Science, Technology and Society

Secondary PhD Field Science, Technology and Society

GSAS offers a Secondary Field in Science, Technology, and Society (STS) to candidates for the PhD, DDes, and SJD degrees. STS offers social scientists, humanists, and professional school students an opportunity to enrich their research by examining how developments in science and technology intersect with their primary areas of concern. STS also offers doctoral students in science, engineering, and design the opportunity to explore in a rigorous way the social contexts that condition their work.

STS is an interdisciplinary field dedicated to the deeper understanding of the institutions and practices of scientists, engineers, physicians, architects, planners, and other technical professionals. Incorporating contemporary as well as historical studies, STS explores in the broadest terms the relations between science, technology, and other elements of society. STS employs a variety of methods from the social sciences and humanities to examine how science and technology both influence and are influenced by their social, cultural, and material contexts. Of particular interest is the role of technologies and technological systems in shaping the purposes, possibilities, and meanings of human lives, from the creation of novel biological organisms to the redesign of urban infrastructures and the management of global risks to health, food, and the environment.

Requirements

a. Advice and Contact

Students should, if possible, select an adviser from the list of Faculty Affiliates of the STS Secondary Field. In the absence of an appropriate Faculty Affiliate in their Department or School, students may work with their own doctoral supervisor. Courses required for the Secondary Field should be selected in consultation with the student’s STS adviser. Further information is available through the Kennedy School STS Program.

b. Course Requirement

Students will be required to take four half-courses, distributed as follows:

(i) One framing course from Annex 1, Section (i). These are general courses offering an overview of STS theories and methods, as well as a broad orientation to the field.

(ii) One graduate level topical course from Annex 1, Section (ii). These are complementary courses that deepen students’ acquaintance with STS analytic approaches as applied to different domains of science, technology, and medicine.

(iii) Two half-courses of related interest from Annex 1, Section (iii-v).

A full list of STS courses may be found at http://www.hks.harvard.edu/sts/courses/.

C. Other Requirements

In the course of their PhD studies at Harvard, students must present a talk in the STS Circle sponsored by the Kennedy School’s STS Program with support from GSAS. This talk should demonstrate the student’s capacity to present an original analysis of a problem at the intersection of science, technology and society. Proposals to present in the STS Circle should be accompanied by a note of approval from the student’s STS adviser.

STS Courses for Secondary Field

(i) Framing Courses (offering overview of field)

Anthropology 2660. The Anthropology of Knowledge (FAS)
Anthropology 2735. The Anthropology of Science: Methods and Theory (FAS)
IGA-313. Science, Power and Politics (HKS, offered every year)
History of Science 255. Sociology of Scientific Knowledge (FAS)
Sociology 194. Knowledge Production & Evaluation in the Social Sciences (FAS)

(ii) Topical Courses (deepening specialist knowledge in field)

Anthropology 1655. Politics of Nature
Anthropology 2750. Local Biologies: Perspectives on the Interaction Between Culture and Biology
Economics 2099. Topics in the History of Economic Thought
Economics 2888r. Economics of Science and Engineering Workshop
GSD 4130. Scale and Modernity: City, Object, Subject
GSD 4355. Architecture, Science and Technology 18th-20th Centuries
History of Science 243. The Making of Modern Medicine: Seminar
History of Science 288. History and Philosophy of Technology: Proseminar
IGA 205. Science, Technology, Innovation, and Public Policy (offered every year)
IGA 317. Experts Politics and Public Policy (offered alternate years)
IGA 325. Bioethics, Law and the Life Sciences (offered alternate years)
Sociology 260. The Sociology of Global Health

(iii) Related Courses (FAS)

Anthropology 1665. Humans and Animals
Anthropology 1760. Nationalism and Bureaucracy
Anthropology 1850. Ethnography as Practice and Genre
Anthropology 2635. Image/Media/Publics: Seminar
Anthropology 2645. Reconfiguring Regimes: Power, Law and Governance
Anthropology 2655. The Normal and the Abnormal
Anthropology 2660. The Anthropology of Knowledge
Anthropology 2740. Culture and Mental Illness
Anthropology 2750. Local Biologies: Perspectives on the Interaction Between Culture and Biology
Anthropology 2840. Ethnography and Personhood
Anthropology 2876. New Ethnographies in the Anthropology of Social Experience
Anthropology 2985. Sociocultural Space and Time: Seminar
Comparative Literature 273. Approaches to Modernity: The Metropolis
Microbiology 213. Social Issues in Biology
Science B-29. Evolution of Human Nature
Economics 1480. Moral Perspectives on Economic Growth
Economics 1641 : Industrial Organization: Theory and Practice
Engineering Sciences 109. Science Fictions
Engineering Sciences 139. Innovation in Science and Engineering: Conference Course
Engineering Sciences 147. Idea Translation: Effecting Change through the Arts and Sciences
Engineering Sciences 167. Environmental Assessment
Engineering Sciences 201. Decision Theory
Engineering Sciences 207. Communicating Science
English 276. Space, Place, and Imagination: Graduate Seminar
Environmental Science and Public Policy 78. Environmental Politics
Environmental Science and Public Policy 10. Public Policy for Environmental Science
Government 1093. Ethics, Biotechnology, and the Future of Human Nature
Government 1521. Bureaucratic Politics: Military, Government, Economic and Social Organizations
Government 2034. Ethics and Economics
Government 2090. Ethics and Biotechnology
Government 2332. The Political Economy of Government Regulation
History 1472. Epistemic Regimes: Conference Course
History of Science 90c. Science, Culture, and the Natural World
History of Science 90m. Medicine and Deviance

