Class Number
stringlengths 4
15
| Name
stringlengths 4
124
| Description
stringlengths 23
1.14k
| Offered
bool 2
classes | Term
stringclasses 97
values | Level
stringclasses 2
values | Units
stringclasses 194
values | Prerequisites
stringlengths 4
127
⌀ | Equivalents
stringlengths 7
63
⌀ | Lab
bool 2
classes | Partial Lab
bool 2
classes | REST
bool 2
classes | GIR
stringclasses 7
values | HASS
stringclasses 5
values | CI / CI-HW
stringclasses 3
values |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SP.254 | Low Carbon Energy in Research and Application | One of the major challenges of our time is to provide more energy to a growing world population while simultaneously reducing carbon emissions to combat climate change. Climate science shows that it is urgent to accomplish this soon, as the residence times of most greenhouse gasses are large. Subject offers exposure to relevant research that is being done in this context at MIT. Students review short papers on low carbon technologies and climate change; hear from faculty, researchers, and industry representatives associated with the MITEI Low Carbon Energy Centers; and create a digital story exploring the connections between the challenges, research, and current deployment of technologies. Offers context to students' future academic work and exposes students to ways in which many MIT majors apply to energy. Subject can count toward the 6-unit discovery-focused credit limit for first-year students. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 2-0-1 [P/D/F] | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
SP.255 | Eating Culture: An Exploration of Cultures around the World through Food | Introduces students to different cultures around the world via the culinary dishes they enjoy. Examines the varying histories, climates, migration patterns and religions that shape a culture. Each class, students explore and--of course!--taste one dish from one country. Work outside of class includes readings and films which reveal the cultural meanings of food. May include field trips to restaurants or neighborhoods in Boston and Cambridge. Subject can count toward the 6-unit discovery-focused credit limit for first-year students. Limited to 15. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 1-0-1 [P/D/F] | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
SP.256 | Informed Philanthropy in Theory and Action | Explores the potential and pitfalls of philanthropy as a mechanism for social change. Students assess the work of community agencies to address challenges and opportunities facing MIT's neighboring communities, with particular focus on community representation, equity, and social justice. Class culminates with students making a group decision on how the Learning by Giving Foundation (which is partnering with the class) will disperse $10,000 to local community agencies. Each session includes a presentation by a local community agency, grant-making foundation, and/or individual philanthropist. Through class discussion and supporting materials, students examine the interaction between philanthropy and social change, including the role of philanthropists past and present in shaping social change and social conservatism. Subject can count toward the 6-unit discovery-focused credit limit for first-year students. Limited to 20. | true | IAP | Undergraduate | 1-0-1 [P/D/F] | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
SP.257 | MISTI Career Connections: Energy | Provides students with an opportunity to network and think strategically about their global careers in the energy sector. Content is international, drawing from MISTI's global network of companies and institutions, and professionals, with attention to energy research and skills necessary to work in the energy field. Through weekly discussion-based sessions, students learn from numerous sources: MISTI hosts, MITEI, alumni, and more. As a First-Year Discovery subject, focuses on career goals and skills, providing both a global and local perspective on energy topics. Open to students of all levels and disciplines, students can learn from each other and consider personal and professional goals in a multidisciplinary and international capacity. This subject can count toward the 6-unit discovery-focused credit limit for first-year students. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 2-0-1 [P/D/F] | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
SP.258 | MISTI: Middle East Cross-Border Development and Leadership | Provides opportunities to network and think strategically about challenges facing the Middle East and how situations can benefit from multi-disciplinary, cross-border solutions. Focus is international, with students working alongside peers from Israeli-Palestinian organizations. Through monthly professional development sessions with guest lecturers, weekly discussion-based sessions focused on the culture and history of the Middle East, and a group project, students explore what challenges face the Middle East and what skills are needed to address them. Networking opportunities with industry leaders and peers in the region provided. Open to students of all levels and disciplines. This subject can count toward the 6-unit discovery-focused credit limit for first-year students. Limited to 20. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 2-0-1 [P/D/F] | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
SP.259 | Pathways to Social Justice at MIT and Beyond | This course explores student pathways to support social change and social justice efforts within the greater Boston region and how students can be agents of change throughout their lives. Students are introduced to ethical, reciprocal, and community-informed approaches to creating social change through readings, lectures, class discussions, critical reflection, and direct service experiences with local community organizations. This course also aims to create a supportive community for undergraduate students to build a network of thoughtful MIT stakeholders dedicated to creating social good in the world. Subject offered by the PKG Public Service Center. Subject can count toward the 6-unit discovery-focused credit limit for first-year students. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 1-1-1 [P/D/F] | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
SP.310 | Engagement and Discovery Through the Terrascope Field Experience | Each spring, first-year students in the Terrascope Learning Community spend a week exploring a sustainability-related problem in an off-campus site. During the trip, students engage with communities affected by the problem and people taking a wide range of approaches to address it. In this course, students will integrate and communicate their experience from the trip, with the aim of deepening their consideration of the year's problem and how the field experience impacts their thoughts about their own pathways through MIT and beyond. Students will learn about best practices and opportunities for civic engagement related to the year's topic, and they will explore ways of communicating their learnings from the field experience. Limited to first-year students participating in the Terrascope spring break field experience. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 1-1-1 [P/D/F] | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
SP.35UR | Undergraduate Research in Terrascope | Undergraduate research opportunities in Terrascope. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer | Undergraduate | rranged [P/D/F] | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
SP.360 | Terrascope Radio | An exploration of radio as a medium of expression and communication, particularly the communication of complex scientific or technical information to general audiences. Examines the ingredients of effective radio programming, drawing extensively on examples from both commercial and public radio. Student teams produce, assemble, narrate, record and broadcast/webcast radio programs on topics related to the complex environmental issue that is the focus of the year's Terrascope subjects. Includes multiple individual writing assignments that explore the constraints and opportunities in radio as a medium. Limited to 15 first-year students. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-3-6 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Arts | CI-H |
