{"id":1374,"date":"2024-02-27T14:52:31","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T22:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/thematic-option\/?page_id=1374"},"modified":"2026-03-06T13:44:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T21:44:56","slug":"core-103","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/thematic-option\/prospective-students\/core-103\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\n CORE 103: The Process of Change in Science\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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CORE 103: The Process of Change in Science<\/strong> seeks to destabilize the prevailing notion of the scientific as immutable and without agenda. Instead, students are tasked with thinking critically about science in its many sociocultural, historical, and political contexts with an eye towards parsing scientific discoveries and the narratives we derive from them. <\/p>\n

CORE 101, 103, and 104 may be taken in any order, in any semester. Students are encouraged to take courses when a particular iteration speaks to their interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Sample Course Descriptions<\/h1>\n

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\"Retro<\/div>\n
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Human Exploration and Settlement
\nof the Solar System<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Professor Vah\u00e9 Peroomian, Department of Physics & Astronomy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two centuries ago, it was \u201ccommon wisdom\u201d that all of the planets of the Solar System were inhabited and were each home to flourishing civilizations. Percival Lowell\u2019s imagined observations of Martian canals in the waning years of the nineteenth century further fueled this belief. Since 1965, when the Mariner 4 spacecraft found Mars to be a lifeless, barren world, our imagination has taken a new turn\u2014that of terraforming Mars and making it habitable for humans. More recently, both science and science fiction have considered the possibility of human settlement throughout the Solar System, not just on Mars but also in the seemingly inhospitable outer Solar System.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this course, we will consider the eventual human exploration and settlement of the Solar System not just from a scientific and technological standpoint, but also by examining the interdependencies of complex systems and the human and societal aspects of this endeavor. We will first familiarize ourselves with the Solar System, exploring not only the planets, but also the Asteroid Belt and many of the larger moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Each of these destinations will offer unique challenges to human habitability, some of which may not be immediately apparent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Science fiction authors have imagined human exploration and settlement of the Solar System and other star systems for centuries. Ray Bradbury\u2019s whimsical The Martian Chronicles<\/em> continued the narrative of a dying Martian civilization popularized by Edgar Rice Burroughs\u2019 Barsoom<\/em> series. Nearly a century later, Kim Stanley Robinson\u2019s Red Mars<\/em> gave us one of the most thoughtful considerations of settling and terraforming Mars, and his 2312<\/em> imagined a Solar System teeming with humanity. In James S.A. Corey\u2019s Expanse<\/em> series, Earth and Mars are superpowers vying for the resources of the Solar System. An exploration of these and other science fiction works will supply out-of-the-box thinking for many of the Solar System destinations we visited (and perhaps dismissed).<\/span><\/p>\n

The keystone for this course will be a group project in which students will design their own human settlement, within the Solar System but otherwise only bound by their imagination and research. This project will go beyond a simple world building exercise and will include details of societal interactions, familial considerations, laws, individual rights, and government.<\/span><\/p>\n

Texts<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n