Assignments

ACTIVITIES	SESSIONS DUE
Current Event as STS (paper)	3
MIT 150^th Exhibit Examples (paper and presentation)	6
Key Words and Concepts (quiz)	7
Op-ed on Swartz Case (paper)	12
Further background / comment on Asilomar / Cambridge City Council (presentation)	14
Photography project (paper and presentation)	20
Final reports (paper and presentation	25, and 26

Papers

Short Paper – due session 3

Write a short paper, taking a current event and examining it as an STS issue.

Op-ed on Swartz Case – due session 12, revision due session 24

Write an op-ed piece on the Aaron Swartz case.

Oral Presentations

Further background / comment on Asilomar / Cambridge City Council – due session 14

Present some further information to the class about the Asilomar Conference of 1975 or the Cambridge City Council resolutions of 1976. You are not required to turn in anything in writing for this assignment, but you are welcome to do so if you wish.

Written and Oral

MIT 150^th Exhibition examples – due session 6

Choose three objects (from the 150 displayed) that illustrate three different types of societal intersections between MIT and the world. Write a paragraph for each object explaining what “society” means in the context of the intersection.

Photography project – due session 20

For this assignment, prepare a presentation on a type of photography that interests you.

Student final reports – due sessions 25, and 26

Students have two options for their final reports.

Quiz

The quiz is based on a list of key words and concepts that students are asked to define and contextualize.

During session five there is a review of these concepts.

The two last class sessions will be devoted to student final reports. (Part of the last session will turned over to on-line completion of the MIT class evaluation questionnaire.)

Each student should be prepared to present a 10 minute oral report to the class, with a few minutes (maximum 5) for class discussion afterwards. You should use some visual materials but they do not have to be numerous or fancy.

A 2–3 pages written version of the report is due by the final session. It does not have to reproduce visual materials unless they are necessary to make your point. You may want to written incorporate comments and observations from class discussion in the written report.

As a default mode, the topic of your report should be an overview of what you have learned about STS intersections during the term. Such a report should include some comments on the particular topics we studied as well as on the skills / disciplinary approaches / research methods we used in the class. It might also include some speculation as to how you might use what you learned in the future at MIT and beyond.

If you prefer, you could report in more detail on one of the topics we studied: STS as a multidisciplinary field, STS in MIT history, STS at MIT today, the Swartz prosecution, legal regulation of scientific research, self-regulation of scientific research, photography, utopian imagination, etc., etc. Or you can report on any STS topic of interest to you, though in this case you should clear it with the instructor in advance.

This is also available as a PDF.

The quiz is based on a list of key words and concepts that students are asked to define and contextualize. These terms can be considered terms of art used in STS contexts, and should be considered from areas of study including anthropology, sociology, and economics.

Interdisciplinary

Multidisciplinary

Transdisciplinary

Two cultures

Technics

Technological determinism

Paradigm shift

Context

Technological systems

Social construction

Actor network

Agence, causality, determinism

Semantic void

Reification

This is also available as a PDF.

Prepare a five minute presentation (six minutes max) for your classmates on one type of photography that interests you.

Provide 2 or 3 images of that type and tell us the following about them:

What type of photograph are these? That is, if you divide photography (past and present) into major categories, which category do they belong to?
How were these images made, in terms of technical equipment?
How were they made in terms of social setting (permission, expertise, access, etc.)?
When were these images made?
Where were they made?
Who made them?
Why were they made? i.e. what motivated their creation?
What is the intended audience? Are there other unintended or secondary audiences?
What psychological, social, political, or other effects—intended or unintended—might the images have on those who view them?
Are the images intended to be a faithful representation of the external world? Or are they intended to represent or express other realities? If so, what? Are they intended to be deceitful or tricky? If so, how?
How would you describe the aesthetic quality of the images? E.g. beautiful, sublime, picturesque, surreal, etc., etc.

Feel free to add other comments on these images in response to questions about them that you generate (and answer) yourself.

On the day of the presentation, hand in a written summary of your comments along with a copy of each image. The summary should be 3–4 pages long (longer is Ok). Write it out in paragraph form, so it reads like an essay, not like a Q & A format.

The printed copies of the images do not have to be high quality. For your presentation, however, you should try to provide high quality images, whether printed or projected.

This is also available as a PDF.

Materials to Review

Lecture notes, powerpoint slides

Downes, “What is STS?”

Marx, Hazardous Concept" and exchange with Kranzberg

Marx and Smith (eds.) intro

Autour and Dorn article

Williams chapter 2, Retooling

MIT 150 exhibit website (overview, nto details)

Study Questions

What does STS stand for?

STS has variously been described as an inter-, multi-, or even transdisciplinary field.

What are some of the disciplines that have contributed to its evolution so far?

What are STS activities at MIT past or present beyond the Program in STS?

When did STS emerge as an academic field? (Downes)

What was going on in the larger world that encouraged this emergence? (Downes)

What are some common core convictions shared by STS scholars? (Downes)

What are some key questions asked in STS studies?

What are the main points of Leo Marx’s article?

The history of the word and concept technology (anachronism; semantic void)

What the word and concept are hazardous (reification)

Possible ways to diminish the hazards

Technological determinism: What does this mean? Give some examples (Marx and Smith intro)

Context: What does this mean? Give some examples (Marx, Marx and Kranzberg; video on waterworks)

Social construction of technology / technological systems: What does this mean? Give some examples (Autour and Dorn)

Actor networks as a technique for answering the question “what / who is society here?” and for integrating human and non-human agents

Agency and causality in history: Give some examples of co-evolution or reflexivity

Give some examples of the way engineering has evolved into a broader enterprise of “technology” (Retooling)

At MIT Today, how does the curriculum reflect STS concerns? As a student, when are you aware of being educated in science? In engineering? In technoscience or some other mix?

What are some ways in which MIT as an institution polarized around science and engineering tries to influence the larger world?

What other questions do you have about STS that we should discuss further this term?

This is also available as a PDF.

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