Department of Technology, Culture and Society

Return to: Academic Department, Degree and Program Information

Chairs: Professor Jean Gallagher and Professor R. Luke Dubois

Mission Statement

The interdisciplinary Department of Technology, Culture and Society (TCS) promotes critical engagement with technology and science through research and teaching while drawing on humanities and social science perspectives. This mission is fulfilled in part by undergraduate degree programs, including Integrated Design and Media, B.S. , Science and Technology Studies, B.S.  and Sustainable Urban Environments, B.S. , and by a graduate program in Integrated Design and Media, M.S.  The department is also responsible for NYU Tandon’s core curriculum in humanities and social sciences, which gives undergraduate students a breadth of knowledge and perspective necessary for careers in technology and the sciences.

Department: Undergrad Cluster Curriculum: Core Requirements

The Cluster Concept

TCS offers humanities and social sciences elective courses that examine the relations among science, technology and society from three general approaches and modes of inquiry: Culture, Arts and Media; Science, Technology and Society; and Society, Environment and Globalization (see below). This integrated approach to science, technology and the humanities and social sciences provides engineering and science majors with a concrete and focused foundation for their fields. The humanities and social sciences clusters are as follows:

Culture, Arts and Media (CAM)

The CAM cluster explores how cultural practices and artifacts in a wide range of media reflect, influence and interact with developments in science and technology. Courses are based on philosophy, media studies, music, literary studies, art history, rhetoric and anthropology.

Science, Technology and Society (STS)

STS cluster courses explore the interrelationships among science, technology, culture and society. The questions posed include: How do science and technology shape society? How do social processes frame scientific and technological enterprises? What is the relationship between the content of scientific and technological knowledge and the social and intellectual context in which it is created?

Society, Environment and Globalization (SEG)

Courses in this cluster address how critical areas of society, environment and globalization affect the experience of contemporary life. Coming from the complementary perspectives of the humanities and social sciences, SEG courses provide students with a broad and multicultural perspective on how environmental issues and global exchange in this “flat world” are changing society, here and across the world.

Humanities and Social Sciences Elective Requirement (4 courses, 16 credits)

Students may choose 4 courses from any humanities and social sciences cluster. These 4 electives can be within a single cluster or across multiple clusters. The department encourages students to take humanities and social sciences electives  across clusters and/or across disciplines within a cluster. These 4 humanities and social sciences electives must satisfy the following constraints:

1. At least one course must be a 3000/4000 level humanities and social science elective.

2. One course must be an Advanced Seminar, identifiable by course number 4504. Please note that the same course, or two different courses may be used to fulfill the Advanced Seminar requirement and the 3000/4000 requirement. (Example: STS-UY 4504 can count as both requirements listed above)

3. For new first-year students entering in or after Fall 2022, one course must be a course in ethics and technological and/or scientific practice. Most students will take STS-UY 2144: Ethics and Technology to fulfill this requirement, but other ethics courses may serve to fulfill this requirement, with the permission of a student’s major advisor and the TCS Ethics Program Director.

Course Types

TCS offers three types of undergraduate courses, as well as graduate courses:

Humanities and Social Sciences Electives are open to all Bachelor of Science students, subject to prerequisites. They count toward the school’s general-education requirement and the state’s Liberal Arts and Science requirement and help meet ABET requirements.

Advanced Seminars are writing- and research-intensive courses, with varying topics. As of the Fall 2021 semester, the Advanced Seminar course (identifiable by course number 4504) replaces the former Writing Intensive requirement (course numbers designated with a “W”). If you’ve already completed a “W” writing intensive course, you do not have to take the Advanced Seminar. If the “W” writing intensive course you took was a level 2000 course, you still need to complete a level 3000 humanities course, as listed above.

Although students are encouraged students to take their Advanced Seminar at Tandon, there are approved Advanced Seminars at other NYU Schools.

Studio Electives are creative practice courses in art and design disciplines, open to all Bachelor of Science students, subject to prerequisites. These courses may NOT be taken as humanities and social sciences electives to satisfy general-education humanities and social sciences requirements, but may be taken as technical or free electives.

