Science, Technology and Society Program

Main Contact Info

Program in Science, Technology and Society

2713 Haven Hall (office)
/ 1029 Tisch Hall (post)
435 South State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1003

Phone: (734) 763-2066
Fax: (734) 647-4881

Email: umsts@umich.edu
Website: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/sts

Related Undergraduate Minors

Science, Technology, and Society (STS)

Science, Technology, and Society Faculty Affiliates and STS Steering Committee +

Undergraduate Advising: sts.minor.advisor@umich.edu | Graduate Advising: sts.grad.advisor@umich.edu

Academics and Requirements

Steering Committee

Badgley (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Residential College), Brunton (School of Information), Carson (History), Hull (Anthropology), Kirkland (Political Science, Women’s Studies), Stern (Center for the History of Medicine, American Culture)

Professors: Barald (Program in Biomedical Sciences, School of Medicine), Douglas (Communication Studies), Fadlalla (Anthropology, Women's Studies, Afroamerican and African Studies), Hecht (History), Howell (History, Public Health, Medicine), Hunt (History), Inhorn (Public Health, Anthropology), Levine (Architecture + Urban Planning), Lindner (History), Markel (Center for History of Medicine, Medicine, History), Neuman (Communication Studies, Center for Political Studies), Perfecto (SNRE), Pernick (History), Rabkin (English), Renne (Anthropology, Afroamerican and African Studies), Robertson (Anthropology), Stern (Center for the History of Medicine, American Culture), Vandermeer (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology)

Associate Professors: Ackerman (School of Information), Anspach (Sociology, Women's Studies), Brown (Asian Languages and Cultures), Carson (History), Edwards (School of Information), Gaggio (History), Hagen (Near Eastern Studies), Hull (Anthropology), Kirkland (Women's Studies/ Political Science), McCullough (Architecture, Art & Design), Owen-Smith (Sociology), Parrish (English), Parthasarathy (Public Policy), Vaillant (Communication Studies)

Assistant Professors: Badgley (Residential College, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Museum of Paleontology), Blumenthal (Law School), de la Cruz (History),

Lecturers and Instructors: Harris (Obstetrics & Gynecology), Hirshbein (Psychiatry), Peters-Golden (Anthropology), Wright (Insti-tute for Research on Women and Gender)

The UM STS Program offers a structured academic curriculum through which students can explore the social, cultural, ethical, and political dimensions of science, technology, and medicine. Our program addresses a number of UM's most important research and education priorities, including:

Building awareness of how science, technology and medicine shape and inform modern societies.
Identifying the social, political, and ethical problems characteristic of a highly technological world
Explaining how science, technology, and medicine vary among the world's cultures, past and present
Educating citizens to be engaged participants in the ongoing revolutions in science, technology, medicine, and information

STS presently offers an undergraduate minor, administered by the Residential College STS Program, as well as a graduate certificate.

Academic Minor. Technology often precipitates the most drastic, revolutionary changes in how societies and cultures engage one another. The Science, Technology, and Society (STS) minor helps students see beyond the veneer of policy issues to learn about the raw changes in our tools and methods. STS studies the ethical, environmental, and social implications of new tools and methods and how these affect the developing world.

The minor helps students learn about such issues as:

How science, technology, and medicine shape modern societies
How social and political forces, choices, and values affect science, technology, and medicine
How the social dynamics of science, technology, and medicine differ among world societies
How issues of gender, race, and class appear in science, technology, and medicine

Students electing the STS minor learn multiple methods for studying and solving boundary-spanning problems, including not only those in traditional discipline-based approaches, but also in interdisciplinary and experimental ones.

For information on the minor in Science, Technology and Society, please see the minor's description under the Residential College.