F/ISTS

Science and Technology Studies (STS) is a capacious and inherently interdisciplinary academic field that investigates the intimate entanglements between the technical and social dimensions of science, technology, and medicine. Understanding this interplay is central to addressing many of the most pressing problems of our times, such as struggles around vaccination, climate justice and environmental racism, health disparities, digital surveillance, and the growing mistrust in “science” as a domain of authority. F/ISTS is a focused approach to Science and Technology Studies (STS) that homes in on the reciprocal relations between techno-scientific knowledge and practices, on the one hand, and gender, race, class, and other intersecting axes of power, on the other.

To sign up, contact Rebecca Jordan-Young, F/ISTS Director.

Learning Outcomes

Students who successfully complete this minor or concentration will be able to demonstrate critical understandings of:

1. Examine the role of cultural, ethical, social, political and economic factors in determining the norms, values and meanings of scientific, technological and medical practices.
2. Understand the ways in which the production and applications of science, technology and medicine shape and are shaped by knowledge  and beliefs about gender, race, class, and sexuality.
3. Situate technoscientific and biomedical discourses within local, national, and transnational contexts.
4. Situate their own relations to science, medicine, and technology within structures of power and cultural-historical forces.
5. Contribute to feminist, historical, and decolonial accounts of contemporary biomedicine and technoscience.
6. Craft and evaluate efforts to create more socially just, equitable and inclusive science, technology, and medicine in a diverse and globalized world.

Requirements

The concentration and minor consist of five courses (with an optional 1-credit capstone course) to be distributed as follows:

1. Introductory-Level Course (1 course): either WGSS BC2150, "Practicing Intersectionality" or WGSS/WMST BC1050, "Introduction to Women & Health".
2. Methods Course (1 course): WMST UN3813, "Knowledge, Practice, Power" (formerly “Feminist Inquiry: Epistemologies & Methods")
3. Electives (3 courses, at least one of which must be an advanced seminar): either all electives from Group 1 (F/ISTS courses) or two electives from Group 1 and one elective from Group 2. See below for list of pre-approved electives in both groups. 

   Group 1 (F/ISTS) electives are courses that (a) involve critical interrogation of the natural, social, medical, or data sciences, and (b) examine the implications of scientific/technical knowledge or practices in terms of major axes of social hierarchy such as sex/gender, ethnicity, race, class, nation, religion, sexuality, disability, and age. At least two of the three electives must meet both of these Group 1 criteria. In addition, one elective (but not more than one) can be from Group 2—that is, a more “general” science and technology studies course that meets the first criterion only (critical interrogation of the natural, social, medical, or data sciences).

   Note that “critical interrogation” means that the grounds of knowledge production and/or scientific authority are critically examined, including underlying philosophical assumptions, epistemological frames, methodologies, institutional structures, or funding and dissemination of research, especially the entanglements of these with the formation, maintenance, and/or disruption of social hierarchies. Courses in traditional disciplines (especially history, sociology, anthropology, and philosophy) with explicit STS approaches will generally be accepted. Courses that are primarily intended to teach students a scientific or technical approach or review current literature in a given thematic area of science, medicine, or technology do not meet the criteria for FISTS electives.

4. Optional Capstone Course (1 course): An optional 1-credit mini-course, convened each spring for F/ISTS juniors and seniors, allowing F/ISTS students to co-organize a public event on a  F/ISTS theme. The capstone/academic portion of this will include: reading works by the speaker in advance, preparing questions in advance and collectively prioritizing them. During the public event, students will serve as interlocutors, and will attend a workshop or seminar discussionwith the speaker before or after the public portion of their visit. After the event, students will write a brief essay integrating the contents of the speaker's presentation with their own work, identifying questions for further development, or challenging the speaker's contributions.