Welcome to the Department of Science, Technology, and Society, a unit of the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) at the University of Virginia.

Mission of the Department of Science, Technology, and Society

The STS Department advances understanding of the social and ethical dimensions of science and technology. Our teaching promotes students' communication skills, their moral imaginations, and their understanding of the social foundations of technology. Our research promotes critical understanding of the interactions between technological change, science, and society. The STS Department's teaching and research helps students, the academic community, and the public to understand, to develop, and to use technology for advancing human welfare.

STS in a Nutshell

This department is the only STS program in the U.S. that is situated within an engineering school at a national, comprehensive university. Faculty in the department are close to the point of the knowledge production they study while, at the same time, they are partners in engineering education.

STS faculty research helps to advance understanding of the complex interrelations among science, engineering, technology, and society.

STS faculty come from a variety of disciplines including history, literature, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and religious studies, as well as STS programs at other universities.

All STS faculty are committed to a multidisciplinary research area that is called science and technology studies (alternatively, science, technology, and society).

STS programs, including several that offer doctoral degrees, are found in many of the nation's finest universities, including Cornell, Stanford, and MIT.

STS professional societies include the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) and the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT).

STS is responsible for teaching four required courses to all undergraduate engineering students in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Virginia.

The STS Department also runs periodic Conferences and regular Colloquia on topics related to the discipline.