MA
Our MA program is a 1-year program which introduces students to graduate study in STS. It is open to qualified students who may or may not plan to pursue further graduate study after completing the MA. Consequently, our MA is a valuable complement for those interested in working in various professional fields such as policymaking, jurisprudence, journalism, healthcare, and education.
All MA students are required to develop a plan of study in which they provide an integrated, coherent rationale for their studies as it relates to their coursework and Major Research Paper. A preliminary plan must be discussed with their Advisor/Supervisor at the beginning of the first term, with the end of the first term as the deadline for a final plan approved by the Graduate Program Director.
Students are required to take 18-Credits in graduate courses consistent with their plan of study.
Courses
- Students are required to take:
→ 3-Credit Introduction Science and Technology Studies in the Fall term.
→ One 3-Credit Research Cluster course, running over Fall and Winter terms (see below).
→ 0-Credit Colloquium course, running over Fall and Winter terms.
→ At least one 3-Credit STS elective course. - Students have the option to take:
→ One other 3-Credit Research Cluster course, running over Fall and Winter terms.
→ One 3-Credit Directed Reading course.
→ One 3-Credit course offered by another graduate program relevant to their studies and in consultation with the Graduate Program Director.
Students are required to demonstrate their grasp of a topic within STS in a Major Research Paper (MRP). The MRP may be related to the work that students have done in one or more of their courses, but it must demonstrate independent research. It should be completed by the end of the Summer Term of the first year of study. The MRP is formally evaluated and graded by the Supervisor and Second Reader agreed with the student, and in consultation with the Graduate Program Director. The Supervisor must be a member of the Science and Technology Studies graduate program.
Full-time master’s candidates are expected to complete their degree requirements within one-year (3 terms). Students taking the degree on a part-time basis are normally expected to complete the program within 2 years (six terms).
1. Technoscientific Injustices (.pdf)
Kean Birch, Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change
Denielle Elliott, Departments of Anthropology & Social Science
Anna Agathangelou, Department of Politics
The Cluster is focused on three thematically linked topics, one for each year, all relating to technoscientific injustices. First, an examination of the configuring of technoscientific capitalism, specifically as this relates to the social, political, and economic implications of innovation-finance logics that drive the development of technoscience of economic exploitation; for example, the digital technologies underpinning Big Tech’s dominance and their configuration by specific forms of extraction (e.g. of our data, of our attention, etc.). A core question to consider is how STS fits within this framework, and what role it has and how it is sidelined in these arenas. Second, the identification and exploration of the politics of Indigenous science, settler colonialisms, and technoscience across settler nations (e.g. Australia, Canada, USA, Palestine, and Aotearoa/New Zealand). While a growing body of research has helped to underscore the many roles technoscience plays in longstanding entanglements between citizenship, knowledge claims, land, and nationhood, much of this scholarship seems to define the social roles of science and scientists in implicitly settler terms. We will consider how STS might interrogate its own assumptions about settler science and Indigenous knowledge. Third, engagement with decolonization, of society, of university, and of STS itself. Many struggles and movements, ranging from Indigenous movements at Standing Rock to student movements in South Africa are calling for decolonization. These decolonial struggles are emerging as pivotal acts in the wider struggle to end imperialism, capitalism and white supremacy. The surge of Black Lives Matter has also intensified these calls for decolonization in Europe and the Global North. But what is “decolonization?” These examples inquire into the colonial and enslaving scientific knowledge productions and STS as a field, ethos, and practice. What do such struggles imply about the possibilities for the world’s remaking?
