CSTMS

Sak Tahn Waax, Astronomy, and Psychedelics in the History of Mayan Oracular Science

Science is often thought of as a European development. The Mayan civilization had thousands of years of astronomical and scientific developments marginalized by colonial expansion in the early modern period. Well before the Spanish invasion, Mayan and Mesoamerican cultures were developing sophisticated scientific, medical, calendrical and mathematical frameworks that have yet to be integrated into the discussion of what constitutes advanced scientific thinking. Through the history of Mayan astronomy, we can capture dimensions of these non-European scientific developments, native to the...

The Irrational Decision: How We Gave Computers the Power to Choose for Us

Date/Time
Tuesday
5 May 2026
4:00 pm - 5:15 pm

Location
Social Science Matrix

Event Type
Book Talk

RSVP: tinyurl.com/irrational-decision

Please join us on...

STS DE Alumnus Jordan T. Mursinna Publishes Article in The Royal Society

April 13, 2026

STS DE Alumnus and Visiting Lecturer for the Department of History at the University of California, Berkeley, Jordan Thomas Mursinna, has published a new article in The Royal Society's Notes and Records, The Royal Society journal of the history of science. Mursinna received both his PhD in History with a Designated Emphasis in Science & Technology Studies and BA in History here at UC Berkeley.

On the parallel...

Master Class: Cybernetic Amusement: Disneyland, Simulation, and the Logic of Automation

Date/Time
Thursday
9 Apr 2026
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Location
470 Stephens Hall

Event Type
Master Class

Please join us on Thursday, April 9th for a master class with Roland Betancourt. Roland Betancourt is the Chancellor's Professor in the Art History department at UC Irvine. During his Guggenheim Fellowship, he completed his forthcoming...

The Power of Life: The Invention of Biology and the Revolutionary Science of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

Date/Time
Thursday
23 Apr 2026
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

Location
470 Stephens Hall

Event Type
Colloquium

Jessica Riskin
Frances and Charles Field Professor of History, Stanford University

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) was the Professor of Insects and Worms at the Museum of...

Engineers in the Anthropocene

Date/Time
Wednesday
1 Apr 2026
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

Location
3335 Dwinelle Hall

Event Type
Book Talk

Edward (Ted) Beatty
Professor of History and Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame

...

The New Leisure: Amusement Parks, Automation, and the Redefinition of Recreation

Date/Time
Thursday
9 Apr 2026
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

Location
470 Stephens Hall

Event Type
Colloquium

Roland Betancourt
Chancellor’s Professor of Art History, UC Irvine

This talk traces the convergence of the amusement parks’ rehabilitation after WWII and the revitalized “problem of leisure” reframed around the automation panic of the 1950s. While intellectuals debated what meaningful leisure should look like, often...

STS Undergraduate Minor Application Deadline: 4/6/2026

March 10, 2026

Applications are now open for the STS Undergraduate Minor, with a deadline of April 6, 2026!

Application decisions will be made by the STS faculty committee after this date. Please note that you do NOT have to enroll and/or complete the minor core course, STS C100 / History C182C / HIST C182A / ISF C100G, before applying to the minor. See instructions below, or click here for the application.

As...

Authors Meet Critics: Charles Briggs' "Incommunicable: Toward Communicative Justice in Health and Medicine"

Date/Time
Thursday
9 April 2026
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Location
Social Science Matrix

Event Type
Book Talk

Please join us on Thursday, April 9th from 12 pm - 1:30 pm for an Authors Meet Critics panel on the book Incommunicable:...

STS/HST Working Group

Date/Time
Wednesday
11 March 2026
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Location
470 Stephens Hall

Event Type
Working Group

The presenter for the upcoming working group on March 11th will be Cameron Tracy, Senior Research Scholar, Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley. For this seminar,...