Kristoffer Whitney Headshot

Kristoffer Whitney

Associate Professor, Science, Technology, and Society

Department of Science, Technology, and Society
College of Liberal Arts
kjwgla@rit.edu
585-475-4474
Office Location
EAS-2138

Kristoffer Whitney

Associate Professor, Science, Technology, and Society

Department of Science, Technology, and Society
College of Liberal Arts

Education

BS, Rochester Institute of Technology; Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

Bio

Ph.D. History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania

M.A. History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania

Post Doctoral Fellow, Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Associate-at-Large, Center for Culture, History, & Environment, Nelson Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Winner of the 2016 David Edge Prize for the best article in the area of Science and Technology studies by the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S)

kjwgla@rit.edu
585-475-4474

Select Scholarship

Journal Paper
Whitney, Kristoffer and Kaitlin Stack Whitney. "Squished Bugs: Teaching and Learning Reflexivity in Ecology." Environmental Humanities 16. 1 (2024): 211–229. Web.
Whitney, Kristoffer. "Bird-Banding and the Environmental Humanities: Institutions, Intersubjectivities, and the Phenomenological Method of Margaret Morse Nice." Environmental Humanities 13. 1 (2021): 113-135. Web.
Whitney, Kaitlin Stack and Kristoffer Whitney. "Inaccessible media during the COVID-19 crisis intersects with the language deprivation crisis for young deaf children in the US." Journal of Children and Media 15. 1 (2021): 25-28. Print.
Whitney, Kristoffer. "Valuing Shorebirds: Bureaucracy, Natural History, and Expertise in North American Conservation." Journal of the History of Biology 53. 4 (2020): 631-652. Print.
Whitney, Kristoffer. "It’s About Time: Adaptive Resource Management, Environmental Governance, and Science Studies." Science, Technology & Human Values 44. 2 (2018): 263-290. Print.
Whitney, Kaitlin Stack and Kristoffer Whitney. "John Anthony Allan’s ‘Virtual Water’: Natural Resources Management in the Wake of Neoliberalism." Arcadia 11. (2018): N/A. Web.
Invited Article/Publication
Whitney, Kristoffer. "History of Wildlife Tracking Technologies." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science. (2022). Web.
Whitney, Kristoffer and Sabrina McCormick. "Comparing West Nile Virus and COVID‐19." Sociology of Health & Illness. (2020). Web.
Whitney, Kristoffer. "Margaret Morse Nice thought like a song sparrow and changed how scientists understand animal behavior." The Conversation. (2019). Web.
External Scholarly Fellowships/National Review Committee
9/1/2021 -8/31/2022
     National Science Foundation
     Amount: $120,152
Book Chapter
Whitney, Kristoffer. "Design for Deaf Education: early history of the NTID." Making Disability Modern: Design Histories. Ed. Elizabeth E. Guffey and Bess Williamson. London, England: Bloomsbury, 2020. 143-158. Print.

Currently Teaching

HIST-501
Capstone Seminar
3 Credits
The capstone seminar is the final core requirement in the history degree program. Students will enroll in this course in their final year of study. The capstone seminar will further develop and sharpen the student’s practice and understanding of the discipline of history. Students will work closely with faculty as they conceive of, develop, and revise a written senior thesis. And finally, students are expected to present their research project in front of their peers and program faculty.
STSO-140
Science, Technology, and Values
3 Credits
Science Technology and Values explores the concepts and effects of science and technology on society, and analyzes the relationship between science and technology, asking questions such as: How each has come to play a major role today, and how have science and technology affected and been affected by human values, despite longstanding assumptions that science and technology are value-free? Environmental aspects of science and technology will also be examined from interdisciplinary perspectives. Key themes include the practical and theoretical relationships between science, technology, and power.
STSO-240
Social Consequences of Technology
3 Credits
Technology has an impact on every aspect of our social lives. With each advance, unanticipated problems emerge, leading to complex debates about addressing the negative consequences. This course highlights the social, ethical, and humanistic challenges of assorted technologies, past and present. We will investigate how various technologies developed and compare the expected effects of the new technologies with the actual results.
STSO-335
Industry, Environment, and Community in Rochester
3 Credits
This course examines Rochester through the lens of industrialization, immigration, technological innovation, and environmental change between the 1890s and 1990s. This class blends readings and discussion with experiential learning and community-based research projects to help students understand community identity as a result of changes in livelihoods, immigration, and environment. Students will examine these social changes in both a local and global context. Students will have a better appreciation for the way historical forces shape a contemporary sense of place.
STSO-425
Nature and Quantification
3 Credits
In this course, students will examine the ways in which “nature,” broadly conceived, has been quantified, standardized, and in many cases commodified in the modern West – often in the context of the natural sciences, government bureaucracies, capitalist markets, or some combination of the three. Reading and discussing broadly across history, science studies, anthropology, philosophy, and ecology, students will gain multidisciplinary perspectives on modern informational thinking, and develop analytical tools for assessing contemporary issues related to the quantified environment.
STSO-510
Interdisciplinary Capstone Seminar
3 Credits
This course is an upper-level, Writing Intensive undergraduate seminar that explores the complex interlinkages between science, technology, the environment, and society in contemporary and historical contexts. The capstone seminar will sharpen the student’s understanding of STEM and environmental topics by integrating diverse perspectives from the humanities and social sciences, including approaches from science and technology studies (STS) and environmental studies. Students will work closely with faculty as they develop, revise, and present a research project. (Enrollment in a Department of STS minor or immersion, or permission of instructor).

In the News

  • June 1, 2026

    a horseshoe crab is held up by a person in a bright blue shirt

    Why the U.S. Still Bleeds Horseshoe Crabs Despite a Lab-Made Alternative

    Sentient features insights from Kristoffer Whitney, associate professor in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society, on the continued use of horseshoe crab blood in pharmaceutical safety testing and the challenges slowing adoption of synthetic alternatives in the United States.

  • October 28, 2024

    Surf on a beach at sunset features a horseshoe crab upside down in the water and several others nearby.

    Turning tides for endotoxin testing

    Chemical and Engineering News speaks to Kristoffer Whitney, associate professor in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society, about the changing landscape of endotoxin testing in the pharmaceutical industry, highlighting the potential shift away from using horseshoe crab blood toward animal-free alternatives due to new regulatory acceptance.

More News