About the Major

Science and technology studies (STS) is a transdisciplinary major that organizes the study of the sciences, technology, and medicine as intellectual achievements, social and political institutions, and constitutive of culture.  The STS major has a unified structure that all students complete; at the same time, this common structure harbors a diversity of individually tailored courses of study. The STS major has three components: (A) Science Courses, (B) STS Courses, and (C) an Area of Concentration.

The STS major is offered either as a stand-alone single major or a joint-major with one of eleven (11) sciences:

As a single major, STS combines four (4) major track courses in a single science, six (6) courses in science and technology studies, and 3 courses in a social science or humanities concentration. The six (6) areas of social science and humanities concentrations that we count for the major are: Anthropology, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, History, Philosophy, Religion, and Sociology. These fields and disciplines have well established bodies of research, methodological orientations, and theoretical traditions that intersect with STS.

As a joint-major, the STS major incorporates a students’ entire science major, which fulfills two of the three standard components of the STS major (the 4 science courses and the concentration).  Those students whose area of concentration is one of the sciences must complete a major in that science as part of the requirements for their STS major.  The eleven (11) science majors that we have counted for the major are: Astronomy, Physics, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Earth & Environmental Sciences, Molecular Biology & Biochemistry, Neuroscience, Physics, and Psychology.  Joint majors complete their science majors and then complete an additional six (6) courses in science and technology studies.