{"id":4,"date":"2022-11-02T18:09:55","date_gmt":"2022-11-02T18:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/stpl\/?page_id=4"},"modified":"2026-05-18T17:34:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T17:34:46","slug":"home","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/stpl\/","title":{"rendered":"Center on Science, Technology, and Public Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Welcome to the Center on Science, Technology, and Public Life. STPL serves as a platform for collaborative research, graduate training, and public engagement on problems at the intersection of science, technology, environment, and society.<\/p>\n

STPL\u2019s collaborative research projects bring together USC faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows to investigate how authorized knowledge is produced in contested settings. Its recent project, \u201cPrecarious Ecologies<\/a>,\u201d funded by the Mellon Foundation, focused on how activists and scientists collaborate to generate knowledge about environmental hazards. STPL\u2019s current project, \u201cThe City on Life Support<\/a>,\u201d considers Los Angeles as a laboratory for the production of knowledge about planetary health.<\/p>\n

The Center also takes an active role in training graduate students across USC\u2019s schools. Its Graduate Certificate Program in Science and Technology Studies<\/a> enables Ph.D. students to forge connections between their home departments and the interdisciplinary field of STS. Through summer research stipends and an annual graduate-student symposium, the Center provides students with a venue for conducting and sharing original research.<\/p>\n

Finally, through its public-engagement activities<\/a>, STPL seeks to foster intellectual exchange both within and beyond USC. The Center hosts public lectures, small seminars, workshops, and thematic working groups with the aim of generating insight into historical and contemporary formations of expert knowledge.<\/p>\n

We welcome inquiries from students and potential collaborators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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\n Recent News \n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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\n \n \u201cThinking in the Aftermath: A Workshop on Residue and Remediation,\u201d Friday, May 8\n\n <\/h3>\n \n \n
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On Friday, May 8, from 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in MCB 102, STPL will host a half-day workshop, marking the culmination of the first year of work for the collaborative research project\u00a0The City on Life Support: Los Angeles as a Laboratory for Planetary Health<\/u><\/a>. \u201cThinking in the Aftermath,\u201d like the project itself, will bring scientists, technicians, artists, and activists into dialogue scholars in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. Oriented to themes of residue and remediation, particularly in the wake of the 2025 Eaton and Palisades fires, presenters will discuss current projects and future directions for scholarship and practice. Along with a panel consisting of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, keynote speakers include\u00a0Joanne Nucho<\/u><\/a>, Associate Professor of Anthropology at USC;\u00a0Sunny Mills<\/u><\/a>, an Altadena-based visual artist; and Nicole Maccalla of\u00a0Eaton Fire Residents United<\/u><\/a>. Lunch will be served.<\/p>\n

If you are interested, please RSVP by e-mail to James Bradley, Postdoctoral Researcher with STPL, at\u00a0jamesb20@usc.edu<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n \n

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\n \n \u201cFuture-Making: Simulation as a Technique of Knowledge Production\u201d: Site Visits to ICT and RAND\n\n <\/h3>\n \n \n
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An interdisciplinary group convened by STPL around themes of simulation and futurity recently conducted visits to USC\u2019s\u00a0Institute for Creative Technologies<\/u><\/a>\u00a0in Playa Vista and\u00a0RAND<\/u><\/a>\u00a0in Santa Monica. On February 27 at ICT, the group met with a series of researchers developing new methods for the study of human psychology, artificial intelligence, terrain visualization, and their application to military contexts. One April 10 at RAND, they participated in a seminar-style conversation with researchers advancing work on\u00a0Decision Making under Deep Uncertainty<\/u><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/u>Systems Transitions<\/u><\/a>,<\/span>\u00a0drawing in researchers from RAND\u2019s offices in Boston, Pittsburgh, and Washington, D.C., as well as Santa Monica.<\/p>\n

This ongoing project joins humanists and social scientists, whose work reflects critically on how simulations generate provisional knowledge about the future, with a set of practitioners of simulation. Participants represent fields including communication, sociology, anthropology, history, architecture, urban planning, and cinema, Next year, the group plans to develop research in and on sites where simulation techniques are being developed \u2014 in climate futures, biotechnology, world-building, and other domains. If you are interested in getting involved, please write to Peter Ekman, STPL\u2019s Coordinator of Programs, at\u00a0pekman@usc.edu<\/a><\/span>\u00a0for more information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n \n

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\n \n Announcing STS Graduate Research Stipends\n\n <\/h3>\n \n \n
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STPL is thrilled to announce the recipients of this year\u2019s Graduate Research Stipends. These grants support summer research by current Ph.D. students working on topics related to science and technology studies \u2014 especially, but not only, those currently enrolled in the Graduate Certificate Program in STS. All funded students will present on their research in STPL\u2019s annual graduate symposium, held early in the fall term. Watch this space for details on the event.<\/p>\n