SP.361 | Majors and Careers Through a Terrascope Lens | MIT alumni pursuing sustainability-oriented careers describe ways in which their major and career choices have provided them with the lenses through which they see the problems they work to solve. Students participate in guided reflection, focused on making the discussion relevant to their own personal situations and affinities. Students strengthen their ability to think deeply about their goals, for MIT and for the world beyond, and come into direct contact with alumni who can continue to mentor them through this process. Open to all undergraduates, regardless of Terrascope affiliation. | true | IAP | Undergraduate | 1-0-1 [P/D/F] | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
SP.3S50 | Special Subject: Terrascope | Covers areas of study not included in the regular Terrascope curriculum. Preference to students in Terrascope. | true | Fall, Spring | Undergraduate | rranged | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.001 | Technology in American History | A survey of America's transition from a rural, agrarian, and artisan society to one of the world's leading industrial powers. Treats the emergence of industrial capitalism: the rise of the factory system; new forms of power, transport, and communication; the advent of the large industrial corporation; the social relations of production; and the hallmarks of science-based industry. Views technology as part of the larger culture and reveals innovation as a process consisting of a range of possibilities that are chosen or rejected according to the social criteria of the time. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
STS.002 | Finance and Society | Examines finance as a social technology intended to improve economic opportunity by moving capital to where it is most needed. Surveys the history of modern finance, from medieval Italy to the Great Depression, while addressing credit, finance and state (and imperial) power, global financial interconnection, and financial crises. Explores modern finance (since about 1950) from a variety of historical and social-scientific perspectives, covering quant finance, financialization, the crisis of 2007-2008, and finance in the digital age. Enrollment limited. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | CI-H |
STS.003 | Ancient Greeks to Modern Geeks: A History of Science | Covers the development of major fields in the physical and life sciences, from 18th-century Europe through 20th-century America. Examines ideas, institutions, and the social settings of the sciences, with emphasis on how cultural contexts influence scientific concepts and practices. | false | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | CI-H |
STS.004 | Intersections: Science, Technology, and the World | Exposes students to multidisciplinary studies in Science, Technology, and Society (STS), using four case studies to illustrate a broad range of approaches to basic principles of STS studies. Case studies vary from year to year, but always include a current MIT event. Other topics are drawn from legal and political conflicts, and arts and communication media. Includes guest presenters, discussion groups, field activities, visual media, and a practicum style of learning. Enrollment limited. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
STS.005[J] | Data and Society | Introduces students to the social, political, and ethical aspects of data science work. Designed to create reflective practitioners who are able to think critically about how collecting, aggregating, and analyzing data are social processes and processes that affect people. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 11.155[J], IDS.057[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
STS.006[J] | Bioethics | Considers ethical questions that have arisen from the growth of biomedical research and the health-care industry since World War II. Should doctors be allowed to help patients end their lives? If so, when and how? Should embryos be cloned for research and/or reproduction? Should parents be given control over the genetic make-up of their children? What types of living things are appropriate to use as research subjects? How should we distribute scarce and expensive medical resources? Draws on philosophy, history, and anthropology to show how problems in bioethics can be approached from a variety of perspectives. | false | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 24.06[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | CI-H |
STS.008 | Technology and Experience | Introduces the "inner history" of technology: how it affects intimate aspects of human experience from sociological, psychological and anthropological perspectives. Topics vary, but may include how the internet transforms our experience of time, space, privacy, and social engagement; how entertainment media affects attention, creativity, aesthetics and emotion; how innovations in wearable and textile technologies reshape notions of history and identity; how pharmaceuticals reshape identity, mood, pain, and pleasure. Includes in-class discussion of readings, short written and multimedia assignments, final project. Enrollment limited. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | CI-H |
STS.009 | Evolution and Society | Provides a broad conceptual and historical introduction to scientific theories of evolution and their place in the wider culture. Embraces historical, scientific and anthropological/cultural perspectives grounded in relevant developments in the biological sciences since 1800 that are largely responsible for the development of the modern theory of evolution by natural selection. Students read key texts, analyze key debates (e.g. Darwinian debates in the 19th century, and the creation controversies in the 20th century) and give class presentations. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | CI-H |
STS.011 | Engineering Life: Biotechnology and Society | Provides instruction in the history of humanity's efforts to control and shape life through biotechnology, from agriculture to gene editing. Examines the technologies, individuals and socio-economic systems that are associated with such efforts, as well as the impact that these efforts have on society and science as a whole. Explores these issues with particular attention to the development of the modern biotechnology industry in the Greater Boston area. Includes a field trip. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
STS.012[J] | Science in Action: Technologies and Controversies in Everyday Life | Explores a range of controversies about the role of technology, the nature of scientific research and the place of politics in science: debates about digital piracy and privacy, the role of activism in science, the increasingly unclear boundaries between human and non-human, the role of MRIs as courtroom evidence, the potential influence of gender on scientific research, etc. Provides exposure to science in a dynamic relation with social life and cultural ideas. Materials draw from humanities and social science research, ethnographic fieldwork, films and science podcasts, as well as from experimental multimedia. Enrollment limited. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | WGS.120[J] | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
STS.014 | Embodied Education: Past, Present, Future | Discusses recent scientific and educational research that finds that the human body in motion is a medium for learning. Explores how and why physical education was integrated into the US educational system while remaining separate from academic subjects — and how and why 21st-century institutions might combine the two. Weekly in-lecture labs demonstrate how exercise can inform academic instruction and invite students to create future curricula. Students who enroll in this class may receive both HASS-S credit for it and may enroll to earn two Physical Education and Wellness (PE&W) points. Limited to 20. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
STS.021[J] | Science Activism: Gender, Race, and Power | Examines the role scientists have played as activists in social movements in the US following World War II. Themes include scientific responsibility and social justice, the motivation of individual scientists, strategies for organizing, the significance of race and gender, and scientists' impact within social movements. Case studies include atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons and the nuclear freeze campaign, climate science and environmental justice, the civil rights movement, Vietnam War protests, the March 4 movement at MIT, and concerns about genetic engineering, gender equality, intersectional feminism, and student activism at MIT. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | WGS.160[J] | false | false | false | False | Elective | False |
