Celebrating Our Science and Society Graduates
This May, we are celebrating our first graduates in Science and Society! Columbia University introduced minors for undergraduate students in Columbia College and the School of General Studies this year. Among the first crop of offerings: our Science and Society minor. The minor is an interdisciplinary collection of courses for students who wish to explore critical approaches to and societal implications of science, technology, health, and the environment. It aims to equip students in all fields to critically interact with both the new developments and long histories of science and technology. Students will graduate ready to examine and address complex interdisciplinary challenges in their communities and beyond.
We will be celebrating these graduates and hosting an info session for interested students on May 6 from 1-3pm in 513 Fayerweather Hall. Visit the event webpage to learn more. Drop in anytime!
We spoke with our Director of Undergraduate Studies Madi Whitman, who designed the minor, about her thought process, goals, and hopes for its impact. We also interviewed Griffin Fadellin (School of General Studies) and Mohammad Zaidi (Columbia College), two members of the inaugural class of undergraduates graduating with the minor to hear firsthand about their experiences.
Madi Whitman
Students can pursue a variety of 'tracks' to engage more deeply with a topic of interest, and elective courses that converse with each other can offer a more holistic way to do so. For example, Columbia and Barnard offer an array of courses about climate and the environment across the social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences, and tying these approaches together in an interdisciplinary way can enable a much more thorough understanding of the issues at hand and inspire more effective forms of intervention.
One of the aims of science and technology studies is to insist that science and technology are thoroughly social and political–they do not exist or take place in a vacuum. Interdisciplinary relationships that open boundaries between fields and take seriously the notion that we all have a stake in scientific and technological development are necessary for doing better science and creating more just technologies.
Many fields engage with the social, political, cultural, and ethical implications of science and technology, but not always the impacts of the social, political, cultural, and ethical on science and technology, and the minor and courses within it are dedicated to opening up this kind of multidirectional form of inquiry.
I hope the minor can catalyze more connections between fields and enable students with shared interests to find each other.
The existence of the minor is an achievement, in my mind! It's the product of several years of planning and strategizing, and meeting students who find it through their own interests and searches is really gratifying.
Griffin Fadellin
In some ways, the major chose me! As a science enthusiast passionate about my chosen field of anthropology, I found myself drawn to the study of science and society with each class I took that brought the two into conversation. The opportunity to engage with science and technology from a socio-cultural perspective has been incredibly rewarding. As our world grows more and more complex, it becomes even more important to understand the consequences and possibilities of the technology that shapes our day-to-day lives.
It might be an unsatisfying answer, but I believe science does both. Science is a culture in motion, and like all cultures, it is constantly reinventing itself as it negotiates between social expectation and material change. The minor in Science and Society has been eye-opening for me, introducing me to a wide variety of perspectives, placing scientific systems in historical context, and making me question my assumptions. My time in the program has emphasized, for me, the importance of a critical eye alongside a commitment to the ethical search for knowledge.
Mohammad Zaidi
I took Science and Pseudoscience with Professor Pamela Smith and Dr. Whitman in my sophomore year. That was before the minor was introduced, but I knew from then on how critical science studies are for understanding the world around us today. Since then, I've been using the Center for Science and Society's course list to plan out each semester, and I can say with confidence that it's never failed in helping me find absolutely fascinating and thought-provoking courses which, luckily for me, aligned with the requirements for the minor program when it started this year. I believe the way we think about science is core to our lives, and, through the minor, I was able to develop a stronger understanding of where the science we know today comes from.
Both. Science, as an artifact of human construction, embodies the social, political, and cultural thought of its context. The minor helped expose me to the idea that science and technology can reflect a specific set of beliefs about the world and about ourselves. I consider that knowledge empowering—it reminds us that the past was not determined but constructed through human action and thought which means we can impact our present and our future in much the same way.
For more information, please visit our minor overview page. Interested undergraduate students are encouraged to become affiliated students to learn more.