My Final Reflection

        So it looks like we are just around the corner before ending the semester and I can honestly say it's been a wonderful experience. I was a late comer into the class-- I had a good amount of awkward gaps in my schedule and thought that it would be a good idea to get ahead and fill in those gaps up with another humanities course to get my requirements out of the way. I wanted to take the new Intro to Nanotechnology course, but I was already way behind on the coursework, and then saw that Intro to Science and Technology Studies still had a few open spots. I had no idea what I was getting myself into-- I was thinking the class would be like CAL-103 or CAL-105, that we would read, discuss, and write a paper after going over a certain amount of material: rinse, wash, repeat, right? But after completing the first reading assignment, taking a whole bunch or notes, and just spending hours at the library reading with my caramel macchiato next to me, I had already started to rethink my place in the course. I thought that if the reading on Mertonian norms was dense enough for me, imagine the rest of the semester! And I also began to doubt the class since my Thursdays with STS included was around 9+ hours of class, even more if I had a Calculus II exam that day. But I did not want to just drop the course, especially after reaching out to Professor Vinsel about the course and my interest. Nevertheless, I attended my first class as prepared as I could possibly be and was ready to learn about Mertonian norms and go over the readings for that day. That first class and the one after were  the determining factors as to whether I would stay in the class or not, and it looks like they went great-- I'm still here writing blogs, aren't I? But really, I thought the discussions were very informative, my only problem was how to engage in them more, especially since I am a shy person in general, but I have definitely gotten better at that through this course. The material after Mertonian norms was even denser, but it was also much more interesting, topics worth learning about. What was also great was that with the material that we covered in STS, I was able to relate and draw connections to in my engineering courses (That's pretty much the point of the field, right? To see and make such connections both in the theoretical and realistic sense?). I also really loved (but hated reading) the writings of Kuhn and his idea of paradigm shifts and scientific revolutions, especially since I also had to read some of Kuhn in CAL-105 and already knew what he was all about. I just found it amazing how Kuhn was able to identify these trends and organize them in such a way that made a good amount of sense on the macroscopic level, and that also goes along with all the other authors and theories that we have read about: the Strong Programme and David Bloor, Mertonian norms, and the actor-network theory with Michel Callon, to name just a few. I hated having to cram so much reading into my head, but finding out the reasons behind the madness was really interesting and fun. I am really happy for sticking it out to the end--my intentions are no longer about just getting rid of a humanities requirement, but they have transformed into what will hopefully be a minor in STS, or in the humanities in general. Thank you all for such a rewarding first encounter with STS.

-Rad