"Some of my favorite memories are related to my participation in the annual STGlobal conference in Washington D.C. Being a student-run academic meeting, STGlobal was a great opportunity to gain experience in both presenting research and in helping to organize a conference while getting to bond with fellow students. Drexel’s participation as an STGlobal consortium member is a definite asset for the students in the Center for STS."
"There are far too many to mention. If I had to nail it down, it would be the valued relationships that I established with the faculty and students in the program."
"Definitely the final group project in our STS Theories course with Ali Kenner. In different groups, we collaborated to create STS "time capsules." Interested in how theory could intervene into our daily lives, we commingled excerpts from course readings with assorted personal artifacts. Quotes from "A Cyborg Manifesto" were put into conversation with snapshots from the movie Ex Machina, "Do Artifacts have Politics" with insulin pens, "Experimental Machines" with Deltron 3030 song lyrics. Each time capsule was a personal exploration of how STS theories can inform a politics of the self that is both liberatory and imaginative. This bold creativity in blending the personal and political highlights what I find to be the most exciting elements of STS."
"My time at Drexel was really spectacular overall, but I think there are two aspects that really stand out: the research opportunities and the community. Toward the end of my first quarter in the program, I interviewed for and got a research assistantship with Drs. Ali Kenner and Mimi Sheller. This position formally lasted three quarters, but we have continued to work together on the manuscript for it. Working on that project not only helped me build necessary research infrastructure skills (like doing a literature review, learning Zotero, and preparing IRB applications) but gave me real on the ground experience designing and implementing research tools. For the duration of my second year in the program I worked as a research assistant for Dr. Gwen Ottinger, where I got a chance to iterate and expand the skills I had learned. While neither of these projects were directly related to my research interests, they are some of the most valuable academic training I’ve had. They let me connect the theories and literature I was reading in seminars to data and patterns in practice.
The other part of this is the community. At least when I was there, it was a relatively small program, and many of the part-time students were unable to attend events frequently. Despite that—maybe because of it—the student community was incredibly tight-knit. We realized that the University didn’t provide particularly abundant resources to the program and responded by contributing our own time to build that community we needed. We made communal work space, we held social events, we used our faculty connections to other institutions to make a mark at events outside of Drexel, like the international STS and ST policy conference, STGlobal. Student and faculty offices where, for the most part, all along the same hallway and we could so easily just walk a few doors down and ask a question or talk through a problem."
"I very much enjoyed and was thankful for the opportunity to be a part of our class study group that surveyed the residents of the Riverwards section of Philadelphia. I not only had an opportunity to strike up lasting friendships, but was able to interact with those in the community and hear their stories and perceptions of their immediate environment."
"I really miss having our quote board from the student lounge in 3600 Market. When I started my degree, it was great to see all of the funny things people have said/heard throughout their time in the program. It really humanized my colleagues (professors and classmates), and made me want to get to know them better."
"It's hard to choose just one, because they all built on each other. I think the class that most transformed the way I think was Ali Kenner's "Philadelphia in a Changing Climate" course. I took it in my final quarter in the program, just for fun, as it was outside my area of focus. I think this is why it made such an impact for me, and speaks to the strength of the interdisciplinary nature of the STS program at Drexel."
"Being the oldest person in the room (including the professor), and also the only parent, I thought that those things would give me some sort of unique insight. I greatly enjoyed finding out that this was not so."