Science and Technology Studies

Interdepartmental Graduate Group
Program Office: 542 Stephens Hall, (510) 642-4581

Program Director: David Winickoff, JD (Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management)
Program Website: Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society

Overview

The Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, & Society (CSTMS) at UC Berkeley promotes rigorous interdisciplinary research based on the conviction that the pressing problems of our time are simultaneously scientific and social, technological and political, ethical and economic.

As a laboratory for the 21st century university, CSTMS conducts cross-disciplinary research, teaching, and outreach on the histories and implications of scientific research, biomedicine, and new technologies.

The Center’s core mission is to:

• catalyze cross-disciplinary research on knowledge production and technological change in the past, present, and future;
• train new generations of undergraduates and graduate students in multiple literacies; and,
• generate broader impact with rapid response forums and major public events on the pressing issues of our time.

CSTMS convenes students and faculty in the social sciences and humanities, the professional and medical schools, engineering, and the natural sciences to advance collaborative accounts of our complex world. We provide a space and dialogue on the implications of new technologies, from geo-engineering to synthetic biology. We provide support for faculty and graduate students seeking extramural grants, and we seek to integrate leading academic research in science and technology studies with the work of policy makers, communities, and non-governmental organizations. We also promote the study of the interface of medicine, the humanities, and the qualitative social sciences. Through all of these activities, the Center seeks to place Berkeley at the leading edge of global science studies by foregrounding research and training on the transnational dynamics of knowledge production, technological innovation, and inequalities.

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Graduate Programs

Designated Emphasis (DE)

The Designated Emphasis (DE) in Science and Technology Studies (STS) is a new program of training in the social studies of science, technology, and medicine for Berkeley and UCSF PhD students from any home department. Students who are accepted into the program, and who complete its requirements, will be in a strong position to excel within STS-related fields.

Students in this program receive a rigorous grounding in the studies of knowledge production and technological change. The program also facilitates a deeper involvement with the lively interdisciplinary research community at Berkeley dedicated to understanding the dynamic relations among science, technology, and social and political formations.

Upon completion of all requirements and the dissertation, your transcript and diploma will read “PhD in [Home Department] with Designated Emphasis in STS.”

Course Requirements

The DE in STS requires students to complete two core courses as well as three ‘breadth’ or elective courses during their PhD work, in addition to any requirements of home departments. We do not expect you to have completed all of these courses before you apply for the DE; you may take some of them as schedules and space permit.

Core Course Requirements

The following courses are required:

•  STS 200: Science and Technology Studies: Theories and Methods. Usually offered in Fall term. This course provides a strong foundation in the interdisciplinary field of STS, with a focus on major theoretical trajectories, research methodologies, and new directions in the field.
• STS 250: Research Seminar. Usually offered in Spring term. This seminar is for students within the DE who have completed their Qualifying Exams and have advanced to candidacy. Students in the seminar will develop their research and writing projects in the context of interdisciplinary collaboration and dialogue.

Elective Requirements

Students are also required to take three elective courses that place a critical engagement with science, technology and/or medicine at their core. To foster interdisciplinarity, no more than two of these electives can be taken from the student’s home department. As a package, the three elective courses are expected to enhance the student’s capacity to understand and analyze how science and technology operate through and within ethical, historical, social or cultural formations.

The following is an indicative list of elective courses, by department:

