The Certificate in Science, Technology, and Society is designed for degree-seeking graduate students at Georgia Tech. This certificate is for students who would like to demonstrate additional competence in some aspect of STS or special competence in STS in their home discipline. The certificate is open to students in good standing in any graduate program at Georgia Tech.
The 12-credit certificate program helps students to:
- Understand the social, cultural, and epistemic dynamics of science and technology
- Explore these dynamics across world societies and cultures
- Develop sensitivity to issues of gender, race, and justice across areas of knowledge, including engineering, medicine, environment, cognition, security, innovation, design
- Employ STS approaches as scholars or practitioners (e.g. engineers, scientists, or policymakers)
Program of Study (Four Courses Total):
- Core Course: One Required
- HTS 6743 / PUBP 6743 / LMC 6743: STS Core Seminar
- HTS 6118: Science, Technology and the Economy
- HTS 6121 / INTA 8803: Science, Technology and Security
- HTS 6123 / LMC 8803: Social and Cultural Studies of Biomedicine
- HTS 6124: Science and Technology Beyond Borders
- PUBP 6748 / LMC 6748: Social Justice, Critical Theory and Philosophy of Design
- LMC 6749 / PUBP 6749: Feminist Theory and STS
- Up to One Other Elective, Subject to Student Interest and STS Coordinator Approval
- Many appropriate courses are offered across the Ivan Allen College and the Institute, for example, CS 8893: Cognition and Culture
___________________________________________________________
STS Courses for Spring 2025
PUBP/LMC 6748: Social Justice & Design, Instructor: Robert Rosenberger
Mondays, 6:30 – 9:15 p.m.
This course investigates issues of social justice through their instantiation in material culture and practice. We consider theoretical perspectives from the philosophy of design, critical theory, feminist theory, and the field of science & technology studies. Some examples of topics we will cover include homelessness, surveillance and facial recognition, incarceration, disability studies, environmental justice, and urban infrastructure design. The course includes readings from the history of the philosophy of justice, contemporary case analyses, and the development of our own critical perspectives within our own ongoing research projects. The focus of course writing (in addition to weekly reading reactions) will be on projects with practical outputs, such as conference presentations, potential professional publications, public op-ed writing, and thesis chapters—whatever forwards your own research work, informed by course content.
LMC 6650: Affective Data Visualization (Project Studio), Instructor: Yanni Loukissas
Tuesdays, 12:30 – 3:15 p.m.
What can data visualization make us feel? Can it enhance our senses, foster curiosity and wonder, induce anxiety and fear, or make us more resilient? In this Spring 2025 Project Studio, we will use design as a form of inquiry to explore the affect of data visualization: what can it do, not just for us but to us?
In recent years, the fields of data science (computing), data visualization (design), and data studies (humanities and social sciences) have explored how data function as evidence. By this definition, data are rhetorical instruments. They exist to support the rational claims made by scientific, commercial, or civic organizations. This perspective on data is important. However, it can overlook questions about how data work experientially, as perceptual and aesthetic artifacts. Indeed, data have an emotional impact, with social implications for all of the following: what counts as data? where can data work? and who can make use of data? How data make us feel is at least as important to their effectiveness as the logical arguments they support.
Over the course of the term, we will complete a series of design exercises culminating in public data visualization prototypes for the Georgia Tech Library's large-scale media canvases: the Media Bridge and the Interactive Media Zone. In the process, we will learn about how data visualization can shape the way people feel about our campus and the surrounding communities. We will work closely with tech-savvy librarians to make use of their sophisticated visual displays. Prior experience in data visualization or computer programming is welcome, but not required.