STS.022[J] | Gender, Race, and Environmental Justice | Provides an introduction to the analysis of gender in science, technology, and environmental politics from a global perspective. Familiarizes students with central objects, questions, and methods in the field. Examines existent critiques of the racial, sexual and environmental politics at stake in techno-scientific cultures. Draws on material from popular culture, media, fiction, film, and ethnography. Addressing specific examples from across the globe, students also explore different approaches to build more livable environments that promote social justice. Taught in English. Limited to 18. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21A.407[J], 21G.057[J], WGS.275[J] | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
STS.023[J] | Science, Gender and Social Inequality in the Developing World | Examines the influence of social and cultural determinants (colonialism, nationalism, class, and gender) on modern science and technology. Discusses the relationship of scientific progress to colonial expansions and nationalist aspirations. Explores the nature of scientific institutions within a social, cultural, and political context, and how science and technology have impacted developing societies | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | WGS.226[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
STS.024[J] | Thinking on Your Feet: Dance as a Learning Science (New) | Explores the past, present, and future of dance as a learning science. Combines readings and discussion with experiential learning. Readings span the science of movement and learning, studies of educational dance, and research on school reform. Lab exercises led by guest artists introduce the rich possibilities of dance for teaching subjects across the curriculum. For their final project, students choreograph a lesson on a topic of their choosing. This is an introductory class; no dance background is required. Limited to 20 students. | false | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | CMS.524[J] | false | false | false | False | Arts | False |
STS.025[J] | Making the Modern World: The Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective | Global survey of the great transformation in history known as the "Industrial Revolution." Topics include origins of mechanized production, the factory system, steam propulsion, electrification, mass communications, mass production and automation. Emphasis on the transfer of technology and its many adaptations around the world. Countries treated include Great Britain, France, Germany, the US, Sweden, Russia, Japan, China, and India. Includes brief reflection papers and a final paper. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21H.285[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
STS.026 | History of Manufacturing in America | Introductory survey of fundamental innovations and transitions in American manufacturing from the colonial period to the mid-twentieth century. Primary emphasis on textiles and metalworking, with particular attention to the role of the machine tool industry in the American manufacturing economy. Students taking graduate version are expected to explore the material in greater depth. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
STS.027[J] | The Civil War and the Emergence of Modern America: 1861-1890 | Using the American Civil War as a baseline, considers what it means to become "modern" by exploring the war's material and manpower needs, associated key technologies, and how both influenced the United States' entrance into the age of "Big Business." Readings include material on steam transportation, telegraphic communications, arms production, naval innovation, food processing, medicine, public health, management methods, and the mass production of everything from underwear to uniforms – all essential ingredients of modernity. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | Permission of instructor | 21H.205[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
STS.028 | Seven Wonders of the Engineering World | Uses case studies to take a broad-ranging look at seven major engineering achievements in world history. Examines the nature of engineering as a source of knowledge production/application, how it reflects the cultural settings in which it emerges, and how it changes as it enters different cultural and economic settings. Includes weekly reflection papers. Achievements covered vary from term to term. Limited to 20. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
STS.030 | Forensic History: Problem Solving into the Past | Explores new pathways to use the latest science and technologies to understand the past. Working like detectives, students draw on research methods from such fields as climate science, geology, molecular biology, proteomics, DNA testing, carbon dating and big data analysis to invent their own forensic historical research techniques. They also study new narrative forms to accompany novel research techniques. Instruction and practice in oral and written communication provided. Enrollment limited. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
STS.031[J] | Environment and History | Focusing on the period from 1500 to the present, explores the influence of climate, topography, plants, animals, and microorganisms on human history and the reciprocal influence of people on the environment. Topics include the European encounter with the Americas, the impact of modern technology, and the current environmental crisis. Enrollment limited. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 12.386[J], 21H.185[J] | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | CI-H |
STS.032 | Energy, Environment, and Society | Uses a problem-solving, multi-disciplinary, and multicultural approach that takes energy beyond the complex circuits, grids, and kilojoules to the realm of everyday life, with ordinary people as practitioners and producers of energy knowledge, infrastructures, and technologies. The three main objectives are to immerse students in the historical, cultural, multi-cultural, and entrepreneurial aspects of energy across the world to make them better energy engineers; to introduce them to research and analytical methods; and to deploy these methods and their various skills to solve/design a solution, in groups, to a specific energy problem chosen by the students. Each cohort tackles a different energy problem. Provides instruction on how to be active shapers of the world and to bring students' various disciplinary skills and cultural diversity into dialogue as conceptual tools for problem-solving. Enrollment limited. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
STS.033[J] | People and the Planet: Environmental Histories and Engineering | Explores historical and cultural aspects of complex environmental problems and engineering approaches to sustainable solutions. Introduces quantitative analyses and methodological tools to understand environmental issues that have human and natural components. Demonstrates concepts through a series of historical and cultural analyses of environmental challenges and their engineering responses. Builds writing, quantitative modeling, and analytical skills in assessing environmental systems problems and developing engineering solutions. Through environmental data gathering and analysis, students engage with the challenges and possibilities of engineering in complex, interacting systems, and investigate plausible, symbiotic, systems-oriented solutions. Students taking graduate version complete additional analysis of reading assignments and a more in-depth and longer final paper. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-3-6 | null | 11.004[J] | false | false | false | False | Elective | False |
