Hello STS Alumni,

I’m excited to take over the directorship of the Program in Science, Technology & Society from Prof. John Willinsky. Above all, I want to thank him profoundly for his five years of service to the Program, which included showing me the ropes of STS 1, “The Public Life of Science and Technology,” when we co-taught the course last year.

My appointment as Director caps an entire career spent in science & technology studies — including a stint at Stanford in 1992-1998, when I worked in the STS Program under Prof. Robert McGinn, who retired last year. I returned to Stanford in 2017 after 19 years at the University of Michigan, where I founded and directed an STS Program. It’s a great pleasure to be back!

This September marks the start of the 48th academic year for STS/VTSS. We have new students, instructors, and courses; we have returning majors and a continuing program of great educational opportunities. Among our new staff for this year, we’re delighted to welcome Dominique Topps as our Student Services Officer. She joined us in August, after Joo Ae Choo moved on to another opportunity. Dominique brings a wide variety of experience in student affairs at both high school and university levels. Since she also survived three years of teaching advanced English in the Maryland public schools, I’m confident she can handle anything.

On the international stage, STS Associate Director Kyoko Sato continues her collaboration with French researchers. Dr. Sato is currently co-editing a volume with Soraya Boudia from Université Paris Descartes and Bernadette Bensaude Vincent from Université Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne. Titled Living in a Nuclear World: From Fukushima to Hiroshima, the volume is an interdisciplinary post-Fukushima reflection on the postwar development of the global nuclear order. This fall, she is organizing workshops in Fukushima and Tokyo to discuss the book, a three-year project underwritten by the Partner University Fund of the French-American Cultural Exchange Foundation. Dr. Sato is also working with Fukushima-based researchers on another book project to examine the 2011 nuclear disaster’s implications for democratic politics, expertise, and planetary challenges.

Another emerging highlight: in June, the STS Executive Board approved a Graduate Certificate in STS. It will be available to Stanford masters and PhD students starting this academic year. The certificate is one outcome of a growing demand among Stanford graduate students for a focused community of interest and ways to make their STS background apparent to prospective employers. With Assoc. Director Sato’s support and encouragement, this graduate student community has begun to take on a life of its own, spearheaded by Anthropology PhD students Misha Bykowski and Aaron Hopes, as well as Modern Thought and Learning PhD student David Stentiford, whom recent alums may remember for his years of yeoman service as lead TA in STS 1. They’ve secured a small grant from the Vice Provost’s office to support a series of workshops this year. Look forward to more announcements about the grad program soon!

We invite you to learn more about the current state of the program by visiting the STS website, expertly maintained by STS Program Associate Emily Van Poetsch. There’s a special web page for alumni.