Department of Science and Technology Studies

Research Interests

Professor Trevor Pinch's main research centers on three areas (1) the sociology of technology and how users engage with technology, (2) sound studies and how sonic technologies and listening cultures develop and (3) general issues in the sociology of science and technology concerning social construction of technology and understanding the role of performances and agency.  He also has specific collaborations with Asaf Darr at the University of Haifa concerning the sociology of selling and Richard Swedberg at Cornell University concerning the role of detail in sociological theory.

Professor Pinch is currently studying  the community of circuit benders. He is also completing a study of how on-line recommendation systems work http://www.freelunch.me/ and http://www.cornell.edu/video/?videoID=1627. He has recently completed a study with Nokia on developing profiles of different smart phone users and their apps. http://conversations.nokia.com/2011/02/01/build-up-your-appitype/ .

He has just finished editing the Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Music/?view=usa&ci=9780195388947 and is currently a national lecturer for the Phi Beta Kappa Honors Society http://www.pbk.org/programs/visitingscholars.aspx.  He also has a weekly radio show, "Webwatch" broadcast out of Paris by Radio France International http://www.english.rfi.fr/auteur/trevor-pinch-and-mark-lane.

Recent Courses Taught

• Spring 2012 - (BSOC/STS 4966) Science, Technology and Medicine: The Sonic Dimension
  W: 2:30-4:25, 4 Credits
  
  
• Spring 2011 - (STS 2011) What is Science? An Introduction to the Social Studies of Science & Technology
  MW: 10:10-11:00 + Sec, 3 Credits
  
  
• Fall 2010 - (STS 6321) Inside Technology: The Social Construction of Technology
  R: 12:20-2:15, 4 Credits
  
  
• Spring 2009 - (STS 2011) What is Science? An Introduction to the Social Studies of Science & Technology
  MW: 10:10-11:00 + Section, 3 Credits
  
  
• Spring 2009 - (STS 6311) Qualitative Research Methods for Studying Science, 4 Credits
  
  
• Fall 2008 - (BSOC/STS 4421) The Sociology of Science
  T: 12:20-2:15, 4 Credits

Selected Publications

• The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies (edited with Karin Bijsterveld).  New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
  

• Living in a Material World: Economic Sociology Meets Science and Technology Studies (edited with Richard Swedberg), Cambridge: MIT Press, 2008.

• Dr Golem: How To Think About Medicine (with Harry Collins), Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2006; Chinese translation: Shanghai Scientific and Technological Education Publication House, 2007;   Hungarian Translation: Scolar Kaido, 2008; Korean Translation, MINUMSA Publishing Group, 2010.

• Sound Studies: New Technologies and Music (edited with Karin Bijsterveld) Special Issue of Social Studies of Science, 34, 635-817, 2004.

• How Users Matter: The Co-Construction of Users and Technologies (edited with Nelly Oudshoorn). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003.

• Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer (with Frank Trocco). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002.
  
  
• "The Invisible Technologies of Goffman's Sociology: From the Merry-Go-Round to the Internet," Technology and Culture, 51, 2010, 409-424.
  
  
• "On Making Infrastructure Visible: Putting the Nonhumans to Rights," Cambridge Journal of Economics, 34, 2010, 77-89.
  
  
• "Technostalgia: How Old Gear Lives on in New Music," (with David Reinecke) in Sound Souvenirs: Audio Technologies, Memory, and Cultural Practices, (Karin Bijsterveld and Jose van Dijck, eds.).  Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2009, 152-166.
  
  
• "Karen Barad, Quantum Mechanics, and the Paradox of Mutual Exclusivity," essay review of Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning, by Karen Barad, Social Studies of Science, 41, 2011, 431-441.