• Anthropology: ANTHRO 210, Current Topics in Bioanthropology; ANTHRO 219, Topics in Medical Anthropology; ANTRHO 250G, Biopolitics, Biomedicine, Bioethics; ANTHRO 250X, Thinking with the Copy; ANTHRO 250X, Special Topics: Life and Life Science; ANTHRO 250X, Special topics: Anthropology of the Contemporary; ANTHRO 280C, South Asia: “Hope and Futurity”
• City and Regional Planning: CY PLAN 254, Sustainable Communities; CY PLAN 256, Healthy Cities; CY PLAN 282, Planning and Governing
• English: ENG 203, Graduate Readings: On Life
• Energy and Resources Group: ENE,RES 275, Water and Development
• Environmental Science, Policy, and Management: ESPM 256, Science, Technology, and the Politics of Nature; ESPM 260, Governance of Global Production; ESPM 261, Sustainability and Society; ESPM 263, Indigenous, Feminist, and Postcolonial Approaches to Science, Technology, and Environment; ESPM C255, Seminar in Sociology of Forest and Wildland Resources
• Geography: GEOG 203, Nature and Culture: Social Theory, Social Practice, and the Environment
• Gender and Women's Studies: GWS 232, Transnational Feminist Approaches to Knowledge Production; GWS 237, Transnational Science, Technology, and New Media; GWS 238, Feminist Bio-Politics
• History: HISTORY 275S, Introduction to the History of Science; HISTORY 280S, Drugs in World History; HISTORY 280S, Science and Late-Modern Empires; HISTORY 290, Historical Colloquium
• Information: INFO 203, Social and Organizational Issues of Information; INFO 205, Information Law and Policy; INFO 212, Information in Society; INFO C283, Information and Communications Technology for Development; INFO 290A, Information Technology and Identity: The Future of Storytelling
• Public Health: PB HLTH 213A, Family Planning, Population Change, and Health; PB HLTH 222A, Health Care Technology Policy; PB HLTH 230, Advanced Health Politics
• Public Policy: PUB POL 282, Environment and Technology from the Policy and Business Perspective; PUB POL 284, Energy and Society
• Rhetoric: RHETORIC 104, The Unconscious in Modern Culture

Research and Committee Requirements

Your PhD Qualifying Exam Committee must include at least one member of the DE Affiliated Faculty  who will evaluate your knowledge related to the Designated Emphasis. Your PhD dissertation topic must be related to Science and Technology Studies, and your PhD Dissertation Committee must include at least one member of the DE Affiliated Faculty who can evaluate it from that perspective.

You are also encouraged, though not required, to be an active member of the STS Working Group .

Impact on Normative Time to Completion

Due to the interdisciplinary nature of training and research in the Designated Emphasis in STS, and depending on your background, completion of the DE could add time to your total program. Please note that no additional time can be added to your home department’s established normative “time to degree” to compensate for this.

How to Apply

Applications are due November 1st each year. Interested students should apply at least 3 months before their PhD qualifying exams.

The program is open to all UC Berkeley PhD students in good standing with research interests related to the humanistic and social studies of science and technology, broadly conceived. Students may come from any discipline in the humanities, the social sciences, engineering, the natural and physical sciences, and professional schools across campus.

Applicants will be selected on the basis of their academic qualifications, the appropriateness of their interests to the program’s teaching resources, and the enrollment capacity of the required courses.

The student must submit an application containing the following:

1. One-page letter of intent summarizing research interests, educational or employment background, and any related coursework in areas related to Science and Technology Studies
2. Petition for Admission to the Designated Emphasis in Science and Technology Studies (download it here )
3. Graduate Petition for Change of Major or Degree Goal (to indicate your interest in adding the Designated Emphasis) (get it here )
4. A list of courses the student would use to satisfy the elective requirement (Optional but encouraged).
5. A writing sample (eg, a paper you have written for a UC graduate course) that is indicative of your research interests.

In addition, applicants should ask for aLetter of Recommendation from a member of the Science and Technology Studies Affiliated Faculty group.

Applications should be sent as a single email, with a single PDF attachment with all required materials (#1-5) to the address below. Applicants should ask the Affiliated Faculty member to send his or her recommendation directly to Prof. Winickoff, preferably by email:

Professor David Winickoff (winickoff@berkeley.edu, CCing cstms@berkeley.edu)
Director, Designated Emphasis in Science and Technology Studies
CSTMS
543 Stephens Hall, UC Berkeley