STS.S21 Social Life of the Brain: Neuroscience & Society
Spring 2025 | 3-0-9 Units | Tues/Thurs 1-2:30pm | Instructor: Prof. Oliver Rollins
Recent advancements in neuroscience have extended research well beyond mental health and behavior. Today, some of society’s most pressing problems—such as crime, poverty, and inequality—are being reframed as brain-based questions that require neurotechnological interventions. Even if brain solutions are society’s missing piece in solving long-standing social issues, we must be more aware of the unequal ways social inequities can shape neuroscience’s creation, translation, and impact on the social world.
This course concerns two simple yet provocative questions: “Why does neuroscience matter for society?” and “How should the social world matter for the way we think about the brain?”
Taught from a sociological perspective, the course is designed for students in any discipline interested in critically understanding the intersections between neuroscience and its current and potential uses in society.
- Neuroethics
- Neuro-economics, Marketing and Decision-making
- Neuro + AI
- Neurolaw and Criminal Behavior
- Race, Gender, and the Brain
- Neurodiversity
- Brain plasticity and Neuro-enhancement
- Neurotech and Justice