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Challenges of -and Opportunities for- STS Undergraduate Programs, Teaching and Education - I

Fri, October 8, 5:00 to 6:30pm EDT (5:00 to 6:30pm EDT), 4S 2021 Virtual, 16

Abstract

Whether one characterises STS as an interdisciplinary field of inquiry, a full-fledge discipline, or otherwise, it is a body of knowledges and academic practices with its own core ideas, concepts, texts, journals, and professional associations. Yet education in STS is much less standardized than in other established fields and disciplines. While STS graduate programs exist in various forms and under various titles almost globally, undergraduate programs are much less common. Furthermore, given their interdisciplinarity, STS undergraduate programs face distinct sets of pedagogical and institutional challenges in terms of getting them established, as well as operating and maintaining them. At the same time, STS undergraduate programs are uniquely positioned to offer students with aspirations both within and outside the field, a set of theories, practices and methods that equip them to understand and address problems of inequality and uncertainty within our communities, institutions, and world.
We invite papers that reflect on the pedagogical and institutional dynamics of teaching STS and developing STS programs at the undergraduate level. Submissions can be connected -but are not limited- to:

•Undergraduate awareness of and general visibility of STS as a field

•Impacts of disciplinary dynamics within STS on education and programing

•Interdisciplinary education

•Relationships with natural science programs, students, and faculty (i.e. Science Wars in education, the place of STS in mainstream STEM education)

•Program development: majors, minors, core courses and electives

•Institutional dynamics of program development

•Appropriate modes of assessment

•Researching STS pedagogy

•Teaching the STS canon – best practices

Potential topics include: STS undergraduate teaching, pedagogy, STS disciplinary development

Jill Lazenby, York University, Toronto
Conor Douglas, York University
Vera Pavri, York University

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