Center on Science, Technology, and Public Life

On Friday, December 5, at noon, the research team for The City on Life Support: Los Angeles as a Laboratory for Planetary Health will hear a presentation from Shohreh Farzan, Associate Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine. Farzan will discuss her ongoing inquiries into the role of environmental exposures such as air pollution in altering preclinical indicators of cardiovascular and metabolic disease risk, particularly during vulnerable lifestages such as childhood and pregnancy. As above, those with an interest in the event and project should write to James Bradley at jamesb20@usc.edu for more information.

The Graduate Certificate Program in Science and Technology Studies is pleased to issue a call for applications from any Ph.D. students working on STS-related topics. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis at this link.

The program offers an interdisciplinary doctoral certificate that helps students to draw on the rich sources of inquiry that contribute to the field of STS. The certificate provides training in the core theories and methods used to analyze the forms of political, epistemological, and cultural authority that underpin scientific knowledge and technological systems, which students can then apply in their own research.

The graduate certificate is open to Ph.D. students in any USC program. In addition to the completion of course requirements, students must demonstrate a focus on STS as a meaningful component of their doctoral dissertation. This will include working with faculty with expertise in STS on the doctoral committee.

Any questions can be directed to Cristina Mejia Visperas at mejiavis@usc.edu.

STPL Director Andrew Lakoff’s most recent book, Planning for the Wrong Pandemic: Covid-19 and the Limits of Expert Knowledge, was recently released in the U.S. by Polity Press.

Peter Ekman, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Architecture and STPL’s Coordinator of Programs, has just published his first book, Timing the Future Metropolis: Foresight, Knowledge, and Doubt in America’s Postwar Urbanism, with Cornell University Press.

Ciruce Movahedi-Lankarani, Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies and Environmental Studies, recently published an article in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East titled “Precarious Petroleum: Volatile Reservoirs, Varied Natural Gas Compositions, and Development in 1960s Iran.”