2. Bodies: Organic, Inorganic, Technological (.pdf)
Ganaele Langlois, Department of Communication Studies
Hélène Mialet, Department of Science and Technology Studies
Joan Steigerwald, Department of Humanities
The Cluster is organized around the following three interconnected areas. First, cosmotechnics and bodily assemblages to challenge the tripartite system of colonialism, modernity and capitalism as it has grown to assert a monotechnologism aiming on absolute control and domination over organic and inorganic bodies. It does so by focusing on forgotten, ignored and discarded technologies, with particular attention to indigenous and women’s technologies. It invites participants to explore the cosmotechnics (Yuk Hui) – the articulation of technical processes with cosmological and ethical values, which transform technologies into bodily and heavenly communication – that emerge from these alternatives and potentials. Second, bodies in translation as a way to destabilize the boundaries between humans and non-humans, nature and society, subject and object. We will explore the specificity and the role of the human in these assemblages composed of humans and non-humans (whether networks in the case of Latour or cyborgs in the case of Haraway). We will explore how the flesh and blood body is experienced and constituted through, with, and by others, machines, humans and animals, and taking into account the importance of senses, sensations, and feelings, notions of attachment, and sensibility. Finally, experimental and technological practices and reasonings remaking bodies. The instrumentalization of inquiries into organic and inorganic bodies is often cast as producing an objectification of the world for the use and the corresponding enframing of human subjects. Yet technological innovations can also act as medial tools and techniques for expanding our engagements with the world and for embedding human senses, cognition and imagination in extended assemblages of organic, inorganic and technological bodies. The epistemic, ethical and cultural implications of the medial relationships between different kinds of bodies will be explored through various cases studies and theoretical approaches.
PhD
Our PhD program is a multi-year program of advanced graduate study whose purpose is the training of students to become highly qualified scholars in Science and Technology Studies (STS). The program culminates in the preparation of a dissertation that makes an original contribution to scholarship in STS.
All PhD applicants are required to identify and contact a Supervisor in the program before applying. Once in the program, PhD students develop a plan of study in which they provide an integrated, coherent rationale for their studies as they relate to their course work, competencies examination, and dissertation. Candidates should discuss their plans with Supervisors and the Graduate Program Director at the beginning of their first term, with the end of the year as the deadline for finalizing the plan. Both the student’s Supervisor and the Graduate Program Director must approve the plan of study.
Supervisors are responsible for ensuring that students develop an integrated, coherent plan of study and complete their degree requirements in a timely fashion and for providing them with general academic advice (with regard, for instance, to preparing for their competencies examination; applying for scholarships and teaching fellowships; writing their dissertation; attending and contributing to scholarly conferences; and learning how to prepare scholarly papers for publication in learned journals; and undertaking a job search which may require the preparation of a detailed teaching dossier).
Students are required to take 15 Credits in courses consistent with their plan of study, as approved by their Supervisor and the Graduate Program Director.
Courses
- Students are required to take:
→ 3-Credit STS 6001 Advanced Introduction to Science and Technology Studies in their first year.
→ One 3-Credit Research Cluster course, running over Fall and Winter terms (see below) (PhD1).
→ One 0-Credit Research Cluster course, running over Fall and Winter terms (see below) (PhD2).
→ 0-Credit Colloquium course, running over Fall and Winter terms (PhD1 & PhD2).
→ At least one 3-Credit STS elective course. - Students have the option to take:
→ One other 3-Credit Research Cluster course, running over Fall and Winter terms.
→ One 3-Credit Directed Reading course.
→ One 3-Credit course offered by another graduate program relevant to their studies and in consultation with the Graduate Program Director.
Students are required to complete a Competencies Exam by the end of their second year (Term 6). The Competencies Exam is meant to provide students with learning opportunities for several potential career pathways. Since the vast majority of PhD students (80%) do not end up with tenure-track jobs, they need to develop a range of ‘Competencies’ to ensure their future career success. The Competencies Exam requirements are designed to do this and to assess ‘competence’ in a career-related area: for example, theory and method or teaching (academia); stakeholder engagement (policy, third sector); innovation strategy (business); campaigning (activism); public engagement (science communication); etc. The examination is based on three reading lists, and has both an oral and written component.
The Competencies Exam comprises 3 Lists, which can include academic and non-academic literature, and one written output related to the specific career-related competence area decided upon by the student in negotiation with their supervisor: for example, this output might be a literature review, teaching syllabus, organizational internship and report, policy report, activist campaign proposal, documentary film, art installation, public engagement project proposal, etc. Exam lists should build on science and technology studies literature (STS) and be grounded in the ‘York STS School’ (i.e., drawing on literature of York faculty alongside broader STS literature).