N.B.: Courses that carry the following prefix may NOT be used to fulfill the general humanities and social sciences requirements: DM (digital media).

Institutes Affiliated with the Department of Technology, Culture and Society

Brooklyn Experimental Media Garage (BxmC)

BXmC at NYU SOE is truly experimental; it is the creative/research arm of the School of Engineering’s art and technology programs. BXmC works with the hard core of New York’s experimental multimedia scene: installation and performing artists, programmers and interaction designers and architects. BXmC develops new kinds of partnerships to create new applications of digital media technologies, including web, sound, film, 3-D, games and others.

Contact Information

NYU Tandon School of Engineering
370 Jay St., 3rd floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Tel: (646) 997-3231
http://engineering.nyu.edu/academics/departments/tcs

Degrees Offered

Bachelor of Science

• Integrated Design and Media, B.S.  based in the Integrated Design and Media Program  
• Science and Technology Studies, B.S.  based in the Science and Technology Studies Program  
• Sustainable Urban Environments, B.S.  based in the Sustainable Urban Environments Program  

Master of Science

• Integrated Design and Media, M.S.  offered by the Integrated Design and Media Program  

Minors

Integrated Design and Media Minor  

Requirements: 15 credits of DM courses, of which 6 are at the 3xxx level or above.

Feminism and Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (FSTEM)

The minor consists of 16 credits, or 4 courses, offered by the TCS department. There is 1 required course, STS-UY 2284 Introduction to FSTEM. The other 3 courses (12 credits) may be chosen from the list of approved courses for this minor.

Science and Technology Studies  

The minor in STS requires 16 credits consisting of:

1. Core requirement: STS-UY 3004W  (4 credits).
2. Elective requirement: Remaining credit requirements (12 credits) must be satisfied by courses chosen from the STS electives list.

Requirement 1 and one of the STS electives (requirement 2) must be taken at SOE; the remaining elective requirements may be met with transfer credits.

Sustainable Urban Environments  

The minor in SUE requires 16 credits consisting of at least two courses from the SUE core and three courses from any of those offered in the concentration. The minor in SUE is open to all majors.

English Minor for Tandon Students  

Tandon students may earn a minor in English under an arrangement between NYU Tandon’s Technology, Culture, and Society Department and NYU’s College of Arts and Sciences English Department. This minor is especially designed for Tandon students to allow for the particular demands of completing a Tandon degree. It should be noted that the requirements for the Tandon English minor are different from those of a CAS English minor.

This is a five-course (20-point) minor. The requirements, all to be completed with a grade of C or better, are:

• One second-semester EWP course
• Three Tandon EN or CAS ENGL-UA courses
• ENGL-UA 101: Introduction to the Study of Literature

Those who wish to declare a Tandon English minor must do so through the CAS English department: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1as2_ZAndOu1z_1vB5_5ZEsq181SE4ctw/view?usp=sharing.

Faculty

Professors

Kristen Day, Vice Provost, Professor of Technology, Culture and Society
PhD, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Urban Design and Behavior; Design of Urban Environments for Equity, Health and Well-being

Jean Gallagher, Professor of English
PhD, City University of New York Graduate Center
Feminist theory, 19th- and 20th-century American literature, modern poetry

Sylvia Kasey Marks, Professor of English
PhD, Princeton University
Literature and ethical questions, the environment, medicine, and the city; the 18th- and 19th- century British novel and other fiction; Shakespeare; drama; expository writing; public speaking   

Oded Nov
PhD, Cambridge University 
Human-Computer Interaction, Citizen Science

Beth Simone Noveck, Professor of Governance
PhD, University of Innsbruck
JD, Yale University 
Digital Government, Techology & Democracy 

Jonathan Soffer, Professor of History and Department Chair
PhD, Columbia University
JD, University of Denver
Twentieth-century American political and foreign-relations history, urban history with a specialization in the history of New York City since 1945

