Winter 2023 Courses

Lower Division Courses 

 
STS 016: Sex, Science & Society
Arts & Humanities, Domestic Diversity, Scientific Literacy, World Cultures, Writing Experience 
Hsueh Chiang G.
Survey of the relationship between sex, science, and society in the history of the modern world. Emphasis on the development of scientific ideas about the human body against broader social, cultural, and political trends and from a global viewpoint.

 

STS 032: Drugs, Science & Culture
Social Sciences, Visual Literacy, Writing Experience
Andrés Barragán 
Drugs, politics, science, society in a cultural perspective: emphasis on roles of science, government and the media in shifting attitudes toward alcohol, marijuana, Prozac and other pharmaceuticals; drug laws, war on drugs and global trade in sugar, opium, cocaine.

 

STS 040B: Media History 2
Arts & Humanities, Oral Literacy, Social Sciences, Visual Literacy, Writing Experience
TBD 
History of media from 1945 to present, with particular focus on the development of the computer, digital network and Internet technologies in the context of other media infrastructures like radio, television and satellite networks. Analysis of inter-related cultural/political topics.
 
STS 051: Ancient Medicine
Arts & Humanities, World Cultures, Writing Experience
Colin Webster

Medicine in ancient Greece and Rome; physiological conceptions of the body within scientific and social frameworks; exploration of sanitation technology and health in antiquity; medical treatment of the female body; medicine and the economy.

 

Upper Division Courses 


STS 100: Methods in Science, Technology & Medicine
Scientific Literacy, Social Sciences
Timothy Choy 
Methodological approaches for studying science, technology, and medicine in social context. Detailed case studies illustrate different historical, philosophical, sociological, ethical, rhetorical, and political methods of analysis.

STS 114: Global Information Age (Special Topic: Japanese Video Games)

Social Sciences, World Cultures, Writing Experience
Frank Mondelli 
Introduction to the global spread of information technologies like computers and smartphones. Special focus on their social, cultural, and commercial impact.

STS 115: Data Sense & Exploration

Oral Literacy
Alejandro Ponce de León
Data science and the communication of data insights through critical storytelling. Attention to the historical and social contexts of data analysis, emphasizing narrative, visualization, and exploration. Introduction to the R computing environment for data analysis.

STS 136 Scientific Revolution

Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences, World Cultures
Daniel Stolzenberg
Rise of modern science in Europe, 1500–1750. Transformation of ideas about nature, knowledge, medicine, and technology in the age of Copernicus, Vesalius, Galileo, Descartes, and Newton.

STS 162: Surveillance Studies

American Cultures, Governance & History, Arts & Humanities, Oral Literacy, Social Sciences, Visual Literacy, Writing Experience
Finn Brunton
Study of the ubiquitous presence of CCTV, face recognition software, global tracking systems, biosensors, and data mining practices that have made surveillance part of our daily life. Exploration of the boundary between security and control, information and spying.

STS 163: History of Communication Technologies

Social Sciences, Writing Experience
Finn Brunton
History of communication technologies from the late Middle Ages to the 20th century. Questions of technology, knowledge, power and culture. Particular attention to questions about information and truth.

STS 164 Writing Science

Arts & Humanities, Writing Experience
Rebecca Jones
Texts and writing practices in the production of scientific knowledge. Surveys the literary structure of scientific arguments; history of scientific genres; rhetoric and semiotics in scientific culture; graphical systems in the experimental laboratory; narratives of science, including science fiction.

STS 172: Video Games & Culture

American Cultures, Governance & History, Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences, Visual Literacy, Writing Experience
Patrick Lemieux
Critical approaches to the study of video games, focusing on formal, historical, and cultural modes of analysis. History of software and hardware in North American and global contexts. Relations of games to society, politics, economics, media, etc.

STS 176 Sociology of Knowledge

Social Sciences
Evan Lauteria
Social, cultural, and historical dimensions of knowledge, especially scientific knowledge. Problems, methods, and theory in sociology of scientific knowledge. Laboratory and historical case studies. Scientific and technical knowledge in institutional and organizational contexts.

STS 200: STS Theories & Methods

TBD
Joseph Dumit 
Theories and methods of Science & Technology Studies as a field of critical and empirical scholarship, and examination of various contexts in which STS has emerged worldwide.