The Program on Science, Technology, and Society (STS) at Harvard Kennedy School runs a public lecture series on science and democracy, a weekly discussion group on science, technology, and society, and an annual young scholars’ meeting with support from the Weatherhead Center, the Center for the Environment, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and numerous other programs. A major purpose of these events is to advance a research agenda in science, technology, and international affairs. Students and faculty from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Kennedy School, other Harvard professional schools, as well as MIT and other Boston area universities, participate in all of these activities. Topics center broadly on the uses of technical knowledge and expertise to rationalize public decisions in fields of national and international concern, such as trade in genetically modified organisms, bioethics, climate change, and environmental regulation. In 2008–2009, these topics were examined in public lectures by the eminent sociologist Ulrich Beck, several distinguished scholars of the Internet and society, a Weatherhead Center-supported conference on “Sociotechnical Imaginaries and Science and Technology Policy,” and several smaller workshops and panels. Representing fields such as history, sociology, psychology, law, political science, and anthropology, the participants demonstrated the wide interdisciplinary resonance of STS as an area of inquiry in the social sciences. Sheila Jasanoff, Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies, chairs the seminar.

Current Academic Year

• 2009–2010 Seminar Schedule