The first List tests a student’s general knowledge of STS as a discipline; the second List tests their specialized knowledge of a specific topic or research area in STS; and the third List tests their application of STS to an academic or non-academic career pathway and can include active research engagement outside the University (e.g. internship, community research, social activism, etc.). Students create the second and third Lists themselves, with support from their Exam committee, but the first list has to be selected from a longlist of readings set by the program. Students produce a written ‘output’ of 6000 words that draws on all three Lists, but usually focuses on their final List and potential career pathway; for example, it could be an essay, course outline, policy report, internship report, community research project, documentary film, art installation, etc. Students are then examined in a 3-hour presentation and discussion of their three Lists by a Competencies Examination Committee comprising three faculty members, two of whom must be from the STS graduate program. The Examination Committee will usually be composed of the student’s Supervisor; another member of the STS Graduate Program; and either another STS faculty member or a member of the Faculty of Graduate Studies from another graduate program. The Examination Committee is appointed and approved by the Graduate Program Director, in consultation with the student and the Supervisor.
The objectives of the Competencies Exam are threefold: first, to prepare and qualify students to teach undergraduate courses in the areas examined; second, to equip students with the initial specialized knowledge they need to undertake research on their doctoral dissertation; and third, to prepare students for different potential career pathways. Students are expected to demonstrate competency within their designated areas of the examination. This is assessed through an evaluation of a student’s written output and their responses to questions during the oral examination that address the material on the reading lists. Outcomes of the Exam include: Qualified; Qualified with Condition (decided by the committee); and Not Qualified.
In the case of a Not Qualified outcome, students are permitted to re-sit the examination only once, and the re-examination is to take place within six months of the date of the first examination. A second failure requires withdrawal from the program.
Timing and Scheduling
Exam Lists must be approved by the end of term 4. The written and oral examinations must be held no later than the end of term 6. Please note that students cannot write their Competencies Exams until all coursework is completed.
Format and Structure
The STS Competencies Exam involves completion of the following four components:
- Three Exam Lists;
- Short summary statement for each list (maximum of 250 words);
- An output;
- For instance, one 6000 word essay, lecture, course outline, policy report, internship report, community research project, etc.; or
- A documentary film, art installation, museum exhibit, software, etc., and a 3000-word written statement;
- An oral exam.
The STS Graduate Program does not have pre-set oral examination questions. The oral examination is no longer than 3 hours long. Questions can be related to the output generated or any of the readings on the three Exam Lists. Students are permitted to give a brief (10 - 15 minutes) presentation prior to the oral exam if they choose.
The Competencies Exam process works at the program level (not FGS) so only the Competencies Examination Committee and GPD are involved. Students and their committees can negotiate the topics, timeframes, frequency of meetings and other details to suit them, within the parameters of the program guidelines.
The Competencies Examination involves the following steps:
- Selecting a Competencies Examination Committee
In consultation with the supervisor and/or Graduate Program Director, the student selects a Competencies Examination Committee of three faculty members (one supervisor and two committee members). All faculty members must be appointed to FGS and at least two must be members of the STS Graduate Program. Once the Committee is selected, the student completes the competencies committee approval form. Typically (but not necessarily), members of the Competencies Examination Committee will also be members of the dissertation supervisory committee. - Preparing the Exam Lists
In consultation with the committee, the student selects the topics and readings on the three Exam Lists.
- The first General List should consist of 50 books or the equivalent.
- List two and three should consist of 25 books or the equivalent.
[Three articles or book chapters are considered equivalent to one book.]
The Competencies Examination Committee will meet with the student at least once to formulate, finalize and approve the lists.
Submitting Competency Exam Lists (Comps Exam Process)
STEP 1: By end of term 4, the student sends GPA and GPD the following (in one email):
- 3 Exam Lists
- 3 committee member approvals of these lists
- A target date before the end of term 6
- Student negotiates with committee what final output is going to be
This would normally take place in term 4.
STEP 2: GPD approves lists and sends approval email to Competencies Examination Committee and student.
STEP 3: Two months in advance of target date for exam, Supervisor confirms with student, GPD and GPA that all is according to plan and confirms the date and time of the Exam.
STEP 4: Supervisor confirms whether Exam will be online or in-person. If online, the Supervisor sets up a zoom meeting for the Exam. If in-person, the Supervisor requests a room and indicates if any equipment(s) is required for the Exam.
GPA books the room and informs student, Supervisor, and committee of the Exam location.
STEP 5: Output (essay or otherwise) is due to the committee two weeks before the oral examination date.
STEP 6: After the Exam, the completed and signed Competency Examination Form (.doc) is forwarded to the GPA and GPD.
STEP 7: GPA puts the competencies examination form in the student file and records all required Exam information in the student’s records.