STS.034 | Science Communication: A Practical Guide | Develops students' abilities to communicate about science and technology effectively and to analyze science communication in a variety of real-world contexts. Considers tools, media, and strategies to engage polarized publics, audiences, and communities traditionally excluded from scientific discussions. Provides a theoretical and practical background in science communication — from citizen science, podcasts, and AI to art, science slams, and exhibitions — culminating in the development of a final science communication project to be presented in the MIT Museum. Enrollment limited. | false | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | CI-H |
STS.035 | Exhibiting Science | Project-based seminar covers key topics in museum communication, including science learning in informal settings, the role of artifacts and interactives, and exhibit evaluation. Students work on a term-long project, organized around the design, fabrication, and installation of an original multimedia exhibit about current scientific research at MIT. Culminates with the project's installation in the MIT Museum's Mark Epstein Innovation Gallery. Limited to 20; preference to students who have taken STS.034. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 2-2-8 | One CI-H/CI-HW subject and permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | Arts | False |
STS.036 | Science in American Life: 1920-2020 | Assesses the place of science in American public life from the 1920s to the present. Takes a historically inflected approach to examine the social relations of science in the modern United States. Examines science and (in turn) religion, warfare, health, education, the environment, and human rights to explore how an international leader in science is also home to some of the developed world's most persistent forms of "science denialism." Examples include the denial of evolution, human-induced climate change, and particular medical-scientific aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
STS.038 | Risky Business: Food Production, Environment, and Health | Follows the shifts in food production between small-holder, local production to large-scale industries and back again to "localvore" food production in the 19th and 20th centuries. Tracks how people grew anxious about health risks associated with modern food over time. In a weekly lab, students build a compost production facility and/or a segment of a perennial food forest. Discusses food politics, food security and justice, food sustainability and safety, and first steps in growing one's own food. Limited to 25. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 2-1-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
STS.039 | History of Native Science | Tracks the history of Indigenous knowledge and engagements with colonial US and settler science. Explores traditional ecological knowledge, naturalized knowledge systems, and decolonized research methods — among other frameworks — and how the field of Native science came to be. Introduces critical STS and Indigenous methods for translating and engaging Indigenous knowledge and history, and traces how science and indignity have been entangled through colonial and decolonial practice. Presents how Native science has been a galvanizing force for international research and policy on everything from climate science to genetics. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
STS.040 | A Global History of Commodities | Inspires students to think about production chains in ways that reflect their impact on the environment, labor practices, and human health. Examines how commodities connect distant places through a chain of relationships, and link people, e.g., enslaved African producers with middle-class American consumers, and Asian factory workers with Europeans taking a holiday on the beach. Studies how mass production and mass demand for commodities, such as real estate, bananas, rubber, corn, and beef, in the 20th century changed the way people worked, lived, and saw themselves as they adopted new technologies to produce and consume in radically different ways from their parents and grandparents. Assignments include creation of a board game for buying and selling real estate in Boston, a two-minute mini-documentary, and an article on a commodity and country. Limited to 25. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | CI-H |
STS.041 | Exercise is Medicine: From Ancient Civilizations to Modern Health Care Systems | Explores the history of exercise in preventing and curing physical and mental illness. Combines readings and discussion with experiential learning. Doing Yoga and Qigong alongside readings on Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine enables students to viscerally experience concepts in medical history such as prana and chi; activities including Pilates and High Intensity Interval Training deepen students' understanding of the challenges integrating scientific discovery into everyday life. Students who enroll in this class may receive both HASS-S credit for it and may enroll to earn two Physical Education and Wellness (PE&W) points. Enrollment limited. | false | Spring | Undergraduate | 2-1-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
STS.042[J] | Einstein, Oppenheimer, Feynman: Physics in the 20th Century | Explores the changing roles of physics and physicists during the 20th century. Topics range from relativity theory and quantum mechanics to high-energy physics and cosmology. Examines the development of modern physics within shifting institutional, cultural, and political contexts, such as physics in Imperial Britain, Nazi Germany, US efforts during World War II, and physicists' roles during the Cold War. Enrollment limited. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 8.225[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
STS.043 | Technology and Self: Science, Technology, and Memoir | Focuses on the memoir as a window onto the relationship of creative people (scientists, engineers, designers, and others) to their work. Examines how class, race, ethnicity, family history, and trauma shape the person who shapes artifacts, experiments, and ideas. Readings explore the connection between material culture, identity, and personal development. Offers the opportunity, if desired, to examine personal experiences and write memoir fragments. Students taking graduate version write a longer final paper. Limited to 15; no listeners. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 2-0-7 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
STS.044 | Technology and Self: Things and Thinking | Explores emotional and intellectual impact of objects. The growing literature on cognition and "things" cuts across anthropology, history, social theory, literature, sociology, and psychology and is of great relevance to science students. Examines the range of theories, from Mary Douglas in anthropology to D. W. Winnicott in psychoanalytic thinking, that underlies "thing" or "object" analysis. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 15; no listeners. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 2-0-7 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
STS.046[J] | The Science of Race, Sex, and Gender | Examines the role of science and medicine in the origins and evolution of the concepts of race, sex, and gender from the 17th century to the present. Focus on how biological, anthropological, and medical concepts intersect with social, cultural, and political ideas about racial, sexual, and gender difference in the US and globally. Approach is historical and comparative across disciplines emphasizing the different modes of explanation and use of evidence in each field. | false | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21A.103[J], WGS.225[J] | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
STS.047 | Quantifying People: A History of Social Science | Historical examination of the quest to understand human society scientifically. Focuses on quantification, including its central role in the historical development of social science and its importance in the 21st-century data age. Covers the political arithmetic of the 17th century to the present. Emphasizes intensive reading of primary sources, which represent past attempts to count, calculate, measure, and model many dimensions of human social life (population, wealth, health, happiness, intelligence, crime, deviance, race). Limited to 25. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
