STS 4460

Last Updated

  • Schedule of Classes - October 31, 2025 7:07PM EDT

STS 4460
Lightscapes

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

Sunset, polar night, Times Square, satellites in space—these are just four lightscapes. Light is essential to humanity in multifaceted ways. It both reflects and shapes human interactions with the environment. Yet light is also complex, multiple, and contested. This seminar explores diverse lightscapes in varied contexts. How do we know light? How does light define and shape landscapes and nightscapes? How have people managed, transformed, and valued different lightscapes over time? This course draws primarily from the history of science and technology, STS, and environmental history with forays into anthropology, environmental humanities, geography, media studies, and more. We will examine texts and images, and engage with lightscapes at Cornell and in Ithaca. The seminar culminates in a class project centered on student-selected lightscapes.


Last 4 Terms Offered 2020SP

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Syllabi: none

  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: BSOC 4460, HIST 4466, VISST 4460

  • 3 Credits Graded

  •  4970 STS 4460   SEM 101

  •  
    • W
    • Jan 20 - May 5, 2026

    • Pritchard, S

  • Instruction Mode: In Person