The Center for Science and Society brings together researchers, scholars, and practitioners in the social and natural sciences, humanities, law, medicine, and the arts to engage in interdisciplinary research, teaching, and outreach to:
— Breakdown traditional disciplinary silos
— Create a new interdisciplinary paradigm of training and collaboration
— Enhance public understanding of science in relation to pressing social concerns
Why Science and Society?
Rapid advances in science and technology offer great opportunities. However, they also pose many challenges. Society is grappling with such issues as:
— The use of artificial intelligence to guide decision-making and policy
— The ethics and privacy issues surrounding big-data
— Balancing the development of sustainable food-systems with the changing climate.
Why Interdisciplinarity?
Addressing such issues requires an ability to:
— Integrate scientific and technical knowledge with the historical, political, social, and philosophical expertise of the social sciences and humanities
— Synthesize multiple perspectives
— Work with colleagues from different fields
And yet, colleges and universities still train students through the lens of traditional disciplinary and professional silos.
In order to address this gap, CSS promotes interdisciplinary inquiry and collaboration. By interdisciplinary inquiry and collaboration we mean hybrid projects that fuse disciplinary points of view and methodologies to create new ways to view, approach and address problems.
