World's most Famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (United States)

The primary activity of the STS program is research, which takes many forms: individual faculty members pursuing intellectual inquiry, teaching in our graduate program, organizing and hosting conferences, colloquia, and other types of publications.

Individual faculty members in STS conduct their own research, often resulting in full-length monographs or books (see the publications page). These faculty most often teach and advise students on an individual basis. Some faculty have formed larger researgh groups and raise funds to support projects ranging from engineering education to analysis of the digital divide in the developing world to the pedagogy of physics. See Centers and Research groups at left.

"Related Programs," describes other academic and some non-academic organizations that have connections to MIT's STS Program. Students, faculty, and visitors are strongly encouraged to use this extraordinary network to further their research and education. These multiple linkages significantly amplify the opportunities afforded to STS scholars.

The STS Program sponsors a wide range of events during the academic year. Some of these are ongoing series, or regular events, while others are episodic, depending on who is in town and what is happening in the world.

Many of these events are open to the broader community, and many of them are co-sponsored with other units at MIT and beyond.

One of the great strengths of the STS Program is the wide range of events and activities with which we are involved. Students and faculty in the program, as well as visitors and friends, are strongly encouraged to take advantage of these multiple opportunities, both formal and informal.

SPRING 2013 EVENTS

Colloquia

Monday, April 22

4 PM | E51-095

"A Tale of Three Laboratories: Rabies Vaccination and the Pasteurization of New York City, 1885-1920"

Jessica Wang - Speaker

University of British Columbia

Charles Rosenberg - Disscusant

Harvard University

Monday, May 6

4 PM | E51-095

"Beyond Imported Magic: STS and Latin America"

Eden Medina - Speaker

Indiana University

Gabriela Soto-Laveaga - Disscusant

University of California - Santa Barbara

The Program in Science, Technology, and Society (STS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology attempts to increase understanding of the human-built world. In this world, science and technology have broken through the walls of industry and of the laboratory to become an inextricable and determining element of nature, culture, and history. 

The STS Program was founded at MIT in 1976 to address this unprecedented and momentous integration of science, technology, and society. Faculty and students in the Program address two basic, interrelated questions: how did science and technology evolve as human activities, and what role do they play in the larger civilization? The STS perspective is crucial to understanding major events of our time (war and conflict, the economy, health, the environment) and to addressing these and other major public issues (privacy, democracy, education).

The STS Program is part of MIT's School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS). In 1980 STS began to offer undergraduate subjects, which typically attract students with broad interests who seek an interdisciplinary approach to their education. Undergraduates can concentrate or minor in STS. While STS does not offer an independent major, students can join an STS program to any science or engineering major to form a joint major, leading to a Bachelor of Science degree in Humanities and Science or Humanities and Engineering. They can also double major in STS and a science or engineering discipline, receiving two B.S. degrees.

In 1988 STS joined MIT's Anthropology Program and History Faculty to offer a doctoral degree program in the History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society (HASTS). Since then HASTS has developed into one of the world's preeminent graduate programs in STS-related studies. It attracts students from around the world who seek an interdisciplinary program that will prepare them for careers in the academy, law, business, journalism, and museum work, among other possibilities.

For more information about the HASTS doctoral program, contact Academic Administrator Karen Gardner (e-mail: kgardner@mit.edu; telephone: 617-253-9759).