Studying STS at Butler
Butler's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences offers both a
major and minor in Science, Technology and Society (STS). The
intent of these programs is to give you a balanced view of science
and technology, both from within and without. Majors and minors in
STS take both traditional courses in science and technology
disciplines and special STS courses offered by departments
throughout the University. In addition, you will take part in
special STS activities outside the traditional classroom. For
details of our program, visit our requirements page.
Butler is an exciting place for STS study. Faculty from a number
of disciplines specialize in the study of STS issues. Butler's
teaching and research programs in science and technology also
provide valuable resources for STS students. Many faculty in
Butler's professional colleges also do teaching and research in STS
issues, and their professional perspective provides another
valuable dimension to the understanding of science and technology.
In addition, Butler's visiting writer's series and the J. James
Woods science lecture series provide students with unparalleled
opportunities to meet and interact with prominent figures in
science and technology. Finally, as the seat of state government
and a growing center of science and technology based industries,
Indianapolis provides students with many opportunities for
internships and other learning experiences beyond Butler's
campus.
Science, Technology, and Society Studies is highly
Interdisciplinary.
Our Majors enjoy taking courses about Science in several
different departments.
To help you understand how different disciplines might
examine an issue in Science, here is an example:
How several disciplines examine the problem of global
warming
Natural Sciences need to gather evidence from
climate data, core samples from ice sheets, observed changes in
ecological systems, animal habitats and populations in order to
ascertain whether warming is occurring and whether this is the
result of natural or human factors.
Sociologists are eager to understand how
biologists and climate scientists conduct their investigations,
collaborate, come to agree that human caused global warming is a
fact and how this agreement resulted not only from assembling
evidence but also through a social process involving tacit rules of
conduct. They may enter laboratories to follow scientists through
their investigation, interview participants, and trace the
development of key conclusions.
Anthropologists share with sociologists an
interest in the social nature of science. They want to determine
how the wider culture impacts science, how cultural norms, values,
themes affect what problems scientist study and how they study
them. Concerning climate change, anthropologists would be
interested in how cultural themes such as economic progress,
individualism, and survival of the fittest have hindered scientific
investigation and public policy mitigating climate change.
Philosophers study the nature of scientific
knowledge and scientific reasoning. They uncover the tacit
assumptions and definitions scientists use when they develop
theories, causal explanations, and employ methods. In examining
climate science, philosophers would examine the nature of
prediction and how scientists reason through known and unknown
variables to determine a likely outcome.
Historians want to develop a narrative of
scientific developments in an area over time. They identify the
initial catalyst for investigation, the key figures involved, the
factors influencing knowledge growth. Historians of climate science
would identify the early efforts to understand global temperature,
follow the work of the key investigators who discovered a warming
trend, and reveal the gradual growth of interest in the finding
over time.
Communications specialists, linguists, and
rhetoricians are interested in how language (verbal,
mathematical, and visual) is used by scientists to describe,
explain, and argue claims about objects, events, and processes.
They want to understand how science is communicated among
scientists as well as to the wider community of non-scientists.
These specialists would investigate, for example, climate
scientists use of language to report confirmation of warming due to
human factors. Their language, appropriate for their peers,
dutifully captured the indeterminate nature of predicting all
events, yet it opened the door for naysayers, such as politicians,
to say that the science was not solid.
Writing about science or translating scientific findings for
different audiences is also important area of interest to
communications specialists. Science journalists often come from STS
programs.
Requirements for the Major
Requirements for the Minor
A Sample
Four Year STS Program