We would be hard pressed to find any aspect of society today that is not significantly influenced by evolving technology. But technology does not develop in a vacuum; it is shaped by the needs, desires, and biases of individuals and the societies in which they live. Society and technology evolve together, so that one cannot fully understand one without knowing something about the other. With the permeation of personal devices, machine intelligences, and social medias into our homes, our relationships, our governance and our workplaces, no individual or discipline is immune from the influence of technologies in their social sphere. Yet the traditional wide separation between the technological and non‐technological disciplines is ill suited to address the extraordinary wave of social or technological changes we face today.
The Minor in Technology and Society equips Princeton students with the skills, research, and resources to understand how society affects technology, and how technology affects society. On one hand, this demands an increasing literacy in and awareness of technology; on the other, it demands a greater understanding of societal complexities. This Minor therefore brings together faculty across all four divisions who are international leaders in the social studies of technology and in issues of ethics, representation, policy, and governance in the development of technical systems. Students will be rigorously educated in an interdisciplinary community that sensitizes them to the right questions, cases, and modes of inquiry suited to the technology/society interface. They will craft a unique research focus in their independent studies upon a domain of their interest, drawing from a range of departmental offerings on campus to do so.
The Minor in Technology and Society is offered to students beginning with the class of 2027 by the Keller Center in partnership with the Department of Anthropology, the University Center for Human Values, and the Omenn-Darling Bioengineering Institute. These partners foster expertise on societal and ethical issues in engineered systems to offer a coherent pedagogical and research opportunity for students across campus. Those who minor in Technology and Society will experience a logical sequence of courses, research, and activities that will make them stronger contributors to research, innovation, and civil society.
Learning Objectives
In this program you will:
- Learn the analytical tools to explore the interrelations between social and technical systems in a variety of contexts. You will learn about the multifarious relationships between technology and society, including: how technology and society co-evolve and influence each other; how technologies both shape and are shaped by social experience; and the role of technologies in social change.
- Develop a shared core series of sensitizing concepts, questions, and methods to address the relationship between technologies and societies in your domain of interest. You will acquire and apply technical, societal, and/or ethical analysis skills to the intersection of technology and society in coursework and in research. And you will learn how to reason soundly and responsibly about the capabilities, construction, and impact of emerging technologies from a variety of perspectives.
- Select a technology domain focus, which may vary from genomics to robotics, environmental systems to self-driving vehicles, nuclear energy to spaceflight, to ground your inquiry methodologically in historical, anthropological, sociological, political or ethical training.
- Go deeper into learning beyond your home discipline. The engineer or scientist will take a methods or analysis course in the social sciences or humanities and the social scientist or humanist will take a course in engineering or applied science as appropriate to their interests.
- By your senior year, you will be able to demonstrate your expertise in the application of these conceptual framings and methods to a case study of your choice in your capstone project. This project will conduct critical and constructive research into the relationship between a chosen technology and a particular social environment or ethical context.
Admission
This program is open to all students across all four divisions.
- You may not take this minor at the same time as Computers, Society and Policy (CSP) or History of Science, Technology and Medicine (HSTM)
- Students more interested in policy should take CSP
- Students more interested in history should take HSTM
- Double counting is restricted to two courses
- PDF is restricted to one course and cannot be applied to the core (EGR 277)
Please complete the Minor in Technology and Society student application to get started. You may also email Victoria Dorman if you have any questions.
Program Requirements
There are four components to the Technology and Society Minor. Students are strongly advised to consult the Keller Center’s website for more specific information about accepted courses and potential pathways through the Minor. The requirements are:
- THE CORE REQUIRED COURSE—EGR/HIS/SOC 277 Technology and Society— which provides exposure to a broad set of issues at the intersection of technology and society.
- THREE TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY COURSES, that mix the scientific and technical with the societal and humanistic.
- A CROSS-EDUCATION COMPONENT, which provides necessary training for the capstone project. Engineers and scientists will be take a course in the humanities or social sciences that focuses on methods, analysis or theory. Humanists and social scientists will be expected to develop a more robust technical understanding of their domain of study through an accessible engineering or applied science course.
- A CAPSTONE COMPONENT presented at a program event before graduation.
Potential Pathways through the Program
The intellectual key to the Technology and Society Minor is the opportunity for students to select courses that contribute thematically to a topic of their interest and to equip them with relevant domain knowledge and methodological expertise. The Faculty Academic Coordinator will work with you to achieve topical coherence around a technology or social issue of your choice. Here are some ideas for topics and pathways:
Topic: Ethical Robots (Div IV major):
This student is an Electrical and Computer Engineer conducting independent work in a robotics laboratory.