Students working in an area where the language is other than English must demonstrate to the members of their Dissertation Supervisory Committee that they have the ability to read primary sources and secondary literature in that language.
Students must complete a dissertation that makes an original contribution to the STS scholarship. The dissertation can take three forms according to Faculty of Graduate Studies regulations: first, a 60,000-100,000 word research monograph; second, three or four refereed and published journal articles and/or book chapters (‘by manuscript’), as well as a 20,000-word Introduction and Conclusion that ties the published work together in a coherent whole; and third, a multi-modal project comprising an alternative output (e.g. documentary film, art installation, organizational project, etc.) and 30,000-word report explaining its relevance to theories, concepts, and research in STS.
Full-time students are expected to complete their studies within five academic years of admission (15 terms).
1. Technoscientific Injustices (.pdf)
Kean Birch, Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change
Denielle Elliott, Departments of Anthropology & Social Science
Anna Agathangelou, Department of Politics
The Cluster is focused on three thematically linked topics, one for each year, all relating to technoscientific injustices. First, an examination of the configuring of technoscientific capitalism, specifically as this relates to the social, political, and economic implications of innovation-finance logics that drive the development of technoscience of economic exploitation; for example, the digital technologies underpinning Big Tech’s dominance and their configuration by specific forms of extraction (e.g. of our data, of our attention, etc.). A core question to consider is how STS fits within this framework, and what role it has and how it is sidelined in these arenas. Second, the identification and exploration of the politics of Indigenous science, settler colonialisms, and technoscience across settler nations (e.g. Australia, Canada, USA, Palestine, and Aotearoa/New Zealand). While a growing body of research has helped to underscore the many roles technoscience plays in longstanding entanglements between citizenship, knowledge claims, land, and nationhood, much of this scholarship seems to define the social roles of science and scientists in implicitly settler terms. We will consider how STS might interrogate its own assumptions about settler science and Indigenous knowledge. Third, engagement with decolonization, of society, of university, and of STS itself. Many struggles and movements, ranging from Indigenous movements at Standing Rock to student movements in South Africa are calling for decolonization. These decolonial struggles are emerging as pivotal acts in the wider struggle to end imperialism, capitalism and white supremacy. The surge of Black Lives Matter has also intensified these calls for decolonization in Europe and the Global North. But what is “decolonization?” These examples inquire into the colonial and enslaving scientific knowledge productions and STS as a field, ethos, and practice. What do such struggles imply about the possibilities for the world’s remaking?
2. Bodies: Organic, Inorganic, Technological (.pdf)
Ganaele Langlois, Department of Communication Studies
Hélène Mialet, Department of Science and Technology Studies
Joan Steigerwald, Department of Humanities
The Cluster is organized around the following three interconnected areas. First, cosmotechnics and bodily assemblages to challenge the tripartite system of colonialism, modernity and capitalism as it has grown to assert a monotechnologism aiming on absolute control and domination over organic and inorganic bodies. It does so by focusing on forgotten, ignored and discarded technologies, with particular attention to indigenous and women’s technologies. It invites participants to explore the cosmotechnics (Yuk Hui) – the articulation of technical processes with cosmological and ethical values, which transform technologies into bodily and heavenly communication – that emerge from these alternatives and potentials. Second, bodies in translation as a way to destabilize the boundaries between humans and non-humans, nature and society, subject and object. We will explore the specificity and the role of the human in these assemblages composed of humans and non-humans (whether networks in the case of Latour or cyborgs in the case of Haraway). We will explore how the flesh and blood body is experienced and constituted through, with, and by others, machines, humans and animals, and taking into account the importance of senses, sensations, and feelings, notions of attachment, and sensibility. Finally, experimental and technological practices and reasonings remaking bodies. The instrumentalization of inquiries into organic and inorganic bodies is often cast as producing an objectification of the world for the use and the corresponding enframing of human subjects. Yet technological innovations can also act as medial tools and techniques for expanding our engagements with the world and for embedding human senses, cognition and imagination in extended assemblages of organic, inorganic and technological bodies. The epistemic, ethical and cultural implications of the medial relationships between different kinds of bodies will be explored through various cases studies and theoretical approaches.
Learn More
The Graduate Program in Science & Technology Studies at York is an exciting environment to pursue innovative, socially engaging, career-ready education. Contact our Graduate Program Assistant to learn more.