Department of Science and Technology Studies

Research Interests

Professor Stephen Hilgartner studies the social dimensions and politics of contemporary and emerging science and technology, especially in the life sciences. His research focuses on situations in which scientific knowledge is implicated in establishing, contesting, and maintaining social order--a theme he has examined in studies of expertise, property formation, risk disputes, and biotechnology. His book on science advice, Science on Stage: Expert Advice as Public Drama, won the 2002 Rachel Carson Prize from the Society for Social Studies of Science.

Recent Courses Taught

• Spring 2013 (STS 7001) Special Topics, Topic I: Science Studies and the Politics of Science
  T 2:30-4:25, 4 Credits
  
  
• Fall 2012 - (BSOC/STS 3011) Life Sciences and Society
  TR: 2:55-4:10, 4 Credits
  
  
• Spring 2012 - (BSOC/STS 2051) Ethical Issues in Health and Medicine
  MWF: 11:15-12:05 + Section, 4 Credits

• Fall 2011 - (BSOC/STS 4771) Science, Technology and Politics
  TR: 11:40-12:55, 4 Credits
  
  
• Spring 2009 - (STS 7201) Emerging Technologies
  T: 12:20-2:15, 4 Credits

Selected Publications

• Science on Stage: Expert Advice as Public Drama, Stanford University Press, 2000. http://www.sup.org/
  
  
• "Novel Constitutions? New Regimes of Openness in Synthetic Biology." BioSocieties, Vol. 7, pp. 188-207, June 2012. | doi:10.1057/biosoc.2012.5 http://www.palgrave-journals.com/biosoc/journal/v7/n2/full/biosoc20125a.html.
  
  
• "Information Control in Genome Research: On Selective Flows of Knowledge in Technoscientific Interaction," The British Journal for History of Science, 2012.  http://journals.cambridge.org/repo_A85BV4rV
  
  
• "Staging High-Visibility Science: Media Orientation in Genome Research," in The Sciences' Media Connection - Public Communication and Its Repercussions: Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook, (S. Rödder, M. Franzen, P. Weingart, eds.), Springer, 2011, pp. 152-175. http://www.springerlink.com/content/h5r1818423777674/
  
  
• "Intellectual Property and the Politics of Emerging Technology: Inventors, Citizens, and Powers to Shape the Future." Chicago-Kent Law Review (2009), Vol. 84, No. 1, pp. 197-224. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1654445
  
  
• "Las Dimensiones Sociales del Conocimiento Experto del Riesgo" ("The Social Dimensions of Expert Knowledge about Risk"). In Moreno Castro, Carolina, ed., Comunicar Los Riesgos (Spain: Biblioteca Nueva, 2009).  http://sociologiaciencia.pbworks.com/f/Hilgartner.pdf
  
  
• "The Anticipatory State: Making Policy-Relevant Knowledge about the Future," a special issue, N. Nelson, A. Geltzer, and S. Hilgartner, eds., Science & Public Policy, volume 8, no. 8, October 2008, pp. 546-606. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/beech/spp/2008/00000035/00000008
  
  
• "Making the Bioeconomy Measurable: Politics of an Emerging Anticipatory Machinery" (Comment). BioSocieties 2(3): 382-6, 2007. http://www.palgrave-journals.com/biosoc/journal/v2/n3/full/biosoc200737a.html
  
  
• "Overflow and Containment in the Aftermath of Disaster" (Comment). Social Studies of Science, 37(1):153-58, 2007. http://www.hurricanearchive.org/object/25932
  
  
• "Voting Machinery, Counting, and Public Proofs in the 2000 US Presidential Election." Michael Lynch, Stephen Hilgartner, and Carin Berkowitz, in Making Things Public: Atmospheres of Democracy, edited by Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel. MIT Press, 2005.
  
  
• "The Rise and Fall of Social Problems: A Public Arenas Model," Stephen Hilgartner and Charles L. Bosk, American Journal of Sociology, 1988.