Overview

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

As a laboratory for the twenty-first-century University, CSTMS conducts cross-disciplinary research, teaching, and outreach on the histories and implications of scientific research, biomedicine, and new technologies. As part of this mission, the center offers a Designated Emphasis (DE) in Science and Technology Studies.

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
• Generate broader impact with rapid response forums and major public events on the pressing issues of this 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. The center provides a space and dialogue on the implications of new technologies, from geoengineering to synthetic biology. It also provides support for faculty and graduate students seeking extramural grants and seeks to integrate leading academic research in science and technology studies with the work of policymakers, communities, and non-governmental organizations. CSTMS also promotes 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.

As a multidisciplinary field with a signature capacity to rethink the relationship among science, technology, and political and social life, Science and Technology Studies is particularly well placed to address the critical problems of the twenty-first century. From global climate change to the reanimation of race through genomics, from political movements galvanized through new media to efforts to improve access to medicines for the world’s poor, the pressing problems of this time are simultaneously scientific and social, technological and political, ethical, and economic.

Given the complex nature of the world, entrenched disciplinary divides have become increasingly untenable as the basis for research and for the training of scholars and social actors. Science and Technology Studies is drawing the interest of ever-increasing numbers of students and faculty because of its unique ability to help people understand the complexity of contemporary and historical problems, and because of its ability to help people craft intellectual projects and modes of engagement that reflect this complexity more fully. Several generations of innovative work in the philosophy, history, rhetoric, and social studies of science and technology have generated influential languages, platforms, and methods for understanding the interplay between science, technology, and social-political formations — domains that are too often treated separately. This virtue is being recognized and reflected in the growing interest in the field: Science and Technology Studies is one of the fastest growing areas in the social sciences and humanities, nationwide, and internationally.

Disciplinary lines and research landscapes are starting to shift in directions anticipated by Science and Technology Studies. National directives now encourage the participation of social scientists in engineering research; medical schools increasingly require applicants to train in the humanities; and emerging fields such as ‘green chemistry’ demand heterodox approaches to thinking about environmental and social parameters, the properties of chemical substances, and shifting industrial horizons. Meanwhile, cutting-edge work in the humanities and social sciences has made science and technology central to the humanistic project. For example, examining the past and future of the book, historical and contemporary foundations of race and racial identity, or ethical debates over biomedicine and the boundaries of the body. Indeed, the humanities and social sciences are recognized as key fields from which crucial questions about science and technology emerge, helping people understand when and why particular research programs become dominant, attending to the effects and implications of new technologies and knowledge, and placing ethical and social inquiries at the center of scientific enterprises. Science and Technology Studies organizes and galvanizes precisely these kinds inquiries and approaches.

Undergraduate Program

There is no undergraduate program in Science and Technology Studies.

Graduate Program

Science and Technology Studies: Designated Emphasis (DE)

Visit Group Website

Courses

Science and Technology Studies

Faculty and Instructors

Faculty

Vincanne Adams, Professor.

Ruzena Bajcsy, Professor. Artificial Intelligence (AI), Biosystems & Computational Biology (BIO), Control, Intelligent Systems, and Robotics (CIR), Graphics (GR), Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Computer vision, Bridging information technology to humanities and social sciences, Security (SEC).
Research Profile

David William Bates, Associate Professor. Enlightenment, early Modern European intellectual history, 20th century European and American intellectual history, history and theory of media and technology, history of political thought.
Research Profile

Charles L. Briggs, Professor. Linguistic and medical anthropology, social theory, modernity, citizenship and the state, race, and violence.

Clair Brown, Professor. Innovation, management, economics, labor, employment, labor market institutions, semi-conductor industry.
Research Profile

Jenna Burrell, Associate Professor.

Cathryn Carson, Associate Professor. History of physics, science and society, history of universities, German history, intellectual history, ethnography, data science, nuclear waste.
Research Profile

James Casey, Professor. Continuum mechanics, finite elasticity, continuum thermodynamics, plasticity, theories of elastic-plastic materials, history of mechanics, dynamics.
Research Profile

Mel Y. Chen, Associate Professor. Queer and feminist theory, Disability theory, Critical animal studies, Materiality studies, Cultural politics of race, sexuality, ability, and immigration, Critical linguistics, Paradigms of inter- and transdisciplinarity.

Lawrence Cohen, Professor. Social cultural anthropology, medical and psychiatric anthropology, critical gerontology, lesbian and gay studies, feminist and queer theory.
Research Profile

Elena Conis, Professor.

