Summer School

Project Idea: California Summer School for STS Grad Students

The proposal is to develop a summer school for STS grads as a possible means of (1) providing intensive training in STS supplementing what each of our universities cannot provide; (2) providing excellent networking for grads and for faculty; (3) solving some of the logistic difficulties of coordinating different school schedules, travel times, and so on.

The summer school could be anywhere from 2-4 weeks in the summer, with maybe a week follow-up in the winter. For a model to build off of, see the Netherlands program that you may know of. It includes both a concentrated summer school and shorter winter school workshops where work in progress is presented. Part of their webpage is appended below.

The first step would be to get a grant to seriously explore different models and see what is feasible as to funding, labor, and timing. Summer time is often difficult to commit. We could perhaps invite one or two organizers from the Netherlands as consultants, as well as local
expertise we have in the area like Geoff Bowker who just ran a two-week summer school on values in computing/info research.

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Appendix: Workshops, Summer schools & Winter schools in the Netherlands

http://www.wtmc.net/graduate_program.htm

The PhD graduate program consist of two parts: The first two years of the program introduce students into the broad field of studies of the relationship between science, technology and society, and train particular skills. During each of these first two years, students attend
two workshops and one summer school. Workshops are organized around specific themes (linked to the three clusters of questions around which WTMC is organized), while the summer school is organized around both a theme and an anchor teacher (for examples see themes of workshops and anchor teachers of previous schools).

For workshops and summer schools students receive a reader with texts, well in advance and, often, also an assignment, to prepare in advance before the actual workshop or summer school. We expect students to prepare 40 hours for each workshop and 80 hours for the summer school.
The Summer School is in English language and attracts international participants.

In the next phase of their PhD research, students are expected to present their own work for discussion at so-called winter schools. A Winter School lasts two to three days and a few national and international discussants are invited. Texts are distributed in advance. The total amount of preparation depends on the number of participants.