{"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":"2026-10-05T17:32:47","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T17:32:47","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
\n\n \n \n
\n\n \n

Welcome to the Center on Science, Technology, and Public Life.<\/strong> 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
\n\n \n

Remembering Andrew Lakoff<\/h1>\n

\"Dr.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We are heartbroken to share that Andrew Lakoff, Director of the Center on Science, Technology, and Public Life, passed away on July 7 after a brief illness.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Andy founded STPL in 2020 and was in every sense the central figure defining its identity, role, and agenda as a platform for interdisciplinary inquiry. His remarkable intellect and fundamental decency were apparent to everyone who came into contact with him as a colleague, student, or friend. The Departments of Anthropology and Sociology, where Andy held joint faculty appointments, join us in mourning his loss, as does USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, for which he previously served as Divisional Dean for Social Sciences.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

This obituary<\/a>, published by USC Dornsife, expands on his life, work, and influence, both on campus and beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Advisory Committee of STPL will endeavor to ensure that the Center\u2019s work continues, guided by Andy\u2019s expansive vision of intellectual community and animated by his searching curiosity about the world. For now, we remember a life well lived.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Mike Ananny, Juan De Lara, Christina Dunbar-Hester, Peter Ekman, Jennifer Petersen, and Peter Redfield<\/span><\/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

\n\n \n
\n\n \n
\n\n \n

\n Recent News \n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n
\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n <\/a>\n \n\n<\/div>\n \n
\n \n

\n \n \n Levan Book Chat with Ciruce Movahedi-Lankarani, Friday, October 2\n\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n \n \n
\n\n \n

The new book by <\/span>Ciruce Movahedi-Lankarani<\/a><\/span>, a faculty affiliate of STPL and Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies and Environmental Studies, will be the topic of the next Levan Book Chat, hosted online on Friday, October 2, at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Please register <\/span>here<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Accelerant: Energy Infrastructures and the Natural World in Making Modern Iran<\/i> <\/a><\/span>was published in April 2026 with Stanford University Press. Following the movement of natural gas from underground deposits, through infrastructures of refining and distribution, and into everyday life, Movahedi-Lankarani explores the roles of development planners, oil firms, industrialists, engineers, and consumers \u2014 as well as the mountain ranges, sedimentary rock, and natural gas itself \u2014 to show how natural gas emerged as a crucial enabler of industrialization and a strong impetus for resource nationalism. Tracing the transformation of gas from a waste product into a vital resource, this book offers a history of anticolonial developmentalism in Iran \u2014 revealing a key driver toward intensified energy use that suggests why and how societies in the Global South became voracious consumers of fossil-fuel energy.<\/span><\/p>\n

The author will be joined in conversation by Arang Keshavarzian (NYU) and Victor Seow (Harvard). Joanne Nucho, Associate Professor of Anthropology at USC, will moderate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n \n

\n\n \n \n \n
\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n <\/a>\n \n\n<\/div>\n \n
\n \n

\n \n \n James Bradley’s Dissertation Recognized by the Urban History Association\n\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n \n \n
\n\n \n

The Urban History Association has given its Michael Katz Award for Best Dissertation in Urban History to James Bradley, current research associate and recent postdoctoral fellow of STPL (working chiefly on \u201cThe City on Life Support\u201d project). He completed the dissertation, \u201cGarbage Politics: Los Angeles and the Problem of Solid-Waste Management in the Late Twentieth Century,\u201d in the University of Chicago\u2019s Department of History in 2025. As the UHA awards committee writes in its citation, \u201cFrom the creation of public landfills in the 1950s, through the \u2018garbage crisis\u2019 of the 1980s and the current \u2018thriving market\u2019 for trash, this thesis shows how local political actors have exacerbated inter-community disputes over who has a \u2018right to dispose\u2019 and who bears the burden of unrestrained consumption. In wonderful detail and consistently nuanced analysis, Bradley unpacks the competing interests and visions among politicians, businesses, and residents of greater Los Angeles, offering powerful new inlets for thinking about \u2018the urban\u2019 at multiple scales.\u201d Congratulations, James, on this impressive work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n \n

\n\n \n \n \n
\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n <\/a>\n \n\n<\/div>\n \n
\n \n

\n \n \n Celebrating the Life and Work of Andrew Lakoff\n\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n \n \n
\n\n \n

STPL asks that you save the date for an on-campus memorial event honoring Andrew Lakoff, STPL\u2019s founding director and Professor of Anthropology and Sociology, who passed away on July 7.<\/p>\n

Date: Monday, October 5, 2026<\/p>\n

Time: 2:30 PM – 4:30 PM (Light refreshments to follow)<\/p>\n

Location: Mudd Hall of Philosophy, Room 203<\/p>\n

Please RSVP here<\/a> at your earliest convenience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n \n

\n\n \n \n \n
\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n\n<\/div>\n \n
\n \n

\n \n STS Graduate Research Symposium\n\n <\/h3>\n \n \n
\n\n \n

Thanks to everyone who took part in the annual STS Graduate Research Symposium, an important pillar of STPL\u2019s intellectual community, on Friday, September 11. The three panels \u2014 \u201cTechnologies, Cultural Production, and Labor,\u201d and \u201cScience, Technology, and Territory,\u201d and \u201cExpertise and Nation-Building\u201d \u2014 sparked lively, critical, and collegial conversation across disciplinary lines.<\/p>\n

We are again grateful to Dornsife College and to the Annenberg School for their support of STS summer research stipends for Ph.D. students, and we look forward to reading the remarkable dissertations that are taking shape in our midst.<\/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\n\n\n\n\n

\n\n \n
\n\n \n
\n\n \n

\n Fall 2026 Courses for the STS Graduate Certificate\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
\n\n \n

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\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n \n