Courses

Introduces students to major texts and theoretical strands of science and technology studies through a combination of empirical case studies and theoretical reflections on themes central to science and technology studies scholarship, such as epistemology, objectivity, expertise and materiality.

Permission of Program Director required

Permission of Program Director required

Permission of Program Director required

Introduces students to major texts and theoretical strands of science and technology studies through a combination of empirical case studies and theoretical reflections on themes central to science and technology studies scholarship, such as epistemology, objectivity, expertise and materiality.

In this course we read foundational texts in anthropology of science, exploring a range of sites, methods, and theories to equip students for ethnographic research within technoscientific cultures. Central themes include science as practice and culture; biopolitics; and technoscientific imaginaries.

The Colloquium provides students with a regular forum to engage with Program members as an intellectual community. It involves a range of activities designed to stimulate a broad disciplinary engagement with science and technology studies, including research talks by invited external speakers, Program faculty and graduate students, and professional development workshops. It normally runs every two weeks over two terms.

Research Clusters foster theoretical and methodological innovation on a specific topic in Science and Technology Studies (STS). They involve biweekly meetings of faculty and graduate students who engage in a range of activities and they embed broader program requirements in an experimental, flexible, adaptable, and interdisciplinary intellectual space.

In this course we explore ethnography as a creative practice, as invention, and as improvisation. This seminar is offered as a writing collective, where we read each other's writings, practice how to read attentively, and give productive feedback. In so doing, we also explore the relationship between writing, fieldwork, and fieldnotes, and consider the ethics of ethnographic writing.

In this course we explore ethnography as a creative practice, as invention, and as improvisation. This seminar is offered as a writing collective, where we read each other's writings, practice how to read attentively, and give productive feedback. In so doing, we also explore the relationship between writing, fieldwork, and fieldnotes, and consider the ethics of ethnographic writing.

An examination of the different ways in which epidemics are defined, deployed, promoted or criticized as objects of scientific knowledge. A diverse set of examples illustrates the various ways in which epidemics serve to reconfigure biomedical knowledge.

This course provides students with an advanced and critical introduction to the social study of technology and technological innovation. The course explores how technologies are shaped by and come to social, cultural, political, and economic institutions, structures, and processes. The course is organized around a series of theoretical debates and empirical case studies of contemporary technological developments (e.g. Big Data, biotechnology, nanotechnology, cleantech, etc.).

This course provides students with an advanced and critical introduction to the social study of technology and technological innovation. The course explores how technologies are shaped by and come to social, cultural, political, and economic institutions, structures, and processes. The course is organized around a series of theoretical debates and empirical case studies of contemporary technological developments (e.g. Big Data, biotechnology, nanotechnology, cleantech, etc.).

This course examines issues of technological design in computer accessibility and computational forms of assistive technology (hardware and/or software). Students learn to critically reflect on the hidden assumptions, ideologies and values underlying the design of these technologies, and to analyse and to design them.