STS.048 | African Americans in Science, Technology, and Medicine | A survey of the contributions of African Americans to science, technology, and medicine from colonial times to the present. Explores the impact of concepts, trends, and developments in science, technology, and medicine on the lives of African Americans. Examples include the eugenics movement, the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, the debate surrounding racial inheritance, and IQ testing. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
STS.049 | The Long War Against Cancer | Examines anticancer efforts as a critical area for the formation of contemporary biomedical explanations for health and disease. Begins with the premise that the most significant implications of these efforts extend far beyond the success or failure of individual cancer therapies. Considers developments in the epidemiology, therapy, and politics of cancer. Uses the history of cancer to connect the history of biology and medicine to larger social and cultural developments, including those in bioethics, race, gender, activism, markets, and governance. | false | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | CI-H |
STS.050 | The History of MIT | Examines the history of MIT, from its founding to the present, through the lens of the history of science and technology. Topics include William Barton Rogers; the modern research university and educational philosophy; campus, intellectual, and organizational development; changing laboratories and practices; MIT's relationship with Boston, the federal government, and industry; and notable activities and achievements of students, alumni, faculty, and staff. Includes guest lecturers, on-campus field trips, and interactive exercises. Enrollment limited. | false | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
STS.051 | Documenting MIT Communities | Researches the history and culture of an MIT community to contribute to its documentation and preservation. Through the practice of doing original research, students learn about the history of an MIT community. Provides instruction in the methods historians use to document the past, as well as methods from related fields. Enrollment limited. | false | Fall | Undergraduate | 2-0-7 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
STS.053 | Multidisciplinary Interactive Learning Through Problem-Solving | Interdisciplinary problem-solving at the intersection of humanities, science, engineering, and business. Team-taught face-to-face classes at multiple US and African universities connected live via Zoom. Divided into four sections/assessments: US and African histories, cultures, politics, and development relations; HASS as a problem-solving tool; STEM applications to real-life problem-solving; and introduction to summer field-class sites or exchange programs. Goal is to equip students with skills for team-based trans-disciplinary and cross-cultural problem-solving. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Elective | False |
STS.055[J] | Living Dangerously: Environmental Problems from 1900 to Today | Historical overview of the interactions between people and their environments in the past 100 years. Focuses on the accelerating human impact on Earth, starting in the late 19th century and continuing to the present day. Covers case studies showing how people have become aware of their impacts on the environment, and, in turn, the environment's impacts upon human society and what humans have done to mitigate damages. Topics include: food safety and security, industrial agriculture, pesticides, nuclear energy and warfare, lead, smog, ozone depletion, and climate change. Limited to 18. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 12.384[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | CI-H |
STS.060[J] | The Anthropology of Biology | Applies the tools of anthropology to examine biology in the age of genomics, biotechnological enterprise, biodiversity conservation, pharmaceutical bioprospecting, and synthetic biology. Examines such social concerns such as bioterrorism, genetic modification, and cloning. Offers an anthropological inquiry into how the substances and explanations of biology — ecological, organismic, cellular, molecular, genetic, informatic — are changing. Examines such artifacts as cell lines, biodiversity databases, and artificial life models, and using primary sources in biology, social studies of the life sciences, and literary and cinematic materials, asks how we might answer Erwin Schrodinger's 1944 question, "What Is Life?", today. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21A.303[J] | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
STS.064[J] | DV Lab: Documenting Science through Video and New Media | Uses documentary video making as a tool to explore everyday social worlds (including those of science and engineering), and for thinking analytically about media itself. Students make videos and engage in critical analysis. Provides students with instruction on how to communicate effectively and creatively in a visual medium, and how to articulate their own analyses of documentary images in writing and spoken word. Readings drawn from documentary film theory, anthropology, and social studies of science. Students view a wide variety of classic documentaries and explore different styles. Lab component devoted to digital video production. Includes a final video project. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 12. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-3-6 | null | 21A.550[J] | false | false | false | False | Arts | CI-H |
STS.065[J] | The Anthropology of Sound | Examines the ways humans experience sound and how perceptions and technologies of sound emerge from cultural, economic, and historical worlds. Consider how the sound/noise/music boundaries have been imagined, created, and modeled across sociocultural and historical contexts. Learn how environmental, linguistic, and musical sounds are construed cross-culturally as well as the rise of telephony, architectural acoustics, sound recording, multi-channel and spatial mix performance, and the globalized travel of these technologies. Questions of sound ownership, property, authorship, remix, and copyright in the digital age are also addressed. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21A.505[J], CMS.406[J] | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
STS.074[J] | Art, Craft, Science | Examines how people learn, practice, and evaluate traditional and contemporary craft techniques. Social science theories of design, embodiment, apprenticeship learning, skill, labor, expertise, and tacit knowledge are used to explore distinctions among art, craft, and science. Also discusses the commoditization of craft into market goods, collectible art, and tourism industries. Ethnographic and historical case studies include textiles, Shaker furniture, glassblowing, quilting, cheesemaking, industrial design, home and professional cooking, factory and laboratory work, CAD/CAM. Demonstrations, optional field trips, and/or hands-on craft projects may be included. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | false | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21A.501[J] | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
STS.075[J] | Technology and Culture | Examines the intersections of technology, culture, and politics in a variety of social and historical settings ranging from 19th-century factories to 21st-century techno dance floors, from Victorian London to anything-goes Las Vegas. Discussions and readings organized around three questions: what cultural effects and risks follow from treating biology as technology; how computers have changed the way we think about ourselves and others; and how politics are built into our infrastructures. Explores the forces behind technological and cultural change; how technological and cultural artifacts are understood and used by different communities; and whether, in what ways, and for whom technology has produced a better world. Limited to 50. | true | Fall, Spring | Undergraduate | 2-0-7 | null | 21A.500[J] | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
STS.080[J] | Youth Political Participation | Surveys youth political participation in the US since the early 1800s. Investigates trends in youth political activism during specific historical periods, as well as what difference youth media production and technology use (e.g., radio, music, automobiles, ready-made clothing) made in determining the course of events. Explores what is truly new about "new media" and reviews lessons from history for present-day activists based on patterns of past failure and success. Some mandatory field trips may occur during class time. Limited to 40. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 11.151[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