Associate Professors

Jonathan Bain, Associate Professor of Philosophy of Science
PhD, University of Pittsburgh
Quantum Theory, Philosophy of Space and Time

R. Luke Dubois, Assistant Professor of Integrated Digital Media
PhD, Columbia University
Computer Music, Real-Time Multimedia

Anne-Laure Fayard, Associate Professor of Management
PhD, Ecole des Hautes-Etudes en Sciences Sociales
Sociomaterial Practices, Service Design

Teresa Feroli, Associate Professor of English
PhD, Cornell University
Renaissance Literature, Shakespeare, Women’s Studies

Amy Hurst, Associate Professor of Human-Computer Interaction
PhD, Carnegie Mellon University
Accessibility Research

Assistant Professor

Elizabeth Marie Hénaff Assistant Professor of Integrated Digital Media
PhD, University of Barcelona
Biodesign, Genomics, Media & Art, Urban Biome Citizen Science

Industry Faculty    

Ahmed Ansari, Industry Assistant Professor of Integrated Digital Media
PhD, Carnegie Mellon University
Design Studies, Critcal Cultural Studies, Philosophy and History of Technology   

Tega Brain, Industry Assistant Professor of Integrated Digital Media
Master of Art (research) Creative Industries, Queensland University of Technology
Interaction Design, Environmenal Art and Deisgn, Citizen Science, Art and Engineering

Carla Gannis, Industry Professor of Integrated Digital Media
MFA, Boston University
Networked Communication, Art & Literary History, Emerging Technologies, Speculative Fiction 

Regine Gilbert, Industry Assistant Professor of Integrated Digital Media
MS, University of Phoenix
Digital Accessibility Inclusive Design, Immersive Experiences 

Danya Glabau, Industry Assistant Professor of Science & Technology Studies
PhD, Cornell University
Patient Activism, The Medical Economy   

De Angela Duff, Industry Professor of Integrated Digital Media
MFA, Maryland Institute College of Art
Web Design, Interaction Design   

Kadija Ferryman, Industry Assistant Professor of Anthropology
PhD, The New School
Social, Cultural, and Ethical Implications of Health Information Technologies     ​

Scott Fitzgerald, Industry Associate Professor of Integrated Digital Media
MPS, New York University
Web Design, Interaction Design

Kathleen McDermott, Industry Assistant Professor of Integrated Digital Media
PhD Candidate, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Media Arts, Technology Design

Benedetta Piantella, Industry Associate Professor of Integrated Digital Media
MPS, New York University
Interaction Design, Technology in the Developing World

Alice Reznickova, Industry Assistant Professor
PhD, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Urban Food Systems, Food Insecurity, Sustainability Education

Mark Skwarek, Industry Associate Professor of Integrated Digital Media
MFA, Rhode Island School of Design
Augmented Reality

Lecturers

Allan Goldstein, Senior Lecturer in English
BA, University of Denver
Writing Nonfiction/Personal Experience Writing, Disability Studies

James P. Lewis, Senior Lecturer in Psychology
MA, Stony Brook University
Humanistic Psychology

Alan M. Nadler, Senior Lecturer in English
MFA, Columbia University
Contemporary Poetry, The European Novel

Donald S. Phillips, Senior Lecturer in Natural History
BS, Polytechnic University
Physical Anthropology, Paleontology, Natural Disasters

Associated Faculty

Victòria Alsina Burgués, Industry Associate Professor & CUSP Academic Director

Research Faculty & Staff

Mariela Alfonzo, Research Assistant Professor

Kate Crawford, Distinguished Research Professor

Anirudh Dinesh, Research Scientist

Meredith Whittaker, Distinguished Research Scientist

Faculty Emeriti

• Lester Bumas
• Duane DeVries
• Anne Eisenberg
• Helmut Gruber
• Louis Menashe
• David Mermelstein
• F. David Mulcahy
• Bernard Rechtschaffen
• Thomas B. Settle         
• Harold P. Sjursen
• Romualdas Sviedrys   
• Rich Wener                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Humanities and Social Sciences Electives List

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