Cluster focus

Science and Technology Studies (STS) seeks to understand how science and technology shape human lives and livelihoods, and how society and culture, in turn, shape the development of science and technology. From the automobile to the Internet, and from cloning to the Earth’s climate, modern life is intimately entwined with advances in science and technology. STS offers new approaches to understanding scientific and technological change and their intersections with social, political and economic dynamics. Students learn skills and approaches for understanding the political and cultural implications of scientific technologies, as well as the role of science and expertise in the making and shaping of culture and society. STS prepares students to be more active and effective participants in public debates about science and technology. The field also prepares students for the many expanding career opportunities in science and technology policy, science journalism, science advice and expert assessment, and law. This cluster was originally funded as the Science Studies Cluster.

Cluster accomplishments

  • Cluster faculty helped spawn the Science and Technology Ph.D. minor and the Robert E. and Jean F. Holtz Center for Science and Technology. The Science and Technology minor is an interdisciplinary option for students in both natural sciences and sociology. Faculty have developed a wide array of new science and technology courses in sociology, history of medicine and science, philosophy, women’s studies, bioethics, public affairs, geography, journalism and law available to students.
  • In 2004, cluster faculty and the Institute for Race and Ethnicity in Milwaukee co-sponsored a workshop on race, genetics and medicine, from which articles for a journal special issue and an anthology soon will be published.
  • The cluster coordinator is part of a team of researchers producing, with NIH funds, theoretical grounding for the practice of community consultation in biomedical research. This research examines the relationship between human subjects of minority and indigenous status and the scientific collection of data for the NIH’s Haplotype Mapping project. It will examine whether and how community consultations achieve the ethics and policy goals they are supposed to achieve.
  • A cluster member is active in teaching courses and promoting research on nanotechnology and society in the Materials Science Research and Engineering Interdisciplinary Education Group with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The coordinator and faculty worked together with Arizona State University and two other universities to build obtain NSF funding to build a Center for Nanotechnology and Society. The project is currently supporting research on the development of nanotechnology research in China that focuses on culture, practices and institutions.
  • One of the cluster faculty received a prestigious Guggenheim award, another a Vilas Associate Fellowship.
  • The cluster hosts workshops and a speakers series. Topics have included stem cell research, race/genetics/medicine, politics and economics of science, and gender and science. Some were jointly sponsored by Havens Center in Sociology and participated in the Havens Center/STS graduate seminar. The series has a reputation for being high quality and exciting. Many center outreach events have attracted participants from across campus due to their interdisciplinary nature.
  • Another cluster faculty member began a new “Science, Democracy, and Public Policy Speaker Series” in the La Follette School of Public Affairs, funded by a National Science Foundation nanotechnology grant.
  • The cluster coordinator and faculty from across campus organized several educational activities around the performance by the Madison Repertory Theatre of the Michael Frayn’s play “Copenhagen.” One such activity was a panel discussion on “The Influence of Science in the 21st Century,” which brought in two outside scholars, including a physicist and feminist theorist, and an historian of physics. These scholars also participated in a discussion session with graduate students in STS, sociology, anthropology, history of science and physics.

Cluster structure

The cluster forms the core of the Holtz Center for Science and Technology and the cluster coordinator served as the founding director for its first three years. The center is run by an interdisciplinary steering committee, which includes faculty from many departments. Cluster faculty are permanent members of the steering committee, but the larger committee includes faculty who teach and conduct research in the STS field. They represent many different departments on campus, and a rotation system ensures that the committee will eventually represent all departments across the university. An affiliated faculty group developed based on faculty interests and involves many of those who attend the speaker series and workshops.

Cluster coordinator, faculty and lead dean

Cluster Coordinator

Cluster Faculty

Lead Dean