Director’s Message

Welcome to the Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies! The mission of the Holtz Center is one that I see as mirroring that of the field writ large—just as STS aims to bring tools from a variety of humanistic and social scientific fields to bear on the study of science, the Holtz aims to connect scholars across campus who have interests in study science and technology as cultural practices. Because the paths into STS are many and varied, meeting places such as ours are an important part of how we build identity as STS scholars.

My own path into STS felt almost accidental. I had a difficult time narrowing down my interests as an undergraduate, and eventually chose a program that allowed me to take molecular biology courses alongside courses like philosophy of science and cultural anthropology. I was convinced that there had to be some link between these things other than the fact that I liked them, but it took me a while to find it. One of the first links came in the form of Donna Haraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto—my dad happened across a copy at a bookstore and thought that the now iconic cover of a shamanic woman at a keyboard looked like my thing. And he was right! I was overjoyed to discover that there was a whole field dedicated to making the connections that I had been awkwardly trying to make on my own.

Whether you are STS curious or a longtime participant in the field, we welcome you here. I hope the Holtz will be a place for you to gather with others who may have arrived via a different path but share common interests with you. The founding gift from Robert F. and Jean E. Holtz is truly a gift, in the sense that provides us with a space to do the kind of work that is increasingly difficult to protect in the academy, like funding graduate students on their first forays into fieldwork or discussing new scholarship in community rather reading it than alone at our desks. Let’s make the most of that gift together!

–Nicole Nelson, Director