Science, Technology, and Society Minor

Surveying the rise of computing technologies, information theories, and information economies in the last century, this course considers their impact on literature, culture and knowledge-formation. In particular, we will reflect on topics such as the relations between social and technological transformation, literary print and digital cultures and electronic literature. (Prerequisites: Completion of First Year Writing (FYW) requirement is required prior to enrolling in this class.) Lecture 3 (Fall).

An examination of the nature of the scientific enterprise; possible discussion topics include the presuppositions of science, its logic, its claims to reliability, and its relationships to society and to problems of human values. (Prerequisites: Completion of one (1) course in philosophy (at the 200 level or higher) or a major in the College of Science or College of Health Science and Technology or PSYC-BS.) Lecture 3 (Fall).

This course provides an overview of energy resources, technologies, and policies designed to ensure clean, stable supplies of energy for the future. The course evaluates the impacts of fossil fuel, renewable energy, and hydrogen technologies on society and how public policies can be used to influence their development. The development of U.S. energy policy is of particular concern, although a global perspective will be integrated throughout the course. Lecture 3 (Spring).

Science Technology and Values explores the concepts and effects of science and technology on society, and analyzes the relationship between science and technology, asking questions such as: How each has come to play a major role today, and how have science and technology affected and been affected by human values, despite longstanding assumptions that science and technology are value-free? Environmental aspects of science and technology will also be examined from interdisciplinary perspectives. Key themes include the practical and theoretical relationships between science, technology, and power. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).

STP eExamines how local, state, federal and international policies are developed to influence innovation, the transfer of technology and industrial productivity in the United States and other selected nations. It provides a framework for considering the mechanisms of policy as a form of promotion and control for science and technology, even once those innovations are democratized and effectively uncontrollable. Further focus is dedicated to the structure of governance inherent in U.S. domestic policy, limits of that approach, the influences of international actors, and utilizing case studies to demonstrate the challenges inherent in managing differing types of technology. Lecture 3 (Fall).

In this course, students will explore ways in which scientific knowledge about nonhumans and the natural world has been shaped by human ideas about sex, gender, and heteronormativity. They will learn about the changing perspectives on sex and gender in the natural sciences through readings and multimedia and investigate how gender and sexuality have been studied in biological and natural sciences past and present. Additionally, readings and media will explore the intersection of sex and gender in the environment with related social issues, such as racism, ableism, and colonialism. The course will also examine how scientific, science studies, and gender studies scholars are developing and using new approaches, such as queer ecologies and feminist biology, to critique and change how science is practiced with respect to assumptions and inferences about sex and gender. Lecture 3 (Spring).

Are you passionate about addressing the socially-complex, wicked problems of our time? This interdisciplinary, active-learning course will lay the groundwork for students who want to participate in future place-based community-engaged research, development or design projects that build on community strengths and address community determined challenges. Through literature reviews, discussions, cases study analysis, role plays, debates, reflective writing, and visits with experienced community practitioners, we will explore the larger context of the systems within which we live and how others have engaged in efforts to improve community wellbeing both locally and globally. We will strive for a more nuanced understanding of our world and its power dynamics from various perspectives. We will investigate the context in which community and economic development has traditionally occurred, how technology has been involved, and the effects of projects and activities on the “beneficiaries”. We will investigate best practices including mindsets, worldviews, skills, processes, and tools for community-driven positive change. Finally we will use all our learnings to develop our own evaluation framework and apply it to a current community project. This course incorporates humanities and social science approaches and counts for general education requirements. Lecture 3 (Spring).

Technology has an impact on every aspect of our social lives. With each advance, unanticipated problems emerge, leading to complex debates about addressing the negative consequences. This course highlights the social, ethical, and humanistic challenges of assorted technologies, past and present. We will investigate how various technologies developed and compare the expected effects of the new technologies with the actual results. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).

Using biographical and social-historical approaches, this course examines the history of women's involvement in science and engineering since the birth of modern science in the seventeenth century; the historical roots of gender bias in the Western scientific enterprise; and the influx of women into science and engineering since the mid-to-late 20th century. Cross-listed with women's and gender studies. Lecture 3 (Spring).

How does artificial intelligence impact society? In this course, we will examine how AI and related algorithmic technologies shape, and are shaped by, societal issues and factors. We will critically examine historical and contemporary research and applications of AI from social, cultural, and policy perspectives. Students will encounter a variety of perspectives from science and technology studies, the humanities, and the social sciences and use real-world cases in order to analyze how AI technologies may differentially impact people, communities, and societies. Lecture 3 (Spring).

Land and landscapes have been shaped, and reshaped, through a variety of geological forces, historical developments, and societal changes. In turn, human societies and cultures change within the context of their environment. Students will explore a historically informed, humanistic approach to the relationship of technology and society using landscapes and land use change. This course uses an interdisciplinary lens to critically examine intersections of natural, built and lived environments, social processes, and environmental change. Lecture 3 (Spring).

This course examines Rochester through the lens of industrialization, immigration, technological innovation, and environmental change between the 1890s and 1990s. This class blends readings and discussion with experiential learning and community-based research projects to help students understand community identity as a result of changes in livelihoods, immigration, and environment. Students will examine these social changes in both a local and global context. Students will have a better appreciation for the way historical forces shape a contemporary sense of place. Lecture 3 (Spring).

