Going Beyond the Numbers, with Prof. William Deringer

Will Deringer, Leo Marx Career Development Assistant Professor, Science, Technology, and Society

Is it appropriate to evaluate the causes of suicide but dismiss mental illness as a contributing factor? What happens when you talk about war deaths as colored wedges on a chart? Does that change the conversation in important ways?

In STS.047 (Quantifying People: A History of Social Science), students focus on the history of the quest to understand human society scientifically.

“I wanted to take a humanities course that would give me the opportunity to reflect on how society has been impacted by science in the past and how my work as an engineer might affect people in the future.”
— Rhea Lin, ’19, EECS

STS.047 is one of several courses featured in a new undergraduate HASS concentration focused on Computational Cultures, which “brings together perspectives from the humanities and social sciences for students to understand and improve the social, cultural, and political impact of the computing tools and digital devices that shape our lives.”

LINK TO SHASS News Article:  Going Beyond the Numbers