UC
and the Bomb (DeCal Class)
 Education
98/198 (2 units)
Day and Time: Wednesday 7 - 9 PM
Location: 140 Barrows
Primary Facilitators: Chelsea Collonge,
Josh Kearns
Faculty Sponsor: John Hurst
This student-facilitated course—The University of California and
the Military-Industrial-Nuclear Weapons Complex: Past, Present and Future—will
examine the role of the University of California in the development and
production of nuclear weapons of mass destruction from the period of the
Manhattan project through the Cold War to the current era of US global
political and economic dominance. We will examine the interlocking framework
that connects the University of California to the military-industrial
complex, most salient in the UC’s management of the nation’s
two large nuclear weapons laboratories in Livermore, CA and Los Alamos,
NM. We will also investigate more subtle linkages between science, the
military and institutions of higher education in the US. We will draw
parallels between the economic and foreign policy agendas of the US as
a global superpower and the roles of educational institutions, scientists
and engineers, and the development and stockpiling of nuclear arsenals.
We will look at ethics in scientific decision-making, and how power structures
influence scientists and the use of scientific knowledge. We will also
examine the environmental/ecological and public health effects of nuclear
weapons science, development and production.
Course Materials:
A note on the READER: Many of the Unit II
readings are contained in the first installment of the course reader,
available from University Copy (on Channing, between Telegraph and Dana
in the parking structure) as of Friday, February 18.
Lecture 1 – January 26
Introduction to the course and the course facilitators, overview of expected
learning outcomes
Lecture Notes (PDF File)
Lecture 2 – February 2
International history of nuclear weapons, current US nuclear policy, and
international law
regarding nuclear proliferation
Guest presenter: Tara Dorabji from Tri-Valley
CAREs (Citizens Against Radioactive Environments)
Presenter's Notes:
Bunker
Buster may return by Walter Pinkus of the Washington Post, Tuesday Feb.
01, 2005
Safety
concerns halt plutonium work by Betsy Mason of the Contra Costa Times,
Tuesday Feb. 01, 2005
Help UC, don't
hurt it editorial in Daily Cal, Tuesday Feb. 01, 2005
The DoE FY 2005 Budget
Request for nuclear weapons activities by Dr. Robert Civiak for Tri-Valley
CAREs (pdf)
Readings:
REQUIRED: Caldicott, Preface, Introduction, Chapters 1 and 5 and please
glance through the appendices to the text
Recommended: The Shape
of Things to Come: The Nuclear Posture Review, Missile Defense, and the
Dangers of a New Arms Race, WSLF Special Report, April, 2002 (pdf)
Faustian Bargain 2000:
Why Stockpile Stewardship is Fundamentally Incompatible with the Process
of Nuclear Disarmament, WSLF Special Report, April 2000 (pdf)
Lecture 3 – February 9
Grassroots resistance to nuclear proliferation: history of
social movements for peace and disarmament around the Labs
Guest presenter: Jackie Cabasso, an attorney for Western
States Legal Foundation
Presenter's Notes:
Abolition Now!
campaign
Mayors For Peace campaign
The end of disarmament
and the arms race to come. Cabasso, J and Lichterman L. Journal of Social
Justice, Vol. 29, no. 3, 2002. (pdf)
Please visit the WSLF webpage, and peruse
the following documents:
Up For Sale: Bidding For Management of the Nuclear Weapons Labs, Veiluva
M and Cabasso J, Fall 2004; Human Security, Development and Disarmament,
Cabasso J, address at Towards a World Without Violence Dialogue, June
23-27, Barcelona Forum 2004; and The So-called 'U.S. Record of Compliance':
Why The U.S. Numbers Game Is Not Disarmament, Lichterman A and Cabasso
J, Spring 2004.
Readings:
REQUIRED: Gusterson, Comments on the Text, Postscript, Chapters 1 and
2
Recommended: Wittner,
Lawrence. The Nuclear Disarmament Movement.
Lecture 4 – February 16
Case study: Nevada Desert Experience and the Nevada Test Site
Guest presenters: Amy Schultz from the Nevada
Desert Experience
Presenter's Notes: Nevada
Desert Experience website
Readings:
REQUIRED: Butigan, Ken, Chapter 5 Nonviolent Civil Disobedience at the
Nevada Test Site from Pilgrimage Through a Burning World
Recommended: Butigan, Ken, Chapter 3 Nevada Desert Experience from Pilgrimage
Through a Burning World
The Nevada Test Site: Desert Annex of the Nuclear Weapons Laboratories,
Andrew Lichterman, Western States Legal Foundation and Nevada Desert Experience
Information Bulletin, Winter 2003
Statement
by the Women’s Pentagon Action
Lecture 5– February 23
UC Regents-the University's governing body: who they are, and
their perspectives on the UC-weapons labs relationship
Guest presenter: Darwin Bond-Graham, UC Santa Barbara sociology
PhD student and researcher for the Los Alamos Study Group
Presenter's Notes: Fiat Pax: The
Direction of Higher Education & The
Regents of the University of California
Readings:
REQUIRED: Gusterson, Chapter 3
Bond-Graham,
D. Bidding on a bomb lab. Z Magazine, October 2003
Recommended: Fiat Pax: The Militarization
of America's Universities
Lecture 6– March 2
Military science: how it shapes the on-campus experience of students,
faculty and researchers
Guest presenter: UC-Berkeley physics professor and activist Charley
Schwartz
Presenter's Notes: "A Hippocratic Oath for Scientists…
"The purpose of science should be the general enhancement of
life and not the causing of harm to man. I affirm that I will uphold
this principle, in teaching and in practice of my science, to the
best of my ability and judgment."
Social
Responsibility Booklet: Information for Students on the military aspects
of careers in PHYSICS
Readings:
REQUIRED: Selvin, P. and Schwartz, C. Publish and Perish: Integration
of University Science with the Pentagon, Science for the People vol. 20
no. 1, Jan/Feb 1988
Recommended: Schwartz, C. Political structuring of the institutions of
science. Chapter 8 in Nader, L. Naked Science: Anthropological Inquiry
into Boundaries, Power, and Knowledge
Lowen, R. The Undergraduates. Chapter 8 in Creating the Cold War University:
The Transformation of Stanford
Lecture 7– March 9
Divergent perspectives within the weapons labs: weapons scientists as
patriots and dissenters
Guest presenter: Hugh DeWitt, retired LLNL theoretical physicist and internal
critic within the Lab
Readings:
REQUIRED: Gusterson, Chapters 4 and 5
DeWitt, H. Scapegoating the Scientist, Science for the People vol. 20
no. 1, Jan/Feb 1988
Recommended: Statement by UC-Santa Barbara physicist and Nobel laureate
Walter Kohn to the UC Regents: UC Should Discontinue Management of Weapons
Research, Development and Production at Los Alamos
Lecture 8– March 16
Elite decision making and practical concerns: the positive
aspects of a Faustian bargain, or, making the best of necessary evils
Guest presenter: Raymond Jeanloz, UC-Berkeley geophysicist, member
of the National Academy of Scientists, advocate of UC management of the
Labs
Readings:
REQUIRED: Academic Senate white papers on LANL and LLNL management
TriValley CAREs' comments on white papers and faculty polls
Recommended: Results of faculty polls regarding Labs' management
Siedel, R. The postwar political economy of high-energy physics, in Pions
to Quarks: Particle Physics in the 1950's
Spring Break – March 23 (NO LECTURE THIS
WEEEK)
Useful links:
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Lawerence Livermore National Laboratory
Fiat Pax
UC Nucleur Free
The Regents
of the University of California
|
