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Volume 11, Issue 5: November 2004
COMMENTARY
You’re
Majoring in What?
Why I Chose Science and Technology Studies
Jeremy
Hsu
History of
Science and Technology, University of Pennsylvania
hsu@jyi.org
Most
college students are often asked about their major. Yet, few students
receive a politely puzzled response of “What’s your major
again?”
Try
saying, “I’m majoring in History and Sociology of
Science.”
I
quickly became used to the initial moment of blank stares and startled
blinks. What disturbed me more was that I couldn’t clear up
people’s confusion. I wanted my family,
roommates, and friends to understand why I was spending my college years
studying this obscure field. But, my explanations left even me mentally
scratching my head.
Let
me begin with the name. History and Sociology of Science is the name of my
major at the University of Pennsylvania, but it belongs to the field
known as science and technology studies (STS). Unlike biology or physics,
science and technology studies takes a historical or sociological approach
to science.
People
often define their majors by the courses they take. However, my major
included seemingly unrelated courses such as Environmental History, Chinese
Medicine, and Science, Technology and War. Listing the courses I took
usually just earned me even more dubious looks.
When
I took the first few courses in my major, I only knew that they stimulated
my intellectual curiosity like nothing before. As I got in deeper, I came
to understand the power of science studies.
It
changes how you look at the world.
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Early anatomy
lesson. Science and Technology
Studies looks at the social forces that have historically shaped
scientific knowledge. Source: National Library of
Medicine.
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Personal Enlightenment
When
I first went to college, I had only the faintest image of how science and
technology worked. I imagined scientists and engineers working feverishly
in their labs, with individual sparks of creativity or genius providing
breakthroughs. New discoveries and inventions would result, adding to the
progress of science and society. The end.
Through
science and technology studies, I learned that reality is much more
complicated.
Science
comes from the Latin word scientia, which essentially means knowledge. Science,
technology, and medicine all represent certain types of knowledge. What I
came to understand was that knowledge is not merely
“discovered” as some truth about the world or reality. It is
actually created and shaped by human minds. This makes science a human
endeavor deeply influenced by human cultures and societies. At the same
time, science deeply influences human cultures and societies.
The
world changes when one sees modern science as the result of individual
quirks and habits, relations among scientists and administrators, corporate
cash flows, government policies, and popular world views. I began to
understand the social factors shaping what we accept as scientific truths.
For
example, disease is often taken at face value in modern medicine. Nonetheless,
a closer look reveals that definitions of disease are fluid and constantly
changing. Arthritis and senility, once considered normal in the aging
process, are now defined as diseases in a society that expects people to
function normally until death. Obesity has also recently been defined as a
disease, yet it was once considered a sign of healthiness and wealth in
certain societies.
I
have also learned to view past scientific beliefs in their own contexts.
Rather than scoffing at Aristotelian dynamics and geocentric theory as
outdated nonsense, historians of science try to understand how those ideas
made sense in certain time periods. Past ideas are not necessarily less
scientific than current ideas just because they were discarded. Instead,
they were discarded because they no longer fit the changing worldview of
science.
The
ability to mentally separate science from physical truth is important. This
is not to say that modern science is somehow false. The achievements of
modern science in such a short time period are unparalleled in human
history.
One
must remember that scientists are people too, and people’s
experiences of the world are different. What people have observed and
written down has never been as purely objective as we might imagine. Like a
Rorschach test and its ambiguous inkblots, reality can often be seen
differently depending on the individual’s worldview.
For
instance, human anatomy might seem straightforward to describe. But, past
anatomical sketches show how social conceptions of gender affected
perceptions of “reality”. The Greek physician Galen described
female anatomy as simply inverted male anatomy, and this viewpoint was
reflected in anatomical drawings up until the 17th century.
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Patient
in iron lung, around 1949. Social forces continue to
shape modern science, technology, and medicine. Source: National Library of
Medicine.
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The Science Wars: Crossing Borders
History
and Sociology of Science is an interdisciplinary major at the University of Pennsylvania. Even as I considered myself
primarily a humanities and social sciences person, I maintained a strong
interest in the natural sciences. As I struggled to decide between majoring
in English and neurobiology during sophomore year, I stumbled upon History
and Sociology of Science as the perfect solution.
