Teaching STS

Science and Technology Studies (STS) provide a critical lens to some of the most pertinent and urgent questions in the development and governance of innovation, science, and technology.

Through a day of panel discussions and interactive workshops, we will explore how and why STS is taught in multiple, exciting ways – situated in various institutional settings, reaching students and colleagues across the university, in medical sciences, engineering, computer science, etc., and travelling beyond the higher education context into museums, heritage work, and policy making.

The conference brings together practitioners from within and outside UCL. We will share experiences and ideas about how an innovative pedagogy involving STS can make significant impact from university classrooms to government offices, and private sectors.

This event offers both theoretical and practical insights from educational practitioners and creates a collaborative space for advancing STS education. Whether you are a scholar in STS and associated disciplines, or an academic or professional working with science and technology in various public and private contexts, all are welcome for what promises to be an insightful day.

We end the day with a keynote address on “What STS Adds: Perspective, Judgment, and the Shaping of Science and Technology” by Kristian Nielsen (Head of the Centre for Science Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark)!

What STS Adds: Perspective, Judgment, and the Shaping of Science and Technology

In this keynote address Nielsen explores how STS contributes to the shaping of science and technology. He foregrounds perspective, contextual judgment, and a reflexive understanding of knowledge and practice as three strengths of STS. To unfold these contributions, he provides insights from his own experience as the head of an STS research centre embedded in a natural science faculty, and from his current collaborations with research groups in quantum, space, and life sciences. Building on these experiences, he demonstrates how STS can be enacted in multiple ways in practices of exchange and collaboration. STS incites critical analysis of ongoing research, support a form of academic formation – cultivating reflexive judgment, acts as a resource in addressing governance and responsibility, and works as a bridge across disciplinary boundaries. With these insights, Nielsen then ends by drawing out broader implications of STS for higher education, research practices, and contemporary agendas in research and innovation.

Kristian Nielsen is a historian, sociologist, and science communication scholar with many years’ experience working in the higher education system and developing impactful ways of teaching and integrating STS in science and technology contexts.

Other speakers include Vivek Ramachandran (UCL), Amy Unsworth (UCL), Cristiano Turbil (UCL), Joe Cain (UCL), Jennifer Wallis (Imperial), James Stewart (Edinburgh), Rosanna Dent (Cambridge), Jennifer Chubb (York), Jingyi Wu (LSE), Alison Boyle (Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin), Joana Formosinho (Edinburgh), Alice White (English Heritage), Thomas Kador (UCL), OBLL (UCL), Yael Friedman (Oslo), Joanna Octavia (UCL), Cian O’Donovan (UCL), Charlotte Sleigh (UCL), Richard Tutton (University of York), Anatolii Kozlov (Geneva), Alex Mermikides (KCL), Amanda Rees (York), Theo Di Castri (UCL), Garfield Benjamin (Cambridge).

Teaching STS will include coffee, a catered lunch, and a light reception in the evening.