Maya_A._Bernstein@um.cc.umich.edu (12/19/87)
Michael Lichter of CalTech asked about graduate study in Computers and Society: Though my email address is at the University of Michigan, where I did my undergraduate work, I am now a graduate student at MIT in the program on Science, Technology, and Society. There are many programs around the country which fall into the area of "Computers and Society" or technology and policy, but they are not always easy to find. I found out about at least one through mailing lists such as this one! You will want to know the focus of the various programs, in particular. Some are based in the humanities, (U of Penn's History and Sociology of Science, e.g.), some are policy programs meant for those with an engineering or science background, such as MIT's Technology and Public Policy. Others are grounded in the social sciences, such as MIT's Science, Technology, and Society. I am most familiar with these last programs, so I will mention some of them: MIT's program has been closely affiliated with the political science department in the past, but has recently been approved as a PhD-granting program itself (to admit students in the fall of '88.) UC-Irvine has a program called Computers, Organizations, Policy, and Society jointly administered by their Business and Computer Science departments. Rensselaer in Troy, NY has a department of Science and Technology Studies. Carnegie-Mellon has several people in Social and Decision Sciences studying computing and society. The University of Michigan's Institute for Public Policy Study has just implemented a program in Information and Organization. The program is meant to be a meeting ground of social science and the information revolution, especially concerned with how computers might alter organizational structures. Often the programs are interdisciplinary and not autonomous. You can learn a lot just by noticing with what departments of the university they are most closely affiliated. Because these programs are not tied to one discipline, they are difficult to locate in books such as Barron's Guide or others. Occasionally one of the social science/science national organizations will publish a guide to these kinds of programs. When you write, I suggest you ask for a catalogue with course descriptions, and notes about faculty research projects so you can see what they're really up to. Perhaps someone else can fill in on the programs based in humanities, science and engineering, and even education? Maya A. Bernstein maya@um.cc.umich.edu