printer friendly pageSTS 1: The Public Life of Science and Technology (CSRE 1T)
The course focuses on key social, cultural, and values issues raised by contemporary scientific and technological developments. The STS interdisciplinary lens helps students develop and apply skills in three areas: (a) Historical analysis of contemporary global affairs (e.g., spread of technologies; responses to climate change); (b) Bioethical reasoning around health issues (e.g., disease management; privacy rights); and (c) The sociological study of knowledge (e.g., intellectual property, science publishing). A discussion section is required. Discussion sections meet once per week immediately after lecture. International time zone students are encouraged to fill out the following Google Form:
https://tinyurl.com/STS1-Timezone
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Edwards, P. (PI)
;
Martinez, N. (PI)
;
Jain, T. (TA)
;
Kerr, E. (TA)
;
Mondelli, F. (TA)
;
Simpson, A. (TA)
STS 51A: Race in Science (AFRICAAM 51A, CEE 151A, COMM 51A, CSRE 51A, HUMBIO 71A)
What are the roles of race and racism in science, technology, and medicine? 3-course sequence; each quarter can be taken independently. Fall quarter focuses on science. What is the science of race and racism? How does race affect scientific work? Weekly guest speakers will address such issues as the psychology and anthropology of race and racism; how race, language, and culture affect education; race in environmental science and environmental justice; the science of reducing police violence; and the role of race in genomic research. Talks will take a variety of forms, from panel discussions to interviews and lectures. Weekly assignments: read a related article and participate in an online discussion.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 1
Instructors:
Edwards, P. (PI)
STS 51B: Race in Technology (AFRICAAM 51B, BIOE 91B, CEE 151B, COMM 51B, CSRE 51B, HUMBIO 71B)
What are the roles of race and racism in science, technology, and medicine? 3-course sequence; each quarter can be taken independently. Winter quarter focuses on technology. How do race and racism affect the design and social impact of technology, broadly defined? Can new or different technology help to reduce racial bias? Invited speakers will address the role of race in such issues as energy infrastructure, nuclear arms control, algorithmic accountability, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and synthetic biology. Talks will take a variety of forms, ranging from panel discussions to interviews and lectures. Weekly assignments: read a related article and participate in an online discussion.
Terms: Win
| Units: 1
Instructors:
Edwards, P. (PI)
STS 51C: Race in Medicine (AFRICAAM 51C, BIOE 91C, CEE 151C, CSRE 51C, HUMBIO 71C)
What are the roles of race and racism in science, technology, and medicine? 3-course sequence; each quarter can be taken independently. Spring quarter focuses on medicine. How do race and racism affect medical research and medical care? What accounts for health disparities among racial groups? What are the history, ethics, legal, and social issues surrounding racialized medical experiments and treatments? Invited speakers will address these and other issues. Talks will take a variety of forms: conversations, interviews, panels, and others. Weekly assignments: read a related article and participate in an online discussion.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1
Instructors:
Edwards, P. (PI)
STS 123: Making of a Nuclear World: History, Politics, and Culture
Nuclear technology has shaped our world through its various applications (e.g., weapons, energy production, medicine) and accidents and disasters (e.g., Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Fukushima). This course will examine the development of nuclear technology and its consequences to politics and culture at the global, national, regional and local levels from interdisciplinary perspectives. Some of the key questions addressed are: How did different countries and communities experience and respond to the 1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? How did such experiences affect the later development of the technology in different national contexts? How have nuclear tests and disasters change the ways in which risks are understood and managed globally and locally? What kinds of political activism, international arrangements, and cultural tropes and imageries emerged in response to nuclear technology? We explore these questions through key works and recent studies in history, anthropology, sociology, and science and technology studies, as well as through films and literature.
Last offered: Summer 2019
| UG Reqs: WAY-ER, WAY-SI
STS 151: The Future of Information (EDUC 151)
As information has a fascinating history (see
HISTORY 5A), so it possesses a promising if concerning future. Through lecture, demonstration, online modules, and in-class web-work, this course will provide students with advanced strategies in (a) identifying sources and tools for advancing the quest for information; (b) assessing elements of trust, authority, and chicanery in the provision of information; (c) recognizing the economic and legal structures shaping information sources, services, and rights; and (d) discovering who is behind what information. With a focus on the info-worlds of journalism, learning, governance, students will acquire and practice the forensic skills and web savvy of fact-checkers and investigative reporters, activists and scholars. Here's a class set to determine the future course of information. The class will be a hybrid course, combining in-class delivery of materials, with a number of classes involving students taking online modules (at their convenience) that are designed to teach information literacy skills.
Last offered: Autumn 2018
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
STS 166: Knowledge and Information Infrastructures (HISTORY 242D)
This course introduces historical, theoretical, and comparative perspectives on knowledge and information systems from the medieval world to the present. Cases include libraries, meteorology, climate science, the Internet, the World Wide Web, and social science data systems. It theorizes how infrastructures form, how they change, and how they shape (and are shaped by) social systems. The course ends with challenges to modern knowledge infrastructures, such as crowdsourcing, citizen science, and alternative and bogus knowledge.
Last offered: Winter 2018
STS 177: The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating: Technology, History, and Justice
This course will examine our everyday food practices as a site of politics where culture, technology, history, and issues of ethics and justice intersect. Through a survey of academic, journalistic, and artistic works on food and eating, the course will explore a set of key analytical frameworks and conceptual tools in STS, such as the politics of technology, classification and identity, the reproduction of inequality, and nature/culture boundaries. The topics covered include: the industrialization of agriculture; globalization and local foodways; food justice and ethics; new technologies in food practices (e.g., biotechnology, delivery apps); health and diet trends; and food and global challenges (e.g., climate change, COVID-19). Through food as a window, the course intends to achieve two broad intellectual goals. First, students will explore various theoretical and methodological approaches in STS and related fields (e.g., anthropology, history, sociology). Second, student will develop a set of basic skills and tools for their own critical thinking and empirical research, and design and conduct independent research on a topic related to food.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
Instructors:
Sato, K. (PI)
STS 190: Environment and Society
Humans have long shaped and reshaped the natural world with science and technology. Once a menacing presence to conquer or an infinite reserve for resources, nature is now understood to require constant protection from damage and loss. Global challenges such as climate change have been further forcing us to reconsider our fundamental ideas not only about nature, but also about ethics and justice. This course will examine humanity's varied relationships with the environment, with a focus on the role of science and technology. Topics include: industrialization and modernism, diversity in environmentalism, environmental justice and inequalities, climate politics, global-local tensions, nuclear technology, the Anthropocene debate, and COVID-19 and the environment. Students will explore theoretical and methodological approaches in STS and related fields in social sciences, and conduct original research that engages with environmental issues of their choice. Enrollment limited to juniors and seniors, or with consent of instructor.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
Instructors:
Sato, K. (PI)
STS 191: Doing STS: Introduction to Research
This seminar introduces key analytical approaches and methodologies in STS, as well as basic tools for designing and conducting original research in STS. Students survey a series of influential studies in STS; identify productive questions of their own interest; and explore how to pursue them through strong research design. By completing smaller writing assignments throughout the quarter, you will produce a fully developed research proposal as final assignment. This final proposal can serve as an honors prospectus for students who seek to participate in the STS honors program. First week attendance mandatory.
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