Program in Science, Technology, & Society: STS
What do epidemics, financial derivatives, slot machines, wildlife conservation, and sniper camouflage have in common? These are just some of the diverse faculty research interests you will encounter in STS, the Program in Science, Technology, and Society. Working at the intersection of history, anthropology, and sociology, scholars in STS examine how science and technology express social values, and how changes in science and technology affect human experience.
Faculty Research Descriptions
- Prof. John Durant, N51-201, x3-5653, jdurant@mit.edu
- Public engagement with science and technology; science communication; science and technology in the museum environment; the relationship between science and religion.
- Prof. Michael Fischer, E51-296B, x3-2564, mfischer@mit.edu
- Film as a tool in anthropological research; social and cultural theory; research about scientists and engineers in their particular social, cultural, and professional environments.
- Prof. David Kaiser, E51-179a, x2-3173, dikaiser@mit.edu
- Early-universe cosmology at the interface of gravitation and particle physics; history of physics in the US since World War II; history of gravitation and cosmology; history of fraud in science.
- Prof. Kenneth R. Manning,16-236, x3-4805, manning@mit.edu
- Black scientists and engineers in American history (interest in archival work in this area is required); the concept of "rigor" in the history of mathematics to determine how this word was used by mathematicians in the past and to clarify the meaning of this concept for mathematicians in their day-to-day work. (Prefer a mathematics major interested in history and philology.)
- Prof. Clapperton Mavhunga, E51-194C, x4-2792, mavhunga@mit.edu
- Currently working on three Africa-focused projects. The book entitled ‘The Mobile Workshop’, on mobility as agent (vehicle) in human-animal interactions. The second book project is on ‘Unobvious Weaponries’, on the weaponization of things we might not think of as weapons (humans, ICT, rhetoric, food, etc.). The third project is the ‘Village Innovations Program’ (formerly Traditional Knowledge of African Villages), which takes me to South Africa in summer to work on the first two projects while teaming with locals and schoolteachers in New York and Dallas on innovate trans-Atlantic exchange initiatives.
- Prof. David Mindell, E51-185F, x3-4062,mindell@mit.edu
- History of computers and control systems; Civil War ironclad ships; deep sea archaeology, the Apollo Guidance Computer.
- Prof. Theodore Postol, E51-296a, x3-8077, postol@mit.edu
- The interplay of political and technical factors in decisions involving weapons systems; analysis of strategic forces; politics and the arms race.
- Prof. Natasha Schull, E51-188,x3-9651, nds@mit.edu
- Current research project explores the social dimensions of emerging knowledge in Neuroscience with a focus on the fields of neuroeconomics, neuromarketing, and addiction pharmacology.
- Prof. Hanna Rose Shell, E51-180, x3-1943, hrshell@mit.edu
- Science Films in Historical Context; Animal Extinction and Taxidermy; Secondhand Technologies, particularly textile and other wearable technologies; The roles of motion-picture filmmaking in the production, documentation, and representation (both fictional and non-fictional) of scientific research.
- Prof. Merritt Roe Smith, E51-194B, x3-4008,roesmith@mit.edu
- Role of the military in industrialization, interaction of technological and social change in early industrial communities and styles of technology and innovation, biographical studies, technology in the Civil War era.
- Prof. Sherry Turkle, E51-296C, x3-4068, sturkle@mit.edu
- Social studies of science, the effects of simulation and visualization on how we think; the subjective side of people's relationships with technology, especially "relational artifacts" such as robots, commercial toys as well as prototype models, and virtual] creatures, as they impact on questions of identity, the development of the mind, emotions, relationships, and definitions of self,in particular with children and senior citizens; work with MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, which studies these questions.
- Prof. Rosalind Williams, E51-278, x3-2847, rhwill@mit.edu
- History of engineering and engineering education; modern French and British literature in relation to the history of technology; intellectual and cultural history of technology; technology in history; technology, history and memory
