Science, Technology & Society
(IAT803) 2018 - Ongoing

Science, Technology & Culture introduces SIAT graduate students to core values of interdisciplinary scholarship through engagement with history, theory and practice in the study of science, technology, society and culture. This course provides a foundational theoretical and historical engagement with literature reflecting interdisciplinary approaches to technology design and use in contemporary society. The course is a reading-intensive, extended seminar style investigation of theoretical, historical, and fictional references in science and technology studies and broader societal implications of technologies. It provides each cohort with critical thinking, reading, and writing foundation for future research and design practices. The course is designed to complement core SIAT courses in Research Design and Computation.

The course will address questions such as: How have people been thinking and writing critically about technology, today and in the past? What counts as knowledge in the Arts and Humanities? What counts as knowledge in the Sciences? How can scholars trace their ideas back to those that preceded them in various knowledge traditions? What are some of the major assumptions that underlie how knowledge is produced in diverse disciplines? Where do knowledge traditions merge and converge, and where/how are they in tension with one another? What are the broader implications of scientific and technological practices for society––for example, our understandings of concepts of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, conflict, history and the natural environment? What are some of the current implications for interdisciplinary scholars, makers, and designers in today’s societal contexts?

Students will engage with theory and case studies of how technology and society are intertwined and its implications for the design and use of technology in today’s society. They will be able to apply what they have learned in this course to their chosen field of study. They will develop skills necessary for graduate research and writing.

I helped to introduce this course as core curriculum in the SIAT program, as a part of a major curricular overhaul aimed at addressing and representing interdisciplinary and critical approaches to the study of Interactive Arts and Technology. The course, which draws heavily from Science and Technology studies, is a required course for all master’s students in our programs and an option (choose 2 of 3 core courses) for PhD Students. The course brings an important critical and historically informed lens to the work of graduate students at SIAT.

The course is being taught by a number of SIAT faculty members, who each add to and shape the course in their own way, enriching it with each offering.