The Program in Science, Technology, and Society is a dynamic interdisciplinary major that provides students with a liberal arts education for the twenty-first century.
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Featured Faculty Publication
Big tobacco focuses on the facts to hide the truth: an algorithmic exploration of courtroom tropes and taboos
The language used by attorneys in tobacco litigation reveals key elements of the strategies deployed by cigarette makers and their courtroom opponents. According to industry lawyers, for example, smokers ‘passed away’ but were never ‘killed’; they always had the ‘ability to quit’ but were not ‘addicted’. Jurors, tobacco attorneys claim, should focus on the individual ‘facts’ of the case but not on the larger ‘truth’ about the industry. Language is, per Bolinger, ‘a loaded weapon,’ which means that words are not innocent conveyers of meaning. There is a subtle micropolitics in human speech, expressed in the kinds of words chosen by one side or another to deploy or to avoid. Robert Proctor explores...
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In my STS classes, I’ve learned the importance of considering a situation from various perspectives including the social, historical, cultural, technical, and economical. Using this STS mindset, I’ve been able to think about situations more critically and develop more nuanced arguments.
Molly Mitchel, STS Student and Peer Advisor