Requirement | Class or Method | Description |
---|---|---|
CORE |
EGR/HIS/SOC 277 |
Technology & Society |
T&S1 |
ANT 238 |
Human, Machine, and In-Between: The Anthropology of AI |
T&S2 |
PHI 350/CHV 356 |
Ethics of Emerging Technologies |
T&S3 |
ANT 325 / MAE 347 / SPI 384 |
Robots in Human Ecology: A Hands-on Course for Anthropologists, Engineers, and Policymakers |
XED |
PHL 307 / CHV 311 |
Systematic Ethics |
CAP |
Paper |
Thesis project incorporates construction of ethical robotics |
Topic: Social Media’s Societal Impacts (Div II major)
This student is a Sociology major with an interest in how social media is changing our interactions.
Requirement | Class or Method | Description |
---|---|---|
CORE |
EGR/HIS/SOC 277 |
Technology & Society |
T&S1 |
HIS 298 |
Information Revolutions |
T&S2 |
ANT 211 |
Surveillance, Technoscience, and Society |
T&S3 |
ECO 326 |
Economics of the Internet: The Digital Revolution |
XED |
COS 597I |
Social Computing |
CAP |
Research Asst. |
Summer RA-ship with a tech & society scholar’s social computing lab |
Topic: Nuclear Systems and Society (Div II major)
This student is a SPIA major with an interest in nuclear technologies and their regulation.
Requirement | Class or Method | Description |
---|---|---|
CORE |
EGR/HIS/SOC 277 |
Technology & Society |
T&S1 |
SPI 353 / MAE 353 |
Science and Global Security: From Nuclear Weapons to Cyberwarfare and Artificial Intelligence |
T&S2 |
ANT 245 / ENV 245 / AMS 245 |
Nuclear Princeton: An Indigenous Approach to Science, Technology and the Environment |
T&S3 |
MAE 354 |
Unmaking the Bomb: The Science &Technology of Nuclear Nonproliferation, Disarmament, and Verification |
XED |
AST 309/MAE 309/ PHY 309/ENE 309 |
The Science of Fission and Fusion Energy |
CAP |
Advanced Seminar |
Permitted grad seminar with SPIA expert on nuclear disarmament |
Topic: Bias in Genomics (Div I major)
This student is an African-American Studies major interested in genomic technologies and racial inequality.
Requirement | Class or Method | Description |
---|---|---|
CORE |
EGR/HIS/SOC 277 |
Technology & Society |
T&S1 |
AAS 339 / EGR 339 |
Black Mirror: Race, Technology, and Justice |
T&S2 |
REL 303 . CHV 303 |
Biomedical Ethics |
T&S3 |
ANT 446 / ENV 364 |
Nuclear Things and Toxic Colonization |
XED |
MOL 205 |
Genes, Health, and Society |
CAP |
+1 ENV 360 |
Biotech Plants and Animals: Frankenfood or Important Innovations? |
Topic: The Social Policy of Electric Vehicles (Div IV major)
This student is a Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering major building electric vehicles.
Requirement | Class or Method | Description |
---|---|---|
CORE |
EGR/HIS/SOC 277 |
Technology & Society |
T&S1 |
ENE 422/MAE 422 |
Introduction to the Electricity Sector-Engineering, Economics, and Regulation |
T&S2 |
CBE 260 / EGR 260 |
Ethics and Technology: Engineering in the Real World |
T&S3 |
SOC 377 |
Sociology of Climate Change |
XED |
SPI 333/SOC 326 |
Law, Institutions, and Public Policy |
CAP |
Thesis chapter |
Thesis chapter addresses politics, sociology, ethics, and law of EVs. |
Topic: The Psychological Effects of Neuroimplants (Div III major)
This student is a Biology major with an interest in neuroscience and brain-computer interfaces.
Requirement | Class or Method | Description |
---|---|---|
CORE |
EGR/HIS/SOC 277 |
Technology & Society |
T&S1 |
PHI 424 / CHV 424 |
Topics in Neuroethics: Cognitive Enhancements |
T&S2 |
PSY 333 / CHV 300 / CGS 333 |
Unlocking the Science of Human Nature |
T&S3 |
BNG 407 |
Biotech: Innovation, Organization, Entrepreneurship |
XED |
SPI 340/PSY 321 |
The Psychology of Decision Making and Judgment |
CAP |
Paper |
Revision of research paper delivered to CHV 424 |
Campus Partners
The Technology and Society Minor is a collaborative partnership by the Keller Center in conjunction with the Department of Anthropology, the Omenn-Darling Bioengineering Institute, and the University Center for Human Values. These centers and departments assist us in bringing the insights and rigorous training from technology studies, ethnography, genomics, bioethics, and ethics to the program. We encourage you to check out their course offerings and professors to find synergies with your interests.
The executive committee for the Technology and Society Minor is:
- Sigrid Adriaenssens (CEE & Director, Keller Center, Program Director)
- Janet Vertesi (Sociology & Keller Center, Faculty Academic Coordinator)
- João Biel (Anthropology)
- M.J. Crockett (Psychology & CHV)
- Matthew Jones (History)
- Sharad Malik (ECE)
- Jared Toettcher (BNG).