Marianne Constable, Professor. Law and language, legal rhetoric and philosophy, social and political thought, Anglo-American legal history, Continental philosophy, law and society.
Research Profile

Brian Dolan, Professor.

John A. Douglass, Senior Research Fellow.

Sandra Eder, Assistant Professor. Gender, sexuality, medicine, science, US History 20th century, popular culture.
Research Profile

Daniel Farber, Professor. Environmental law, constiutional law, freedom of speech.
Research Profile

Marion Fourcade, Professor. Culture, social theory, political sociology, economic sociology, comparative methods, knowledge and science.
Research Profile

Beate Fricke, Professor. Medieval art and architecture, idolatry, iconoclasm, history of allegory, formation of communities, incest, anthropophagy, animation, emergence of life and procreation, theories and practices in use of images and relics, visual and material culture, Carolingian Art, Gothic Art, Ottonian Art.
Research Profile

Ken Goldberg, Professor. Robotics, art, social media, new media, automation.
Research Profile

Deborah Gordon, Assistant Adjunct Professor.

Jodi Halpern, Professor. Public health, bioethics, patient autonomy.
Research Profile

John Harte, Professor. Global change, ecology, sustainability, energy policy, theoretical ecology, biodiversityl.
Research Profile

Cori Hayden, Associate Professor. Latin America, Mexico, social and cultural anthropology, kinship, anthropology of science, technology, and medicine, post-colonial science, gender, queer studies.
Research Profile

Seth Holmes, Assistant Professor. Immigration and migration, medical anthropology with foci on social theory and ethnography, social studies of medicine and science, social difference related to race, social difference related to socioeconomic status, social difference related to citizenship, social difference related to gender, social difference related to sexuality, the naturalization and normalization of social hierarchies and health disparities, social suffering and symbolic violence, urban and rural Latin America and North America, population health with focus on global health, population health with focus on health disparities, population health with focus on social determinants of health.
Research Profile

Alastair Iles, Associate Professor. Science, technology and environment, green chemistry, sustainability learning, environmental policy.

Jennifer Johnson-Hanks, Professor. Culture, population, social action, intentions, Africa, gender, fertility, marriage.
Research Profile

Donna V. Jones, Associate Professor. Critical theory, English, modernism, literature and philosophy, literature of the Americas, literature of the African Diaspora, postcolonial literature and theory, narrative and historiography.
Research Profile

Rosemary Joyce, Professor. Latin America, anthropology, gender, archaeology, sexuality, museums, cultural heritage, ethics, Central America, feminism.
Research Profile

Sharon Kaufman, Chair.

Ann C. Keller, Associate Professor. Managing expertise and knowledge validation in public health organizations, scientists’ role in environmental policy, patient interest group advocacy, organization and expertise in pandemic response.
Research Profile

Kelly Knight, Assistant Professor. The social construction and experience of addiction Co-morbidity (HIV, substance abuse, mental illness), homelessness, and US urban health Structural competency in medical education and clinical care Chronic non-cancer pain, clinical uncertainty, and scientific evidence Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), bi-polar disorder, and the US welfare state Gender, reproduction, motherhood and citizenship The production of knowledge in science, clinical medicine, and public health.

Jake Kosek, Associate Professor. Cultural politics of nature and difference, cultural geography, science and technology studies, critical race theory, critical cartography, biopolitics, human and the non-human, and environmental politics.

Thomas W. Laqueur, Professor and Co-Director. Medicine, religion, body, human rights.
Research Profile

John Lie, Professor. Social theory, political economy, East Asia.
Research Profile

Maria Mavroudi, Professor. Byzantine studies.
Research Profile

Massimo Mazzotti, Professor and Director. History of science, History of Mathematics, social theory, science and society, STS .
Research Profile

Carolyn Merchant, Professor. Environmental history, philosophy and ethics.
Research Profile

Guy Micco, Clinical Professor and Co-Director. Aging/old age, suffering, and death, the medical humanities.
Research Profile

Minoo Moallem, Professor. Transnational and Postcolonial Feminist Studies, cultural studies, Visual and Material Cultures of Religion, Immigration and Diaspora Studies, Middle East Studies, and Iranian Studies.
Research Profile

Rachel Morello-Frosch, Professor. Race and class determinants of the distribution of health risks associated with air pollution among diverse communities in the United States .
Research Profile

Deirdre Mulligan, Associate Professor.

Greg Niemeyer, Associate Professor. Art, film studies, digital media installations, photography.
Research Profile

Aihwa Ong, Professor. Cultural anthropology, anthropology, transnationalism, citizenship, global cities, migration, Southeast Asia, urbanism.
Research Profile

Nancy L. Peluso, Professor. Political ecology/resource policy and politics/forests/agrarian change/property and access.
Research Profile

Dorothy Porter, Professor.

