Taylor Dotson, PhD

Associate Professor and Department Chair

CLASS - Social Science

taylor.dotson@nmt.edu
575 - 835 - 5421
Fitch 102

Taylor Dotson teaches interdisciplinary social science courses concerning the culture and politics of science and technology, including such topics as risk governance and environmental controversies, industrial accidents, the barriers to achieving a better technological civilization, and the shaping power of dominant technologies on everyday life. His most recent book, The Divide, examines the role of Truth in politics and how fanatical certitude undermines democracy.

Personal Website

Degrees

PhD Science and Technology Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2015

MS Industrial Mathematics, New Mexico Tech, 2009

BS Mathematics, New Mexico Tech, 2006

Publications

Books

In Press. The Divide: How Fanatical Certitude is Destroying Democracy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

2017. Technically Together: Reconstructing Community in a Networked World. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Popular Audience

2021. "Vaccine Mandates will Backfire." The Washington Post, July 31, https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/07/31/biden-mandate-covid-vaccine-hesitancy/ (w/ Nicholas Tampio)

2021. "The Danger of Fact-ist Politics." The New Atlantis. Spring. https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-danger-of-fact-ist-politics

2021. "Post-Truth, Post-Trump." The Agenda. TVO, April 1, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qfEtpFTvy0

2020. "Democracy and the Nuclear Stalemate." The New Atlantis. Fall. https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/democracy-and-the-nuclear-stalemate (w/ Michael Bouchey)

2020. "Radiation Politics in a Pandemic." The New Atlantis. June 18, https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/radiation-politics-in-a-pandemic

Selected Articles

2019. "The Promise and Perils of Produced Waters: Intelligent Trial and Error as an Anticipatory Framework for Enabling Responsible Innovation" Journal of Responsible Innovation. 6(3): 305-322

2016. "Trial-and- Error Urbanism: Addressing Obduracy, Uncertainty and Complexity in Urban Planning and Design." Journal of Urbanism. 9(2): 148-165.

2015. “Technological Determinism and Permissionless Innovation as Technocratic Governing Mentalities: Psychocultural Barriers to the Democratization of Technology.” Engaging Science, Technology, and Society. 1: 98-120.

2012. "Technology, Choice and the Good Life: Questioning Technological Liberalism." Technology in Society 34(4): 326-336. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X12000589

Courses taught

SS 130 Introduction to Science and Technology Studies

SS 201 Unintended Consequences, Industrial Accidents, & Other Anthropogenic Disasters

SS 211 Understanding Technoscientific Controversies

SS 311 The Digital Age and Its Discontents

SS 389 User Experience Research and Design

PS 470 Science and Technology Policy

Areas of Expertise

Science and Technology Studies

Community Life in the Networked Age

The Governance of Risky Technologies

Scientific and Environmental Controversies

Other Activities at NMT