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ucla course |
UCLA History 98T - Seminar 1, Spring 2000 Sociocultural Aspects of 20th-Century Technopoles in the American West: Los Alamos, New Mexico On August 6, 1945 the Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb called "Little Boy" over Hiroshima, Japan and three days later, "Fat Man" over Nagasaki. The following day the Japanese Emperor accepted the unconditional surrender terms proposed by the United States. The U.S. emerged as, and still remains, a very prominent country after the war because of this scientific outcome. Scientists, military personnel, and equipment converged to a secret military base in the remote location of Los Alamos, New Mexico to design these destructive devices. The concentration of scientists, managerial expertise and supporting resources into a small geographic region made Los Alamos a basic technopole. More elaborate technopoles, like Silicon Valley, produce significant economic, political, economic and cultural regional dynamics. This Research seminar examines how Los Alamos shaped the social, political and intellectual terrain of northern New Mexico, and the American West through a multidisciplinary science studies approach. It introduces the student to current topics in history, sociology, geography, ethnic studies, gender studies, labor policy, and urban studies. It will focus upon labor rights and ethnic tensions within the scientific laboratory. It will make use of film clips, video-recordings, oral histories and students will be required to request primary documents from the LANL Community Outreach Office in New Mexico. Apr 6, 2000: Introduction to Los Alamos History Syllabus, introductions, disciplinary and topical domains, film clip Apr 13: Manhattan Project: History of science and the historiography of Los Alamos New Mexico history; history of American West Apr 20: Technopoles and Regional Economic Development I What is a technopole? What are the economic impacts of a technopole to a region? Apr 27: Technopoles and Regional Economic Development II What are the cultural impacts to a region? May 4: Pork Barrel Politics: Unlimited Funding in the Science City Multi-billion dollar budgets histories; political networks of LANL Director. May 11: Behind Every Man is a Good Woman: Gender and the Division of Labor at LANL Socialist feminism and labor; machismo and other masculinities. May 18: "Ethnic Cleansing" of the Lab in post Cold War Era: 1995 LANL Lay-offs Labor history of LANL; University of California management; Ethnic tensions and discrimination. May 25(TBD): Guest speaker Charles Montano (Citizens for LANL Employee Rights) & Saeed Ali (Calif. Sen., Latino Legislative Caucus, TBD) Jun 1: Scientific Colonialism or Cowboy Science? Post-Colonial theory and science; U.S.-Mexican War, 1946-1948; Technologies within colonial political economy. Jun 8: Oral presentations:
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