History of Science 120. History and Philosophy of Modern Physics

History of Science 130. Biology and Society
History of Science 132. Environmental History
History of Science 140. Sickness and Healing in America
History of Science 149. Medical Technologies in Historical Perspective
History of Science 152. Filming Science
History of Science 160. Intellectual Property in Science
History of Science 182. Science, Modernity and Discontent
History of Science 254. Probability in Science and Society
History of Science 287. Heidegger and Technology: Seminar
Literature 147. Robots: Imagination, Fiction and Reality
Literature 116. Literature and Science
Philosophy 149z. Philosophy of Science
Philosophy 152. Philosophy of Biology
Psychology 980v. The Insanity Defense
Psychology 1205. Brain, Drugs, and Society: From Neurobiology to Ethics
Psychology 1506. Social Neuroscience
Psychology 1509. Law and Mind
Psychology 2552. Moral Cognition
Psychology 2751. Free Will, Responsibility, and Law
Religion 1850. The Protocol of the Gaze: Seminar
Sociology 154. Culture, Power, and Inequality
Sociology 162. Medical Sociology
Sociology 190. Life and Death in the US: Medicine and Disease in Social Context
Sociology 194. Knowledge Production & Evaluation in the Social Sciences: Conference Course

(iv) Related Courses (HKS and GSD)

API-302: Analytic Frameworks for Policy
DPI-318: Innovations in Democratic Governance: Solving Public Problems
IGA-104: Managing a Living Planet: How Interactions Among Population, Health, Resources & Environment Shape the Stage of Global Affairs
GSD 3305: The Architectural Imaginary: Experimental Architecture of the 1970s
GSD 4323: Constructing Vision: History and Theory of Optical Applications in Design
GSD 4324: Green Modern: A History of Environmental Consciousness in Modern
GSD 4357: Alternative Constructions
Architecture and Planning from Patrick Geddes to the Present
GSD 5101: Histories and Theories of Urban Interventions

(v) Related Courses (Other Schools)

HBS 4420. PSY 2650. Behavioral Approaches to Decision Making and Negotiation
Managing International Trade and Investment
Business, Government, and the International Economy
HDS 2394. Christian Ethics, Persuasion, and Power II
HDS 3256. The Shock of the New
LAW-39371A. International Reproductive/Sexual Health Rights: Reading Group
LAW-33795A. Citizenship and Globalization
LAW-33525A. Contemporary Issues in Law and Politics: Reading Group
LAW-33800A. Copyright
LAW-33800A. Copyright and Other Intellectual Property
LAW-92464A. Critical Theory: Seminar
LAW-31451A. Ethics and Health Policy
LAW-36000A. Evidence
LAW-93040A. Evidence, Reason and Law: Seminar
LAW-96715A. Genetics and Reproductive Technology: Legal and Ethical Issues: Seminar
LAW-94530A. Health Law Policy Workshop
LAW-96440-A. Law and Psychology - The Emotions: Seminar
LAW-97351A. Moral Order and the Irrational: Readings in Nietzsche and Freud: Seminar
LAW-44600A. Psychiatry and the Law
LAW-45560A. Risk
LAW-46310A. Sexual Orientation and the Law
LAW-98841A. Stem Cell Research: Seminar
HT930: Social Studies in Bioscience and Biotechnology
MA902.0: Narrative Ethics: Literary Texts and Moral Issues in Medicine
MG722.0: Social Issues in Biology
SM715.0: Seminar in Global Health Equity
SM750.0: Introduction to Social Medicine
HPM213. Public Health Law
ID250. Ethical Basis of the Practice of Public Health
PIH283. Pharmaceutical Policy and Global Health
PIH293 Individual and Social Responsibility for Health
SHH215 History, Politics & Public Health: Theories of Disease Distribution