Michele Pridmore-Brown, Research Fellow.

Paul M. Rabinow, Professor. Cultural anthropology, social thought, modernity, biotechnology, genome mapping, France, Iceland.
Research Profile

Leigh Raiford, Associate Professor. Social movements, visual culture, memory, photography, African American history and culture.
Research Profile

Francesca Rochberg, Professor. History of science, ancient near east, cuneiform studies.
Research Profile

Christine Rosen, Associate Professor. History of business and the environment, business history, green chemistry, sustainable business strategies.
Research Profile

Caitlin C. Rosenthal, Assistant Professor. American history, capitalism, economic history, slavery.
Research Profile

Pamela Samuelson, Professor. Public policy, intellectual property law, new information technologies, traditional legal regimes, information management, copyright, software protection and cyberlaw.
Research Profile

Annalee Saxenian, Professor. Innovation, information management, entrepreneurship, Silicon Valley, regional economic development, high skilled immigration, Asian development.
Research Profile

Nathan F. Sayre, Associate Professor. Climate change, endangered species, rangelands, political ecology, pastoralism, ranching, environmental history, suburbanization, human-environment interactions, environmental geography, range science and management, Southwestern US, scale, community-based conservation.
Research Profile

Janet Shim, Associate Professor.

David Teece, Professor. Role of product and process development, intellectual property, competitive performance, innovation and organization of industry.
Research Profile

Sarah Vaugn, Assistant Professor. Cultural Anthropology, (Post)colonial Science Studies, Environment, Expertise, Climate Change, Vulnerability, Critical Theories of Race and Racialization, Theories of Liberalism, Caribbean/Latin America.

Elizabeth Watkins, Professor.

Steven Weber, Professor. Political science, international security, international political economy, information science.
Research Profile

David E. Winickoff, Associate Professor. Biotechnology, bioethics, environmental regulation, Science and Technology studies, geoengineering, technology transfer.
Research Profile

Michael Wintroub, Associate Professor. Religion, ritual, social change, rhetoric, history of science, early modern cultural history, travel, identity formation, alterity, cross-cultural contact, popular and court culture, state-building, humanism, vernacular consciousness and literature, mater.
Research Profile

Alexei Yurchak, Associate Professor. Language, Discourse, power, social theory, late socialism, theories of ideology, subjectivity, popular culture, ideology, Soviet and post-Soviet culture and society, post-socialism, telecommunications, linguistics, speech synthesis.
Research Profile

Nasser Zakariya, Assistant Professor.

Affiliated Faculty

Aimee Medeiros, Affiliated Faculty.

Visiting Faculty

Daniel Robert, Visiting Lecturer.

Emeritus Faculty

Adele Clarke, Professor Emeritus.

Frederick M. Dolan, Professor Emeritus. Ethics, modernity, aesthetics, political theory, literature and politics, theories of interpretation, Continental philosophy, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Arendt, Foucault, American political discourse, aesthetics and politics.
Research Profile

Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Professor Emeritus. Labor, citizenship, undocumented students, caring work, settler colonialism, skin color bias.
Research Profile

Bronwyn H. Hall, Professor Emeritus. Applied econometrics, economics of technical change, economics of innovation, patent policy, RandD value, taxation, financing RandD.
Research Profile

John L. Heilbron, Professor Emeritus. History of the physical sciences, biography.
Research Profile

David Hollinger, Professor Emeritus. US history.
Research Profile

William E. Kastenberg, Professor Emeritus. Risk management, risk assessment, nuclear reactor safety, ethical issues in emerging technologies.
Research Profile

John Lesch, Professor Emeritus.

Kristin Luker, Professor Emeritus. Social policy, jurisprudence.
Research Profile

Gene I. Rochlin, Professor Emeritus.

Harry N. Scheiber, Professor Emeritus. American legal history, ocean law and policy, Law of the Sea (international law), federalism and state-federal relations, American constitutional development.
Research Profile

Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Professor Emeritus. Critical medical anthropology, violence, genocide, inequality, marginality, childhood, family, psychiatry, deinstitutionalization, medical ethics, fieldwork ethics, globalization medicine, social/ political illness, disease, AIDS, Ireland, Brazil, cuba.
Research Profile

Nancy A. Van House, Professor Emeritus. Digital libraries, science, information management, technology studies, knowledge communities, user needs, information tools, artifacts, participation of users.
Research Profile