosconf.php.  We have reservations for your attendance. Alert Dr. Pullins or Dr. Kapuscinski ahead of time if you have a scheduling conflict.

All students are expected to attend the ISEES workshop event, “Safety First: Active Governance of Genetic Engineering for Environment and Human Health Worldwide” to be held at the Cowles Auditorium, Hubert H. Humphrey Conference Center on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota on Friday, March 2, 2001 from 8:30 am to 6 pm and Saturday March 3, 2001 from 8:30 am to 4 pm.  We have reservations for your attendance.  Alert Dr. Pullins or Dr. Kapuscinski ahead of time if you have a scheduling conflict.

Group Paper and Presentation

The group paper should involve a critical analysis of the current governance of genetically modified organisms and provide recommendations for improvement.  The paper should highlight interdisciplinary links and integrate material from the course, readings, participant observation, and an independent literature search.  The topics for the paper should be decided by the fourth week of class, and rough drafts are due on the twelfth week of class.  The format of the paper should conform to the writer’s guidelines for a peer-reviewed academic journal of the group’s choosing.  Groups must turn in a copy of the journal’s writers’ guidelines when they turn in the paper.  The rough draft will undergo peer editing by students, then will receive comments by the instructors, and the final paper will be due the last week of class.  Students will also give an oral presentation of the paper during finals week.

Class assignments

A variety of assignments will be required throughout the course.  These include editing your peers’ paper rough drafts, short essays on a variety of topics, preliminary assignments in support of the paper, and other assignments that will be announced in class.  Consult the course schedule and instructors for details on how to turn in these assignments; some will be posted to the website while others will be due at the beginning of class. More details about how course assignments will be graded are provided in the handouts to be distributed during class.

A note about group projects

Group projects are an excellent way to learn from your classmates.  Individual grades must be granted for these projects, however.  To help resolve this problem, several assignments related to the group project will receive individual grades.  Also, at the end of the project, we will ask every student to submit a written description of your contribution to the project and that of the other members of the group. The instructors will take this information into consideration in assigning an appropriate grade to each member of the group.

Grading

This course is offered on an A-F or Pass-Fail basis.  Grading will be based on the following components:

• Class attendance and participation                      10%
• Symposium attendance 2 x 5%                           10%
• Class assignments 4 x 5%                                  20%
• Individual paper bibliography and outline    5%
• Final individual paper                                         10%
• Individual paper presentation                                5%
• Group paper assignments 2 x 5%                        10%
• Final group paper                                               20%
• Group paper presentation                                   10%

If you are having difficulty in this course, we encourage you to consult the Instructors or TA during office hours, or set up an appointment.  Please come to us sooner rather than later.

Materials

Reading materials required for this class include:

• Two course packets - one main reader and one discussion reader 
• The book Understanding Risk, by Stern and Fineberg, eds., National Academy Press, 1997.  This book is available to read free online, or may be purchased at http://books.nap.edu/catalog/5138.html
• Excerpts from the two-volume Manual for Assessing Ecological and Human Health Effects of Genetically Engineered Organisms by the Scientists’ Working Group on Biosafety, 1998.  This book is free by download from the website http://www.edmonds-institute.org/manual.html

Subject matter

Note that this course deals with some issues that are controversial.  We consider  discussion of such differences of opinion to be healthy.  However, we expect this discussion to be respectful and also expect all students to cooperate fully on group projects with their peers regardless of differences.

Academic Misconduct

Academic misconduct is defined in the University of Minnesota policy as "the fabrication or falsification of data, research procedures, or data analysis; destruction of data for fraudulent purposes; plagiarism; abuse of confidentiality; or other fraudulent actions in proposing, conducting, reporting, or reviewing research or other scholarly activity."  Such misconduct will not be tolerated in this course.  Students may refer to university policy or consult the Instructors for further clarification on this subject.

Accessibility of the course:

It is University policy to provide, on a flexible and individualized basis, reasonable accommodations to students who have disabilities that may affect their ability to participate in course activities or to meet course requirements. Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact their instructors or TAs early in the semester to discuss their individual needs for accommodations.