Science, Technology, and Society Minors: Proposed New Programs in the College of Liberal Arts

I recently sat down to interview Dr. Elizabeth Adan, an Associate Professor in Cal Poly’s Department of Art and Design, about the new Science, Technology, and Society (STS) minors being proposed by Cal Poly’s College of Liberal Arts (CLA). Beginning in the fall of 2012, Dr. Adan joined the Pedagogical Innovations Task Force convened by Dean Epperson of the CLA. A group of faculty across 11 departments was organized to brainstorm ideas about new directions for CLA teaching and coursework. One of the ideas that the group developed was a linked set of minors in STS, an interdisciplinary field that has been around for more than three decades. The task force determined that the field of STS was ideal for the development of new and revised CLA minors in a polytechnic institution.

photo courtesy of National University of Singapore

The underlying goal of the minors is to bring together the polytechnic pieces of STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) with CLA studies of social context and social impacts — specifically, how science and technology relate to the individual and society, politics, histories, contemporary issues, questions of ethics and philosophy, and modes of communication. Students with majors geared toward the sciences would have an opportunity to supplement their education with a liberal arts component. Similarly, students studying liberal arts would be able to incorporate studies in science and technology issues into their degree work.

It is no surprise that the STS minors are currently in development, because the university at large is trying to do more cross college and department collaboration. Dean Epperson in particular is making extensive contributions to these collaborations; as noted in the bio about him on the CLA website, he is “committed to sustaining excellence in the college’s traditional majors and Learn by Doing activities while extending liberal arts expertise and values more deeply into the institution through enhanced multidisciplinary programs and research, as well as through continuing contributions to Cal Poly’s strong general education program.”

While the four proposed STS minors would be in the CLA, the content and themes they address would have university-wide connections and applications, and all proposed minors include at least a few classes (mainly as elective options) from departments in other colleges. All of the minors focus on how science and technology impact society and how society impacts science and technology (S/T). They require thinking in both historical and modern contexts, tying in social, cultural, political, and economic factors.

The proposed minors are as follows:

Ethics, Public Policy, Science and Technology (EPPST) 

- ethical and public policy questions that develop around S/T
- policy implications, ethical implications of S/T
- how to navigate between what’s right and fair versus what may seem commercially or socially necessary
- how to think ethically and write policy (ex: laws, copyright protection) for fields that are changing every day
-minor proposal developed by faculty members in the Departments of Political Science, Philosophy, and History

Gender, Race, Culture, Science and Technology (GRCST)

- uses Women’s/Gender and Ethnic Studies approaches in the study of S/T practice and knowledge
- questions of privilege central in this minor — how they impact S/T and how we intervene to allow more opportunities for underprivileged populations
- examines local, national, and global or transnational contexts and impacts of S/T
- gender, race, culture, and religion classes
- minor proposal developed by faculty members in the Departments of Ethnic Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Art and Design

Media Arts, Society, and Technology (MAST) 

- revision of existing minor in Media Arts and Technology (around for approximately 5 years)
- current minor emphasizes media, arts, technology (focus on popular culture – film, TV, YouTube)
- strong commitment to both theory and practice, with students doing digital narrative/storytelling, video experiments as well as studying histories and contemporary developments in media arts and related technologies
- revision will continue the existing commitments to history/theory and practice and will also add in more attention to social contexts
- proposed revisions developed by faculty in the Departments of Art and Design, Graphic Communication, Music, Theater and Dance, and Ethnic Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies

Science and Risk Communication (SRC) 

- construction of messages related to science and risk information, with strong connection to Communication Studies
- how different perceptions of S/T are created and how they’re disseminated in the world
- how people learn about ideas concerning S/T
- some coursework in which students develop specific skills for communication in S/T
- minor proposal developed by faculty members in Communication Studies, English, Political Science, and History

Ideally, all university students would graduate with a strong working knowledge of these subjects, and many do, noted Dr. Adan. But, for Cal Poly students, the STS minors provide particular interdisciplinary frameworks, with specific areas of focus and concrete background on the social contexts of S/T. As a result, the STS minors are an opportunity for interested students at Cal Poly to either augment their major studies or have an opportunity to approach S/T from a liberal arts vantage point.

As with nearly all of the curriculum at Cal Poly, the proposed minors have a key “Learn by Doing” component. There are two required classes in common across all four of the STS minors. The first is an introductory course that provides an overview of STS as an interdisciplinary field. The other is a 400-level course in which students from all four minors would come together to combine content knowledge from the four difference minors, implement it in a group research project, and relate it to larger STS themes and practices. This would give students a chance to apply their education in the context of the ever-changing world. The other five courses in each of the four minors would be specific to the particular minor field (EPPST, GRCST, MAST, or SRC) and may possibly provide GE credit depending on university guidelines.

Currently, the minor proposals are in the process of being submitted, and then they have to go through the approval process at both the college (CLA) and university level. There is no suggestion that the minors will be finalized yet, as administrative issues need to be addressed and detailed reviews take place before the first incoming class of students will have access to these programs. Because the curriculum runs on a two-year cycle at Cal Poly, if the minors are approved, they will show up in the 2015-2017 catalogue at the earliest. The committee is working as intelligently and as efficiently as possible to get them on the books.

It can be said from any disciplinary field or social context that the world is changing every day. The knowledge and skills obtained in these minors will be useful as they provide students with an opportunity to think about and have hands-on experience with how S/T is shaped by society and how it also shapes society. It’s a synergistic play of how S/T functions on its own as well as in broader contexts.

For more information on the minors, interested students can contact:

Dr. Elizabeth Adan, eadan@calpoly.edu

Dr. Richard Besel, rbesel@calpoly.edu

Dr. Jane Lehr, jlehr@calpoly.edu

Dr. Elizabeth Lowham, elowham@calpoly.edu

Dr. Grace Yeh, gyeh@calpoly.edu