Lower Division Courses
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.