The Department of Science & Technology Studies (S&TS) at Cornell is concerned with understanding the larger ethical, social, and political dimensions of science-intensive issues. Science and technology are at the core of many of the most important concerns or topics of our day, from the control of military technology, to the ethics of assisted reproduction, to privacy on the Internet. The thread connecting these diverse issues is a shared understanding of science and technology as inherently social activities that are best studied from an interdisciplinary perspective.
The Department of Science & Technology Studies at Cornell is recognized internationally as a leader in the field. Its faculty has expertise in both historical and contemporary social studies of science and technology, and the department offers a variety of courses on the place of science and technology in the modern world.
Department website
Postcolonial STS, medical anthropology, organizational ethnography, design ethnography, Caribbean studies, development studies, history and politics of global health, race and gender in science and medicine; PhD dissertation analyzes project design of World Bank public health programs through multi-sited ethnography in Guyana and Washington, DC
Social studies of the life sciences; neuroscience; genetics and epigenetics; gene-environment interaction; health and socioeconomic status; pol
Material culture studies, performativity, sociology of medicine and medical technology, identity and gender in relation to clinical technologies/spaces/practices, commonplace/invisible/mundane artifacts in technological spaces.
History of technology; body studies; cultural history of 20th c. United States; fashion studies; museum studies
Current research focuses on conceptualization, implementation, and deployment of India's biometrics-based identity infrastructure, Aadhaar. Other interests include sociology and history of technology (with a focus on information technology); infrastructure studies; relationship between law and STS; history of statistical thinking and practices of counting; ethnomethodology; biometrics and identity politics; history of STS; and politics of expertise and knowledge.
History of early modern English demonology and witchcraft; early modern intellectual culture; early modern England; science, empire and race
My research stands at the intersection of the information sciences, sociology of science (with a focus on medicine), and infrastructure studies. Specifically, I examine systems of online health data sharing practices, virtual research collaboration and health community building, health informatics, as well as the study of medical expertise, experience and the 'informed patient'.
I'm interested in exploring the rhetorical strategies and discursive infrastructures at play in the justification of big science and uncertain or "risky" research projects, as well as how the changing context of the post-Cold War world affects research practices, policy, and discourses. My Master's researc focused on the U.S.'s involvement in international nuclear fusion energy collaborations.
Marshall, Owen. 2020 “Shibboleths in the Studio: Informal Demarcation Practices Among Audio Engineers”. Social Studies of Science (May 2020): 1-20.
Marshall, Owen. 2019 “Jitter: Clocking as Audible Media”. International Journal of Communication 13 (April 2019): 1846-1862.
Sound studies and the sociology of technology; social-theoretical and ethnographic approaches to sense, perception, and embodiment; sociology of scientific knowledge and practice.