“The scientific community … must take a critical look at what responsibility it bears in science becoming politically contentious, and how scientists can rebuild public trust.”—Marcia McNutt, President of the (US) National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, “Science is Neither Red nor Blue,” Science, 14 November 2024.
“Over the last 5 years, confidence that scientists act in the best interests of the public has fallen significantly…. My Administration is committed to restoring a gold standard for science to ensure that federally funded research is transparent, rigorous, and impactful, and that Federal decisions are informed by the most credible, reliable, and impartial scientific evidence available. We must restore the American people’s faith in the scientific enterprise and institutions that create and apply scientific knowledge in service of the public good.” – “Restoring Gold Standard Science,” Trump Executive Order, 23 May 2025.
There seems to be widespread agreement that there is a widespread crisis of trust in science and technology. But scratch the surface and it soon becomes obvious that there are vast disagreements over what the crisis of trust amounts to, what the evidence for it is, who is responsible for it, and what should be done about it. Thus, not surprisingly, actions that, for example, the Trump administration take allegedly to restore trust in science are seen by other groups as further undermining trust in science.
This course introduces interdisciplinary Science and Technology Studies (STS) through the lens of issues of trust in science and technology. After a brief introduction to the “great traditions” of history, philosophy, and sociology of science in the era of the Science Wars of the 1990s (with an eye to the centrality then of the question of whether STS itself was reducing trust in science), we will read widely across current STS and allied disciplines with special attention to trust in medicine science and health care and to the impacts of digital technologies (especially social media and AI) on the fabric of social trust. Topics include the nature of trust and allied concepts such as reliance, misinformation and disinformation, “politicization” and values in science and technology.
Readings from, among others, Stephen Shapin, Sheila Jasanoff, Brian Wynne, Ian Hacking, Naomi Oreskes, Harry Collins, Heather Douglas, Leah Ceccarelli, Sergio Sismondo, Safiye Noble, Kate Starbird, Cailin O’Connor, Maya Goldenberg, Stephen Lewandowsky.
Among the resources for this course will be a workshop on Critical Humanities AI Scholarship and Education at Green College on 18 September. Students are not required but are encouraged to think of their research projects as having a public-facing aspect, helping to frame public discourse or aimed at policy-makers.