Disasters represent a disruption to daily life, with technological disasters defined as disasters resulting from human-made causes, where failures in modern technology create both acute and ongoing dangers for communities. This course focuses on how human technological advances can have adverse impacts on the communities those innovations are meant to improve. Through an investigation of technological systems and case-specific technologies, combined with ecological, social, and political systems, the causes, consequences, and long-term implications of technological disasters are considered. The course will examine cases that range from the actual to the anticipated, such as the New Orleans levee failures, Flint water crisis, Dalkon shield contraception, large-scale networked hacks, CRISPR-created and/or naturally-occurring superviruses, voting poll technology failures, and AI, in the context of the societal systems of modern industrial capitalism. Special attention will be paid to aspects of social vulnerability which make the impacts of technological disasters different for various sub-populations within their respective communities. Lecture 3 (Biannual).

This course examines the ethics, conundrums, hopes, and fears associated with biomedicine within Western cultures and societies. For centuries human beings have been interested in the human body and its relationship with the world. With increasing technological intervention and diagnoses, we stand at a threshold of decision-making and procedure use and development. What are appropriate uses for biomedical technologies? Who decides? In a world of limited resources and unlimited imagination, what areas of medicine and biomedical investigations are best pursued, and at what expense to whom? Moving beyond “right and wrong” debates, we will explore the values inherent to the technologies themselves and those who build and utilize them, and examine a variety of views and arguments framing current scholarly debates surrounding these and other crucial questions of biomedicine. Lecture 3 (Biannual).

This course explores the importance of gender within Western science and technology. It considers how masculine and feminine identities are socially and culturally shaped, how sex and gender are being significantly transformed, and how rethinking gendered practices may help make science and technology fairer and more responsive. Cross-listed with women's and gender studies. Lecture 3 (Fall).

We are not alone. With Artificial Intelligence, Smart Technologies, and advances in medical, workplace, and in-home robotics, humans have entered an era in which social relationships with robots is an everyday occurrence. Robots as pets, caregivers, and friends are marketed to old and young alike with the anticipation that some form of relationship will be built between person and robot. But what does it mean to have a robotic companion? Can they be programmed to care for us, and even love us? Are our social connections with these robots “real” or “authentic” or are they misplaced hopes of connection? What can, and should, they do? Ethical questions emerge when exploring the uses of robot assistants with vulnerable populations in medical settings including care of elderly dementia patients and neurodivergent minors. Social considerations of trust and misuse of data are also hotly debated. What should the robot do and what should it not do? This is the world of social robotics. For robots to live among “us” and help define “us” how should they act and how should we react in return? This course examines Social Robotics by offering a survey of topics necessary to better understand the world of human-robot relations and ponders what futures we are building with robot companions. Topics to be discussed may include robot rights, Lovotics, authenticity, electronic personalities, and the Uncanny Valley. This course fulfills Ethical Perspectives and Social Perspectives. Lecture 3 (Spring).

Yes, you are being watched. In this course, we consider how surveillance technologies permeate all areas of life for humans, animals, and robots. From smart houses that are always listening, to tracking devices for wildlife research, or networked AI-enhanced robots, the role of surveillance is an under-examined constant in post-millennium life. Whether surveilled by government agencies for social control, private corporations for profit, family members for safety, or friends and the public for amusement, the power dynamics of how surveillance data are gathered, stored, managed, and distributed reveal new social and ethical relationships, while also reinforcing pre-existing patterns of bias and inequality. The ethical impacts of surveillance technologies press the limits of civil society, privacy assumptions, and even animal rights, when gathering and storing data without consent or among vulnerable populations. In this course, you will discover the promises and perils of surveillance technology by applying insights from STS (science and technology studies) and other interdisciplinary fields. Lecture 3 (Fall).

In this course, students will examine the ways in which “nature,” broadly conceived, has been quantified, standardized, and in many cases commodified in the modern West – often in the context of the natural sciences, government bureaucracies, capitalist markets, or some combination of the three. Reading and discussing broadly across history, science studies, anthropology, philosophy, and ecology, students will gain multidisciplinary perspectives on modern informational thinking, and develop analytical tools for assessing contemporary issues related to the quantified environment. Lecture 3 (Biannual).

The developing cybernetic organism or cyborg challenges traditional concepts of what it means to be human. Today medical science and science fiction appear to merge in ways unimagined a century ago. By exploring scientific and cultural theories, science fiction, and public experience, this class examines the history and potential of the cyborg in Western cultures. Lecture 3 (Spring).

This course will focus on a special problem or topical area in the field of STS. Topics and specific content and methods vary from year to year or Semester to Semester. This course may count for minors and immersions with the permission of the Department. The STS Department Chair and individual instructors may be contacted for details. Lecture 3 (Fall, Summer).

This course is an upper-level, Writing Intensive undergraduate seminar that explores the complex interlinkages between science, technology, the environment, and society in contemporary and historical contexts. The capstone seminar will sharpen the student’s understanding of STEM and environmental topics by integrating diverse perspectives from the humanities and social sciences, including approaches from science and technology studies (STS) and environmental studies. Students will work closely with faculty as they develop, revise, and present a research project. (Enrollment in a Department of STS minor or immersion, or permission of instructor). (Prerequisites: Completion of any 2 of the following courses: Any STSO undergraduate level (100-500) courses, or ANTH-360 or ECON-421 or ECON-520 or ENGL-419 or HIST-345 or PHIL-308 or PHIL-402 or PUBL-530 or equivalent courses.) Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).