Stephen Hilgartner
Associate Professor and Chair

Department of Science & Technology Studies
Cornell University
304 Rockefeller Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853 USA
607-255-9950

Stephen Hilgartner studies the social dimensions and politics of contemporary and emerging science and technology, especially in the life sciences. His research focuses on situations in which scientific knowledge is implicated in establishing, contesting, and maintaining social order-a theme he has examined in studies of expertise, property formation, risk disputes, and biotechnology. His book on science advice, Science on Stage: Expert Advice as Public Drama, won the 2002 Rachel Carson Prize from the Society for Social Studies of Science.

Publications (selected):

Science on Stage: Expert Advice as Public Drama, Stanford University Press, 2000. "Behind the headlines of our time stands an unobtrusive army of science advisers. Panels of scientific, medical, and engineering experts evaluate the safety of the food we eat, the drugs we take, and the cars we drive. But despite the enormous influence of science advice, its authority is often problematic, and struggles over expert advice are thus a crucial aspect of contemporary politics. Science on Stage is a theoretically informed and empirically grounded study of the social process through which the credibility of expert advice is produced, challenged, and sustained. Building on the sociology of Erving Goffman, the author analyzes science advice as a form of performance, examining how advisory bodies work to bring authoritative advice to the public stage. This lively and accessible analysis provides not only new insights about science advice but also a fresh look at the social dimensions of scientific writing." (from the book jacket)

"Making the Bioeconomy Measurable: Politics of an Emerging Anticipatory Machinery" (Comment). BioSocieties 2(3):382-6, 2007. http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php

"Overflow and Containment in the Aftermath of Disaster" (Comment). Social Studies of Science, 37(1):153-58, 2007. http://www.hurricanearchive.org

"Voting Machinery, Counting, and Public Proofs in the 2000 US Presidential Election." Michael Lynch, Stephen Hilgartner, and Carin Berkowitz, in Making Things Public: Atmospheres of Democracy, edited by Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel. MIT Press, 2005.

"Making Maps and Making Social Order: Governing American Genome Centers, 1988-1993." In From Genetics to Genomics: The Mapping Cultures of Twentieth-Century Genetics, edited by Jean-Paul Gaudillière and Hans-Joerg Rheinberger, Routledge, 2004.

"Mapping Systems and Moral Order: Constituting Property in Genome Laboratories." In States of Knowledge: The Co-Production of Science and Social Order, edited by Sheila Jasanoff, Routledge, 2004.

"Biotechnology." In Smelser, Neil J. and Paul Baltes, eds., International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2:1235-40, Elsevier, 2002.

"Acceptable Intellectual Property." Journal of Molecular Biology, 319(4):943-46, 2002.

"Data Withholding in Academic Genetics: Evidence From a National Survey." Eric G. Campbell, Brian R. Clarridge, Manjusha Gokhale, Lauren Birenbaum, Stephen Hilgartner, Neil A. Holtzman, David Blumenthal, Journal of the American Medical Association 287(4):473-80, 2002.

"Data Access Policy in Genome Research." Pp. 202-18 in Arnold Thackray, ed., Private Science: Biotechnology and the Rise of the Molecular Sciences, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998.

"Access to Data and Intellectual Property: Scientific Exchange in Genome Research." Pp. 28-39 in National Academy of Sciences, Intellectual Property and Research Tools in Molecular Biology: Report of a Workshop, National Academy Press, 1997. http://www.nap.edu/books

"The Sokal Affair in Context." Science, Technology & Human Values, Vol. 24, No. 2, Autumn 1997, pp. 506-22.

"Biomolecular Databases: New Communication Regimes for Biology?" Science Communication, Vol. 17, No. 2, December 1995, pp. 240-63.

Teaching:

Spring 2007 - (S&TS 391/Govt 309/AmStud 389)
Science in the American Polity: 1960- Now
TR: 1:25-2:40, 4 Credits

Spring 2007 - (S&TS 411)
Knowledge, Technology and Property
MW: 2:55-4:10, 4 Credits

Fall 2006 - (BSOC/S&TS 205)
Ethical Issues in Health and Medicine
TR: 10:10-11:25 + Section, 4 Credits

Fall 2006 - (S&TS 645/Govt 634)
The New Life Sciences: Emerging Technology, Emerging Politics
T: 2:30-4:25, Credits

Links:

Department of Science & Technology Studies:
www.sts.cornell.edu

Undergraduate major in Biology & Society:
www.sts.cornell.edu/programbsoc.php

Ph.D. Program in Science & Technology Studies:
www.sts.cornell.edu/programphd.php

Cornell New Life Science Initiative: Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues:
http://www.genomics.cornell.edu/focus_areas/elsi/

Voting Technology Archive:
http://www.sts.cornell.edu/voting_technology_archive/

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