• undergraduate
  • program description
  • adjunct major/minor
  • themes
  • honors
  • up-coming courses
  • general course list
  • SHC prize
• graduate
  • science studies program
  • cluster fellowships
  • cluster requirements
  • grad courses
  • doctoral colloquium
  • students
  • former students
• post-doctoral
  • application information
  • post-doctoral fellows
• faculty
• events
  • Klopsteg lecture series
  • reading group
  • workshops
  • conferences
  • exhibits

cluster requirements

Science Studies is an interdisciplinary field of study; hence the cluster curriculum is designed around the premise that students benefit from taking courses in a number of disciplines alongside fellow students trained in different disciplines. Students admitted through the cluster initiative take three courses, ordinarily one in each of the three areas listed below, during their first two years of study. But it is important to emphasize that all students work with their departmental advisors and the SHC director to map out a plan of study that best suits their intellectual interests. The three main areas of study are:

1. Historical study of science, medicine, and technology, encompassing a variety of courses in Art History, History, Economics, and the Integrated Graduate Program in the Life Sciences.
2. Social study of science, medicine, technology, encompassing a variety of courses in Communication Studies, Human Development and Social Policy, and Sociology.
3. Study of the symbolic dimensions and representational practices of science, medicine, and technology, encompassing a variety of courses in Art History, Communication Studies, English, German, and Radio/Television/Film.
4. Students admitted to the cluster, are also Science Studies Graduate Affiliates, and like them attend the Klopsteg lecture series and the quarterly reading group sponsored by SHC, which bring together faculty and students.