Johanna Winant

“Mysteries and Diagnoses” will ask students to re-examine stories of murder mysteries and medical diagnoses as interpretive puzzles, each with their own assumptions, blind spots and biases. Students will probe the process of interpretation and test presumptions of objectivity, learning about the influence of ideology, when interpretation and explanation succeed and fail, and whom they fail. Ultimately students will learn to see how ideological structures and societal values shape even the most objective work and arguments.