What is STS? | STS Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshop

STS is interdisciplinary. We welcome and encourage graduate students, staff, and faculty of all fields to attend our events. Many of the core members of our group are working toward the Graduate Certificate in STS, or have interests in the study of science and technology, giving us a shared vocabulary and set of methods on which to draw. Newcomers to the field are welcome at all of our events; we seek to make STS as accessible and comprehensible as possible.

What sort of things does STS address? Science and Technology Studies deals with issues of scientific authority, credibility, and specialization; the production of expertise and knowledge; the embedding of values into technical or scientific processes; technological mediation; empirical techniques and objectivity in scientific practice; the construction of taxonomies, standards, and quantitative methods; the politics of data collection; and other material and social processes that intertwine in the world. Critical questions asked by STS have value to disciplines such as history, information science, sociology, economics, anthropology, literature, psychology, environmental studies, biology, philosophy, architecture, and of course engineering and the “hard” sciences. Indeed, students from of the science and engineering disciplines are especially encouraged to join us in expanding our understanding of contemporary issues in science and technology.

What to know more about STS?

Check out these STS-related journals and forums:

Isis Indexes articles, books, and dissertations in the history of science. Each issue begins with topical articles providing in-depth coverage of leading issues in the history of science. Coverage is from 1913-present.

Bulletin of Science, Technology, & Society A peer-reviewed, bi-monthly journal that provides a means of communication within as wide of a spectrum of the STS community as possible, including faculty and students from sciences, engineering, the humanities, and social science.

East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal Sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal (EASTS) aims to bring together East Asian and Western scholars from the fields of science, technology, and society (STS). Examining issues such as human embryonic stem-cell research, family and reproductive technologies, and the globalization of Chinese medicine, the journal publishes research on how society and culture in East Asia interact with science, technology, and medicine. EASTS serves as a gathering place to facilitate the growing efforts of STS networks from Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, North America, and Europe to foster an internationally open and inclusive community. The journal is composed of research articles, research notes, critical reviews, and book reviews.

Engaging Science, Technology, and Society Science and technology infuse the world in which we live, from the nature of healthcare and environmental policy to labor-management relationships in workplaces and the organization of political campaigns and political candidates’ platforms. The centrality of science and technology in social life means there is a vital space for scholars of science, technology, and society to intervene in meaningful ways in discussions of the most crucial issues of the day. Engaging Science, Technology, and Society is intended as a vibrant, double-blind peer-reviewed venue for these conversations.

H-Net: Science, Medicine, and Technology Focused on history, H-Sci-Med-Tech offers the ability for scholars around the world to upload a variety of different types of materials from article notes to conference proceedings, and creates a network that allows discussion. The focus of the network includes a blending of the humanities and social sciences with areas of science, medicine, and technology with no limitation in terms of time period or geographic location.