In this course we will survey key theories, concepts, and intellectual controversies that have animated the field of Science and Technology Studies over the last 35 years. Beginning with a brief introduction to early scholarship and the field’s historic landmarks, we will quickly move on to lab studies, the science wars, feminist and postcolonial interventions, technopolitics, and more recent work in biomedicalization, multispecies relations and participatory design. This progression will allow us to investigate how the field developed, worked through intellectual divisions (or not), and is engaged by multiple disciplines. Our authors will include Ludwig Fleck, Donna Haraway, Bruno Latour, Sandra Harding, Sheila Jasanoff, David Hess, Langdon Winner, Susan Leigh Starr, among many others. In addition to weekly reading responses, inclass discussion, and concept papers that allow students to query assigned texts, each class will include a salon segment. The salon component of class will allow for discussion of current events, material objects, and other case studies in relation to the theories we are reading about. The term will end with a take-home final exam.
Ali Kenner, "SCTS 504: Science, Technology & Society Theories", contributed by Ali Kenner and Eliza Nobles, STS Infrastructures, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 21 August 2018, accessed 27 December 2024. https://stsinfrastructures.org/content/scts-504-science-technology-society-theories
Critical Commentary
In this course we will survey key theories, concepts, and intellectual controversies that have animated the field of Science and Technology Studies over the last 35 years. Beginning with a brief introduction to early scholarship and the field’s historic landmarks, we will quickly move on to lab studies, the science wars, feminist and postcolonial interventions, technopolitics, and more recent work in biomedicalization, multispecies relations and participatory design. This progression will allow us to investigate how the field developed, worked through intellectual divisions (or not), and is engaged by multiple disciplines. Our authors will include Ludwig Fleck, Donna Haraway, Bruno Latour, Sandra Harding, Sheila Jasanoff, David Hess, Langdon Winner, Susan Leigh Starr, among many others. In addition to weekly reading responses, inclass discussion, and concept papers that allow students to query assigned texts, each class will include a salon segment. The salon component of class will allow for discussion of current events, material objects, and other case studies in relation to the theories we are reading about. The term will end with a take-home final exam.