STS.081[J] | Innovation Systems for Science, Technology, Energy, Manufacturing, and Health | Examines science and technology innovation systems, including case studies on energy, computing, advanced manufacturing, and health sectors. Emphasizes public policy and the federal government's role in that system. Focuses on the US but uses international examples. Reviews foundations of economic growth theory, innovation systems theory, and the basic approaches to science and technology policy. Explores the organization and role of energy and medical science R&D agencies, as well as gaps in those innovation systems. Also addresses the science and technology talent base as a factor in growth, and educational approaches to better support it. Class meets for nine weeks; in the remaining weeks, students work on a final paper due at the end of the term. Limited to 25. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 2-0-7 | null | 17.395[J] | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
STS.082[J] | Science, Technology, and Public Policy | Analysis of issues at the intersection of science, technology, public policy, and business. Cases drawn from antitrust and intellectual property rights; health and environmental policy; defense procurement and strategy; strategic trade and industrial policy; and R&D funding. Structured around theories of political economy, modified to take into account integration of uncertain technical information into public and private decision-making. Meets with 17.310 when offered concurrently. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 4-0-8 | null | 17.309[J], IDS.055[J] | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | CI-H |
STS.083 | Computers and Social Change | Provides instruction on how people have historically connected computers to ideas on social, economic, and political change and how these ideas have changed over time. Based on a series of case studies from different parts of the world. Explores topics such as how computers have intertwined with ideas on work, freedom, governance, and access to knowledge. Limited to 25. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
STS.084[J] | Social Problems of Nuclear Energy | Surveys the major social challenges for nuclear energy. Topics include the ability of nuclear power to help mitigate climate change; challenges associated with ensuring nuclear safety; the effects of nuclear accidents; the management of nuclear waste; the linkages between nuclear power and nuclear weapons, the consequences of nuclear war; and political challenges to the safe and economic regulation of the nuclear industry. Weekly readings presented from both sides of the debate, followed by in-class discussions. Instruction and practice in oral and written communication provided. Limited to 18. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 22.04[J] | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
STS.085[J] | Foundations of Information Policy | Studies the growth of computer and communications technology and the new legal and ethical challenges that reflect tensions between individual rights and societal needs. Topics include computer crime; intellectual property restrictions on software; encryption, privacy, and national security; academic freedom and free speech. Students meet and question technologists, activists, law enforcement agents, journalists, and legal experts. Instruction and practice in oral and written communication provided. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Enrollment limited. | false | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | Permission of instructor | 6.4590[J] | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
STS.086[J] | Cultures of Computing | Examines computers anthropologically, as artifacts revealing the social orders and cultural practices that create them. Students read classic texts in computer science along with cultural analyses of computing history and contemporary configurations. Explores the history of automata, automation and capitalist manufacturing; cybernetics and WWII operations research; artificial intelligence and gendered subjectivity; robots, cyborgs, and artificial life; creation and commoditization of the personal computer; the growth of the Internet as a military, academic, and commercial project; hackers and gamers; technobodies and virtual sociality. Emphasis is placed on how ideas about gender and other social differences shape labor practices, models of cognition, hacking culture, and social media. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21A.504[J], WGS.276[J] | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
STS.087 | Biography in Science | An examination of biography as a literary genre to be employed in the history of science. The use of biography in different historical periods to illuminate aspects of the development of science. A critical analysis of autobiography, archival sources, and the oral tradition as materials in the construction of biographies of scientists. Published biographies of scientists constitute the major reading, but attention is given to unpublished biographical sources as well. Comparison is drawn between biography as a literary form in the history of science and in other disciplines. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
STS.088 | Africa for Engineers | Covers historical, cultural, and ethical dimensions of engineering in Africa. Focuses on construction of big projects like cities, hydroelectricity dams, roads, railway lines, ports and harbors, transport and communication, mines, industrial processing plant, and plantations. Explores the contributions of big capital, engineers, politicians, and ordinary people. Emphasizes how local culture, politics, labor, and knowledge affect engineering. Also focuses on environmental and cultural impact assessment. Prepares students who wish to work or study in Africa and the Global South. Enrollment limited. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
STS.095, | STS.096 Independent Study in Science, Technology, and Society | For students who wish to pursue special studies or projects with a member of the Program in Science, Technology, and Society. STS.095 is letter-graded; STS.096 is P/D/F. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring | Undergraduate | rranged [P/D/F] | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.S20 | Special Subject: Science, Technology and Society | Addresses subject matter in Science, Technology and Society that is not offered in the regular curriculum. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | rranged | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.S21 | Special Subject: Science, Technology and Society | Addresses subject matter in Science, Technology and Society that is not offered in the regular curriculum. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | rranged | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.S22 | Special Subject: Science, Technology and Society (New) | Addresses subject matter in Science, Technology and Society that is not offered in the regular curriculum. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | rranged | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.S23 | Special Subject: Science, Technology and Society (New) | Addresses subject matter in Science, Technology and Society that is not offered in the regular curriculum. | true | IAP | Undergraduate | rranged [P/D/F] | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.095, | STS.096 Independent Study in Science, Technology, and Society | For students who wish to pursue special studies or projects with a member of the Program in Science, Technology, and Society. STS.095 is letter-graded; STS.096 is P/D/F. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring | Undergraduate | rranged [P/D/F] | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.UR | Undergraduate Research | Undergraduate research opportunities in the STS Program. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer | Undergraduate | rranged [P/D/F] | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.URG | Undergraduate Research | Undergraduate research opportunities in the STS Program. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer | Undergraduate | rranged | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.THT | Undergraduate Thesis Tutorial | Definition and early-stage work on thesis project leading to STS.THU. Taken during first term of student's two-term commitment to thesis project. Student works closely with STS faculty tutor. Required of all candidates for an STS degree. | true | Fall, Spring | Undergraduate | rranged | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.THU | Undergraduate Thesis | Completion of work of the senior major thesis under the supervision of a faculty tutor. Includes gathering materials, preparing draft chapters, giving an oral presentation of thesis progress to faculty evaluators early in the term, and writing and revising the final text. Students meet at the end of the term with faculty evaluators to discuss the successes and limitations of the project. Required of all candidates for an STS degree. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer | Undergraduate | rranged | STS.THT | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.250[J] | Social Theory and Analysis | Major theorists and theoretical schools since the late 19th century. Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Bourdieu, Levi-Strauss, Geertz, Foucault, Gramsci, and others. Key terms, concepts, and debates. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21A.859[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.260 | Introduction to Science, Technology, and Society | Intensive reading and analysis of major works in historical and social studies of science and technology. Introduction to current methodological approaches, centered around two primary questions: how have science and technology evolved as human activities, and what roles do they play in society? Preparation for graduate work in the field of science and technology studies and introduction to research resources and professional standards. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.310 | History of Science | Intensive reading and analysis of key works in the history and historiography of science. Introduces students to basic interpretive issues, bibliographic sources, and professional standards. Topics change from year to year. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.320[J] | Environmental Conflict | Explores the complex interrelationships among humans and natural environments, focusing on non-western parts of the world in addition to Europe and the United States. Use of environmental conflict to draw attention to competing understandings and uses of "nature" as well as the local, national and transnational power relationships in which environmental interactions are embedded. In addition to utilizing a range of theoretical perspectives, subject draws upon a series of ethnographic case studies of environmental conflicts in various parts of the world. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | Permission of instructor | 21A.429[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.330[J] | History and Anthropology of Medicine and Biology | Explores recent historical and anthropological approaches to the study of medicine and biology. Topics might include interaction of disease and society; science, colonialism, and international health; impact of new technologies on medicine and the life sciences; neuroscience and psychiatry; race, biology and medicine. Specific emphasis varies from year to year. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | Permission of instructor | 21A.319[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.340 | Introduction to the History of Technology | Introduction to the consideration of technology as the outcome of particular technical, historical, cultural, and political efforts, especially in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries. Topics include industrialization of production and consumption, development of engineering professions, the emergence of management and its role in shaping technological forms, the technological construction of gender roles, and the relationship between humans and machines. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.360[J] | Ethnography | Practicum style course introduces students to ethnographic methods and writing in global health research. Organized around interviewing and observational assignments. Students develop a bibliography of anthropological and ethnographic writing relevant to their project, and write a short paper about integrating ethnographic methods into a future research project. Preference to HASTS students; open to others with permission of instructor. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | Permission of instructor | 21A.829[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.412 | Quantification | Surveys research on quantification, the practice of using numerical data and calculation to analyze, order, and control. Begins by examining historical accounts of the rise of quantitative methods and values since c. 1600. Goes on to explore the dynamics and consequences of quantification across a range of modern domains, including science, politics, governance, health, education, crime, law, economic development, finance, and environmental regulation. Readings drawn from STS, history, anthropology, sociology, and philosophy. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.414[J] | Risk, Fortune, and Futurity | Exploration of interdisciplinary scholarship on risk, chance, and fortune. Begins with a survey of theoretical approaches to the field, then proceeds chronologically to explore the emergence of risk and its impacts on human life in multiple arenas including economics, politics, culture, environment, science, and technology from the 16th century to the present. Open to undergraduates with permission of instructor; consult department for details. | false | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21H.984[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.417 | STS Seminar on the Global South | Covers Africa and its diaspora, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Asia, and Oceania. Seeks to explore meanings of science and technology from traditions, experiences, and literatures of these regions; to understand encounters and outcomes of endogenous and inbound ideas, artifacts, and practice; and to engage European and North American science, technology, and society (STS) in dialogue with these literatures. Provides a global view of STS in an increasingly interconnected world. Focuses on peoples of the Global South as innovative intellectual agents, not just victims of technology or its appropriators. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.421 | Graduate Super-Seminar on Global South Cosmologies and Epistemologies | Team-taught subject that centers Global South cosmologies and epistemologies marginalized by colonization, slavery, and racism across the world. Explores how different societies make sense of and develop knowledges of the physical and animate world, and what it means to be human(e) within it. Opens up trans-hemispheric conversations between constituencies that seldom talk to each other, each bringing its ways of seeing, thinking, knowing, and doing to the matrix to mutually inform one another. Goal is to build qualitative — not just quantitative — diversity (i.e., diversity as method of learning and thinking). | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.424[J] | Race, History, and the Built Environment | Examines how the development of the built environment produces and reproduces conceptions of race - sociobiological theories of human difference. Using historical and cross-cultural cases, tracks the social and political lives of material objects, infrastructures, technologies, and architectures using projects of settler colonialism, nation-building, community development and planning, and in post-conflict and post-disaster settings. Analyzes social theories of race, place, space, and materiality; power, identity, and embodiment; and memory, death, and haunting. Explores how conceptions of belonging, citizenship, and exclusion are represented and designed spatially through analysis of examples, such as the appropriation of land for infrastructure programs, the erasure and commemoration of heritage in public spaces, and the use of the built environment to impose colonial ideologies. Limited to 14 students. | false | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | 11.244[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.425 | History of Manufacturing in America | Introductory survey of fundamental innovations and transitions in American manufacturing from the colonial period to the mid-twentieth century. Primary emphasis on textiles and metalworking, with particular attention to the role of the machine tool industry in the American manufacturing economy. Students taking graduate version are expected to explore the material in greater depth. