STS 4561

Last Updated

  • Schedule of Classes - June 19, 2018 12:09PM EDT
  • Course Catalog - March 23, 2018 2:31PM EDT

STS 4561
Stars, Scores, and Rankings: Evaluation and Society

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2017-2018.

Evaluation is a pervasive feature of contemporary life. Professors, doctors, countries, hotels, pollution, books, intelligence: there is hardly anything that is not subject to some form of review, rating, or ranking these days. This senior seminar examines the practices, cultures, and technologies of evaluation and asks how value is established, maintained, compared, subverted, resisted, and institutionalized in a range of different settings. Topics include user reviews, institutional audit, ranking and commensuration, algorithmic evaluation, tasting, gossip, and awards. Drawing on case studies from science, technology, culture, accounting, art, environment, and everyday life, we shall explore how evaluation comes to order our lives – and why it is so difficult to resist.

When Offered Spring.

Distribution Category (SBA-AS)

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Syllabi: none

  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: INFO 4561, SOC 4560

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  •  8833 STS 4561   SEM 101

  • Department Consent Required (Add)