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.
Home
Upcoming Events
Currently, no future events are scheduled.
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...
Read more about our featured publication
Recent News
Oct 14 2019 | Stanford News
My favorite part of being an STS Peer Advisor was building my relationship with department heads and other STS students. This was something that I would have not otherwise been able to experience had I not taken on the role as an STS peer advisor.
Caroline Smith, STS Student and Peer Advisor
