Center for Information Technology and Society
The Center for Information Technology and Society at the University of California, Santa Barbara was founded in 1999 to support the interdisciplinary study of the cultural transitions and social innovations associated with contemporary information technology. CITS accomplishes this by connecting scholars in different disciplines studying similar phenomena related to technology and society, through both formal events and informal meetings of the center's faculty research affiliates. Currently, CITS faculty represent 13 departments on campus, spanning the Social Sciences, the College of Engineering, and the Humanities. In addition, the center supports graduate study through the administration of the Technology & Society Emphasis on campus. CITS is housed in the campus Office of Research, as a unit of the Institute for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research at the university.
Advisory board
The advisory board is composed of leading business leaders and visionaries in the information technology industry. The current board includes Mark Bertelsen, John Seely Brown, Dave Toole, and Marie J. Williams.Leadership
Joseph Walther, Ph.D. stepped down as CITS director in June 2023. In his words, the center has entered "a yearlong visioning exercise to consider what greater aspirations we can strive to achieve and what new leadership can best help to achieve them." The center is in a transitional phase until a new director is named.Bruce Bimber founded CITS and acted as the center's director from 1999 to 2006. succeeded Bimber, directing the center from 2006 to 2009. directed the center from 2009 to 2012. Kevin Almeroth, Ph.D. served as the associate director of CITS from 1999 to 2012. Lisa Parks, served as director from 2012 to 2015. was CITS director from 2015 to 2017. Joseph Walther, Ph.D. assumed the center's directorship from 2017 to 2023.
Graduate study
CITS manages the Technology & Society Ph.D. Emphasis available to graduate students affiliated with participating departments. The optional Technology & Society Emphasis provides additional, multidisciplinary training to students planning a dissertation related to the societal implications of technology.Students accepted in the Ph.D. Emphasis program must take the iT&S Gateway Course and complete four graduate seminar from a list of approved courses. Students may also petition to have a seminar accepted in substitution of the approved courses, conditional on the assent of the iT&S Faculty Executive Steering Committee. Students seeking to complete the iT&S Ph.D. Emphasis program must finally meet dissertation topic and committee requirements. The Ph.D. Emphasis is awarded upon filing of the dissertation and graduation.