Gender, Race, Culture, Science and Technology Minor

Offered at: San Luis Obispo Campus

The Gender, Race, Culture, Science and Technology (GRCST) minor provides students with the opportunity to explore and analyze the historical and contemporary relationships between gender, race, culture, science, technology, and medicine in local, national, and transnational contexts. Utilizing feminist and critical race approaches from the fields of gender and ethnic studies, the GRCST minor examines the role of cultural, ethical, social, political, and economic factors in determining the norms, values and meanings of scientific, technological, and medical practices, with an emphasis on the ways in which the production and applications of science, technology, and medicine shape and are shaped by knowledge and beliefs about gender, race, class, and sexuality. Students completing the GRCST minor will gain important intellectual and practical skills for creating, enacting, and evaluating efforts to create more socially just, equitable, and inclusive science, technology, and medicine in an increasingly diverse and globalized world. The GRCST minor is not open to students who have declared a minor in one of the other STS minors: Ethics, Public Policy, Science and Technology (EPPST); Media Arts, Society and Technology (MAST); and Science Communication (SC).

Program Learning Objectives

1. Understand and evaluate the interconnectedness between science, technology and the social, political, cultural and environmental dimensions of our world with an emphasis on the complex relationships between gender, race, science, and technology.
2. Identify, analyze and contextualize competing understandings of and arguments about how science and technology shape and are shaped by social, cultural, political, and economic factors in historical and contemporary contexts and in conjunction with knowledge and beliefs about gender, race, class, and sexuality in national and transnational contexts.
3. Explain key concepts, terms, and frameworks from research on the complex relationships between gender, race, science, and technology, and apply these concepts, terms, and frameworks to conduct interdisciplinary research and/or engage in creative activities in individual and group settings.
4. Exhibit effective, ethical and inclusive communication skills allowing them to communicate about the complex relationships between gender, race, science, and technology to multiple audiences.
5. Recognize emergent scientific and technological challenges, promote more socially responsible scientific and technical practices, and work, collaborate, and interact more responsibly and effectively in an increasingly diverse and globalized workplace and world.

Minor Requirements and Curriculum

• At least half of the units must be from upper-division courses (3000-4000 level).
• At least half of the units must be taken at Cal Poly (in residence).
• No more than one-third of the units will be taken with credit-no credit grading (CR/NC), not counting courses with mandatory CR/NC. Departments may further limit CR/NC grading if desired.
• A minimum 2.0 GPA is required in all units counted for completion of the minor.

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Topic courses require department approval. Please contact department for a list of approved topics.