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.427 | The Civil War and the Emergence of Modern America: 1861-1890 | Using the American Civil War as a baseline, considers what it means to become "modern" by exploring the war's material and manpower needs, associated key technologies, and how both influenced the United States' entrance into the age of "Big Business." Readings include material on steam transportation, telegraphic communications, arms production, naval innovation, food processing, medicine, public health, management methods, and the mass production of everything from underwear to uniforms – all essential ingredients of modernity. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | false | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.430 | Multi-Species Histories of Plant People, Wild and Cultivated | Examines how centering plants changes our understanding of what it means to be human. Considers how, in response to the naming of the Anthropocene and anxieties over ecological crises, researchers in various fields have turned to plants as central players. Using this as a starting point, explores how researchers have described and re-calibrated relations among plants, humans, and environment, between life and non-life, action and being, subjectivity and autonomy in ways that radically altered ruling epistemologies in a range of disciplines. Looks at how philosophers, farmers, foresters, eco-critics, geographers, botanists, and popular science writers adapted research questions and narratives to incorporate not only plant uses, but plant intelligence and sentience. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.432[J] | Narrating the Anthropocene: Understanding a Multi-Species Universe | Examines human concern about the planet and how that fixation shapes concepts of time & space, knowledge-production, understandings of what it means to be human and non-human, as well as trends in scholarship, art, culture & politics. Indexes the way numerous actors and institutions came to understand, debate & narrate the Anthropocene, a geological epoch defined by human-induced climate change. Explores how it as a concept has opened up new ways of understanding relations within the planet, including care, accountability & multi-species mutualism. Considers narrative registers as well, how scholars, writers, artists & working people narrate the Anthropocene. Students undertake an original project in research &/or experimental narrative forms inspired by the reading. Limited to 12. | false | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21H.990[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.434 | Postapocalyptic Science and Technology Studies | Examines how science fiction is deployed as a political tool for enacting change in the present and how it has emerged as a privileged symbolic field for the expression of hopes and anxieties that drive both culture and tech industries. Explores how societies around the globe — both mainstream and in the periphery — are confronting a triple crisis that threatens not only civil order but also the very existence of certain forms of life: financial collapse which increased the awareness of mass inequality; climate change and loss of biodiversity; and the rise of ethno-nationalisms, which threaten representative democracies. | false | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.436 | Cold War Science | Examines the history and legacy of the Cold War on science and the environment in the US and the world. Explores scientists' new political roles after World War II, ranging from elite policy makers in the nuclear age to victims of domestic anti-Communism. Also examines the changing institutions in which various scientific fields were conducted during the postwar decades, investigating possible epistemic effects on forms of knowledge. Subject closes by considering the places of science in the US during the post-Cold War era. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.441 | Technology and Self: Technology and Conversation | Explores the relationship between technology and conversation, with an emphasis on conversation in our digital age when so many say they would rather text than talk. Topics center on the psychology of online life, such as the way in which we both share and withhold information about the self. Discussion about the ways new kinds of online conversation are playing out in education, the workplace, and in families and what the changes in conversation mean for collaboration, innovation, and leadership. Readings include works in history, literature, anthropology, psychology, and linguistics. Open to undergraduates by permission of instructor. Limited to 15; no listeners. | true | Fall | Graduate | 2-0-10 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.443 | Technology and Self: Science, Technology, and Memoir | Focuses on the memoir as a window onto the relationship of creative people (scientists, engineers, designers, and others) to their work. Examines how class, race, ethnicity, family history, and trauma shape the person who shapes artifacts, experiments, and ideas. Readings explore the connection between material culture, identity, and personal development. Offers the opportunity, if desired, to examine personal experiences and write memoir fragments. Students taking graduate version write a longer final paper. Limited to 15; no listeners. | true | Spring | Graduate | 2-0-7 | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.444 | Technology and Self: Things and Thinking | Explores emotional and intellectual impact of objects. The growing literature on cognition and “things” cuts across anthropology, history, social theory, literature, sociology, and psychology and is of great relevance to science students. Examines the range of theories, from Mary Douglas in anthropology to D.W. Winnicott in psychoanalytic thinking, that underlies “thing” or “object” analysis. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 15; no listeners. | true | Spring | Graduate | 2-0-7 | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.454 | Museums, Science and Technology | Examines science, technology and museums. Includes regular readings and discussions about the evolution of museums of science and technology from (roughly) 1800 to the present. Students undertake special projects linked to the MIT Museum's re-location to a new building under construction in Kendall Square. Students act as informal consultants to the MIT Museum, offering proposals for innovative elements that will be seriously considered for inclusion in the new Museum. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.456 | Waste, Discard, Remainder, Trace | Engages with the emerging interdisciplinary field of waste and discard studies that center "discards" and their cognates to provide novel approaches to the study of social life and material and technological cultures. Examines the dynamics of wasting, discarding, remaindering, and tracing as fundamental logics of contemporary life and knowledge production. Explores these dynamics to reformulate the study of labor value and property, built environments and urban ecologies, reckoning and futurity, statecraft and warcraft, design repair and maintenance, sensory experience and knowledge making, political and creative action, identity and exclusion, and colonial and postcolonial power. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
STS.457 | Legacies of Scientific Racism: Race, Science, and Technology Today (New) | Examines how race is made, upheld, or challenged through contemporary technoscientific practices. Draws on readings from the social, humanistic, and biological sciences to understand how modern scientific racism works today and debate the potential for an anti-racist science of the future. Topics include biomedical experimentation; DNA forensics and law; genetic ancestry testing and identity; neuroscience and mental health; and algorithms, AI, and robots. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
Subsets and Splits