The Program in Science, Technology, and Society (STS) focuses on the ways in which scientific, technological, and social factors interact to shape modern life. The program brings together humanists, social scientists, engineers, and natural scientists, all committed to transcending the boundaries of their disciplines in a joint search for new insights and new ways of reaching science and engineering students. The goal of the program is to set up a forum to explore the relationship between what scientists and engineers do and the constraints, needs, and responses of society.
Located in a major university where most people study science and engineering, STS is dedicated to understanding the context of science and engineering.
Engineering and science students are increasingly seeking to understand the social and historical contexts in which they will work and the social consequences of what they will do in their professional careers. STS subjects help them think realistically and creatively about the intellectual, moral, political, and social issues raised by the rapid growth of science and technology in the 20th century and beyond.
STS contributes to undergraduate education at MIT in several ways. It offers general subjects to introduce science and engineering students to broad social and intellectual perspectives on their fields. It also offers more specialized subjects in the history of science and technology and in social and cultural studies of science and technology. Within each of these categories, students can choose both introductory and more advanced subjects.
Most STS undergraduate subjects may count toward the Institute Requirement in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. The program offers a number of HASS Distribution Requirement subjects and CI-H subjects, as well as a field of concentration.
The goal of the minor program is to give students majoring in engineering or one of the sciences a broader perspective on their fields: how they have evolved and how they fit into the wider context of society, culture, politics, and values.
The Minor Program in Science, Technology, and Society consists of six subjects as follows:
| Tier I | One HASS–D subject in STS |
|
| Tier II | Four undergraduate STS subjects forming a coherent group
relevant to the student's major Course of study |
|
| Tier III | One Capstone Seminar in STS (STS.091 or STS.092). Prerequisite
is completion of one STS HASS-D subject or permission of the
STS undergraduate advisor. |
For students who wish to integrate their professional study of engineering or science with a rigorous treatment of its relation to social and historical forces, STS offers a dual degree program in cooperation with the Schools of Engineering and Science. The object of this program is to give those students the full technical and scientific education provided by a science or engineering major, balanced with intensive study of the historical and social contexts of science and technology.
Students in the dual degree program must complete all the requirements of their majors as well as the STS requirements described below, and write a thesis in each field. Upon completion of all requirements, students receive a Bachelor of Science in Science, Technology, and Society and a Bachelor of Science in a specific field of engineering or science.
The STS requirements include 14 subjects as follows: one STS HASS-D subject; six other STS subjects; one Capstone seminar (STS.091 or STS.092); pre-thesis tutorial; the thesis; and four related HASS subjects forming a coherent group. Further details on the requirements of this dual degree may be obtained from the Department of Humanities and the STS undergraduate advisor.
Students must submit to the Registrar a petition that indicates the desire to work for this dual degree. The petition must be approved by faculty advisors in the two appropriate departments before students complete the entire program. Students who take a normal load of subjects may require five years to complete this program, but the majority of dual degree candidates finish their work in four years.
Students who wish to integrate studies in STS and science or engineering in the context of a single degree program should consider this program. It includes a group of specially designated subjects offered by STS that provide a focus for interdisciplinary work. Central to this core is a Capstone seminar (STS.091 or STS.092) that examines interactions of science, technology, and culture through reading, writing, and discussion of major works.
Students who take this degree must complete 10 subjects: one STS HASS-D subject; six other STS subjects; one STS Capstone seminarin STS (STS.091 or STS.092); pre-thesis tutorial; and thesis.
Consult the degree chart for details on the requirements for this joint degree. Further details may be obtained from the Department of Humanities and the STS undergraduate advisor.
In collaboration, STS, the History Faculty, and the Anthropology Program offer a Program in History, Anthropology, Science, Technology and Society (HASTS) leading to the PhD.
The objective of the program is to develop advanced competence in the study of science and technology from a historical and social scientific perspective. Students are expected to develop professional mastery of a field of history or one of the social sciences. They must also master the underlying concepts in science and engineering that relate to their special field of interest.
Doctoral students take at least 10 subjects in the doctoral program during their first two years. All graduate students take the introductory seminars, STS.210J, STS.250J, and STS.260J, in their first term. Students also choose several foundation subjects such as history of science or ethnographic methods. Finally, students choose several departmental seminars designed to offer more in-depth study of particular topics.
Upon the satisfactory completion of general examinations in the third year, students proceed to the writing of a dissertation, usually with the assistance of a multidisciplinary advisory committee.
Students from any academic discipline are invited to apply to the doctoral program.
For additional information about the graduate program, contact the academic administrator, History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS), Room E51-185, MIT, 617-253-9759.
Additional information on the Program in Science, Technology, and Society may be obtained from the director, STS Program, Room E51-185, MIT, 617-253-4062.
For detailed descriptions of subjects in Science, Technology, and Society, see STS.001 to STS.910 in Part 3.
David A. Mindell, PhD
Frances and David Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and
Manufacturing
Professor of Engineering Systems
Director
Michael M. J. Fischer, PhD
Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities
Deborah Fitzgerald, PhD
Professor of the History of Technology
Dean, School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
Kenneth Rogers Manning, PhD
Thomas Meloy Professor of Rhetoric and the History of Science
Theodore A. Postol, PhD
Professor of Science, Technology, and National Security Policy
Merritt Roe Smith, PhD
Leverett Howell and William King Cutten Professor of the History of Technology
Sherry Turkle, PhD
Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Sociology of Science
Rosalind H. Williams, PhD
Bern Dibner Professor of the History of Science and Technology
Undergraduate Faculty Advisor (Spring)
David S. Jones, PhD, MD
Leo Marx Career Development Associate Professor of the History of Science
Undergraduate Faculty Advisor (Fall)
David Kaiser, PhD
Associate Professor of the History of Science
Lecturer in Physics
Vincent Lepinay, PhD
Assistant Professor of Science, Technology, and Society
Natasha Schull, PhD
Assistant Professor of Science, Technology, and Society
John Durant, PhD
Adjunct Professor of Science, Technology,
and Society
Manuel Castells, PhD
Distinguished Visiting Professor of Technology and Society
Jill Ker Conway, PhD
Professor of the History of Women
Thomas P. Hughes, PhD
Distinguished Visiting Professor of the History of Technology
Leo Marx, PhD
William R. Kenan Professor of American Cultural History, Emeritus
Louis Lawrence Bucciarelli, PhD
Professor of Engineering and Technology Studies, Emeritus
Loren R. Graham, PhD
Professor of the History of Science, Emeritus
Carl Kaysen, PhD
David W. Skinner Professor of Political Economy, Emeritus
Evelyn Fox Keller, PhD
Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, Emerita
Kenneth Keniston, PhD
Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Human Development, Emeritus
Leo Marx, PhD
William R. Kenan Professor of American Cultural History, Emeritus
Eugene B. Skolnikoff, PhD
Professor of Political Science, Emeritus
Leon Trilling, PhD
Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Emeritus
Charles Weiner, PhD
Professor of the History of Science and Technology, Emeritus