This
is somewhat ironic, given the friction that has existed at times between
science and technology studies and the natural sciences. Some of the more
extreme STS people have focused on criticizing or debunking modern
science’s claim to truth, which has tended to make scientists feel
defensive. This academic debate was known as the “Science Wars”
in the 1990s.
Despite
this war of words, professors and students in History and Sociology of
Science are drawn to the field because of their multi-disciplinary
interests. Many of my former professors hold advanced degrees in
“hard” sciences such as chemistry and biology in addition to
science and technology studies.
A
self-proclaimed “unusual beast, or maybe not,” Dr. Robert Aronowitz joined Penn’s History and Sociology of
Science department after obtaining his M.D. from the Yale University. He continues to practice
medicine as he teaches the history of 20th century disease,
epidemiology, and public health.
“I
was alarmed, disturbed and passionate about the fact that a purely
biological view of human body focusing on mechanisms of disease misses so
much of what suffering, pain, and people’s expectations from
hospitals and healers are,” Aronowitz
states, recalling how his experiences in Internal Medicine encouraged him
to study the social context of disease.
Graduate
students also come from both the natural and social sciences -- several of
my former teaching assistants are evidence.
“I
was looking for a program that combined my interests in history, biology,
and medicine,” Divya Roy explains. As an
undergraduate double major in molecular biology and history, Roy found that History and
Sociology of Science allowed her to pursue her interests in an
interdisciplinary way.
Babi Hammond, another Penn graduate student, describes
learning of science and technology studies through reading the popular
writings of Stephen Jay Gould, the late but renowned paleontologist and
evolutionary biologist. Hammond came to Penn with
undergraduate degrees in history and the history of science.
“Like many college
students, I was also looking for ways to do work that was interesting and
for ways to do good in the world,” Hammond says. “I thought that
helping develop a better understanding of science was a way to do both,
because science plays such a large role in the world today.”
Peering into the Future
Looking
back, my choice of university for undergraduate education seems even more
pivotal now. Few universities offer science and technology studies programs
like Penn.
“One
thing unique about our field is that history of science really started out
as a graduate level research specialty,” Nathan Ensmenger
notes. An assistant professor in the History and Sociology of Science
department, Ensmenger first worked as an engineer
in the software industry.
Ensmenger observes that science and technology studies is
“institutionally confined, but speaking to a larger public,”
when asked about the future of the field. He explains that the field is not
expanding in terms of more university departments, but is becoming more
relevant to scholars, policymakers, and the general public.
Penn’s
History and Sociology of Science department is even more unique in its
approach to science and technology studies. STS is often divided into
sub-specialties, specifically the history of science, history of
technology, and history of medicine. But the HSSC department decided to
ensure that its faculty and students are familiar with all three areas.
Knowledge
of science, technology and medicine allows students to be
“trilingual,” according to Janet Tighe,
History and Sociology of Science faculty member and Associate Director of
the related Health and Societies program. She went on to describe the
department’s philosophy of having knowledge in each area
“cross-fertilize” and enhance overall understanding.
Due
to its broad scope, science and technology studies is suited to people of
diverse background. Many of my fellow classmates chose History and
Sociology of Science to balance their majors in the natural sciences. Some
plan to attend medical school after college, and use science studies to
give them a different perspective on modern medicine. Others end up going
to law or business school, specializing in science-related areas and
ventures.
Despite
graduating already, I asked the faculty about how they might recommend
History and Sociology of Science to a prospective student.
Professor
Aronowitz replied, “Great humanistic basis
for pursuing medical or science careers. It’s vaccinating yourself
against socialization you get later (in medical school).”
Professor
Ensmenger answered, “Particularly suited
for people interested in approaching a topic from multiple perspectives,
and for those training to be in fields where scientific and technical
knowledge is important, but also knowledge of larger social systems.”
Professor
Tighe responded, “For students well versed
in sciences, and for those a little weak. If we
are doing our jobs right and integrating disciplines, each student is
pushed to learn something new.”
If
reading all this has piqued your interest in this fascinating field, I have
done my job. Still, I expect you may have more questions about the field,
what it consists of, and what it means. I can only leave you with the words
of my former teaching assistant, Babi:
“Is
that unclear enough?”
Journal of Young
Investigators. 2004. Volume Eleven.
Copyright © 2004 by Jeremy Hsu and JYI. All rights reserved.
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