The Origins of STS

Joseph Klett, Science History Institute

The Origins of STS is a collect and analyze oral history interviews with individuals active in the first and second waves of scholarship called Science and Technology Studies (STS). STS emerged with interdisciplinary research in the 1970s when scholars began to consider the normative, cultural, and political aspects of scientific knowledge production and technological development. But why? What drove, and what continues to drive, this field of inquiry? We turn the analytical concepts of STS back on itself to find out. We consider the role of ethics, social structures, and power in the making of academic careers oriented toward the study of science and technology. We aim to build a history of the field of STS such that we better understand the institutional relationships between STS and STEM as fields of research. Our oral history methodology lets us analyze the biographies of STS scholars through the development of the field, the contexts and ecologies of its organization, and the infrastructure it has contributed to contemporary discussions and evaluations of STEM. In addition to original research publications, this project will provide self-reference for STS departments, programs, and organizations, offer an archive of oral history material for future researchers interested in why and how we study science and technology, and inform broad discussions of organization and social structure in ethical STEM education.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 260. Truth and Ignorance in Higher Education