The students are:<\/p>\n

Elaina Foley (History)
\nBena Habtamu (Anthropology)
\nAlfonso Hegde (Communication)
\nMuyao Jiang (Communication)
\nAndrea Kim (Cinema and Media Studies)
\nStella Lin (Communication)
\nChristina Marsh (American Studies and Ethnicity)
\nBouchra Tafrata (Anthropology)
\nDenise Toor (Communication)
\nSui Wang (Communication)
\nRuohan Zhou (History)<\/p>\n

Congratulations to all! We wish you a productive and fascinating summer of work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n \n

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\n \n Fall 2026 Courses for the STS Graduate Certificate\n\n <\/h3>\n \n \n
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The following courses, offered in Fall 2026, will satisfy requirements for students enrolled in the Graduate Certificate in Science and Technology Studies. Please contact instructors for further information.<\/p>\n

AMST 567: Body, Power, and Politics (Prof. Nayan Shah).<\/em>\u00a0This graduate seminar investigates theories, histories, knowledge, and representation of the body as imbricated in the nexus of power and political resistance. The course examines historical and conceptual scholarship on the relationship of bodies, techniques of power, representation, and transformation that emerged in the 18th\u201320th centuries though epistemologies of medical and biological sciences, anthropology and criminology, and institutions of clinics, exhibitions, prisons, concentration camps.\u00a0To explore these questions, we will examine touchstone theoretical approaches to the body and power as well as scholarship on health and medicine, carceral and political struggles, queer and transgender studies, and critical race, indigenous, and colonial studies.<\/p>\n

ANTH 608: Feminist\u00a0Science and Technology Studies (Prof. Andrea Ballestero).<\/em>\u00a0Offers an overview of the field of Feminist Science and Technology Studies combining historical and transnational approaches with future directions.<\/p>\n

COMM 573: Networked Publics: Theories and Encounters (Prof. Mike Ananny).<\/em>\u00a0Examines models of a democratic public sphere, with special focus on design and use of networked information infrastructures supporting free speech.<\/p>\n

COMM 620: Studies in Communication Theory: Studying Infrastructure with STS (Prof. Christina Dunbar-Hester)<\/em>. Current problems in communication theory and research: advanced, specialized interest areas of individual faculty on the frontiers of knowledge.<\/p>\n

COMM 658: Science Fiction as Media Theory (Prof. Hector Amaya).<\/em>\u00a0This class explores the ways that science fiction, sometimes known as speculative fiction, has historically functioned as a form of vernacular theory about media technologies, practices, and institutions, and as a wellspring of our sociotechnical imaginaries. As recent writings about \u201cdesign fictions\u201d illustrate, science fiction does not work in a social vacuum, independent from the sociotechnical imaginaries it explores. Science fiction has also inspired the developers and of new technologies as well as those who create content for such platforms, helping to frame our expectations about the nature of media change. And, increasingly, media theorists, raised in a culture where science fiction has been a pervasive influence, are drawing on its metaphors as they speculate about virtual worlds, cyborg feminism, posthumanism, and Afrofuturism, among a range of other topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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\n Recent Publications from STPL Affiliates\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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\n \n \n Planning for the Wrong Pandemic: Covid-19 and the Limits of Expert Knowledge\n\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n \n \n
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STPL Director Andrew Lakoff\u2019s most recent book,\u00a0Planning for the Wrong Pandemic: Covid-19 and the Limits of Expert Knowledge<\/a><\/em>, was recently released in the U.S. by Polity Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n \n

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\n \n \n Timing the Future Metropolis: Foresight, Knowledge, and Doubt in America\u2019s Postwar Urbanism\n\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n \n \n
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Peter Ekman, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Architecture and STPL\u2019s Coordinator of Programs, has just published his first book,\u00a0Timing the Future Metropolis: Foresight, Knowledge, and Doubt in America\u2019s Postwar Urbanism<\/a><\/em>, with Cornell University Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n \n

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\n \n \n Precarious Petroleum: Volatile Reservoirs, Varied Natural Gas Compositions, and Development in 1960s Iran\n\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n \n \n
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Ciruce Movahedi-Lankarani, Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies and Environmental Studies, recently published an article in\u00a0Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East<\/em>\u00a0titled \u201cPrecarious Petroleum: Volatile Reservoirs, Varied Natural Gas Compositions, and Development in 1960s Iran<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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\n Subscribe to our Newsletter\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n \n
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\n Contact Us\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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STPL Office<\/h3>\n \n \n
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Taper Hall (THH) 309G
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\n stpl@usc.edu<\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n \n
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Director of STPL<\/h3>\n \n \n
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Andrew Lakoff
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