Overview
What is science and technology studies?
We answer fundamental questions about the nature of science and technology. We also answer questions about the ways they interact with, and reflect, the world around them.
We embrace a variety of critical approaches, including philosophy, history, sociology and communication studies. The resulting understanding can be applied in policy debates and in the public engagement with science and technology.
The philosophy of science explores the nature of scientific knowledge, examines how science is carried out, and analyses the claims that science makes about the natural world. The history of science examines how science and technology have developed, and how they relate to cultures in which they are conceived and used. Social studies of science uses the tools of the social sciences to understand science and technology as culture, as institutions and as forms of authority in society, for example in the relationships between scientists and policy-makers. In science communication studies, the resources of media and communications studies are used to analyse popular science and its role in public life.
At any one time, our department includes about 60 undergraduates, spread over the three years of study. There are about 15 academic staff, whom you will routinely see around the building. We are located on a leafy square in London’s Bloomsbury area. Classes tend to be small, and we pride ourselves on the outstanding quality of our teaching, as well as research.
Science and Technology Studies offers three separate degrees, reflecting the diversity of methods and disciplines within the department. These are:
- History and Philosophy of Science (V550)
- History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (V551)
- Science and Society (L391)
Click here for more details.
All students, whatever their degree, take the same course modules in the first year. This common ground makes it possible for students who have begun one degree to transfer to another degree within the department should their interests shift.
Our recent graduates have gone on to a wide variety of successful
careers including law, journalism and the civil service as well as teaching and postgraduate studies.
Page last modified on 04 oct 11 15:15 by Joe Cain
Department of Science and Technology Studies, UCL
0207 679 1328 office | +44 207 679 1328 international
sts@ucl.ac.uk | www.ucl.ac.uk/sts
postal address: Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT | UK
street address: 22 Gordon Square, London, WC1E 6BT | maps
