Susan Leigh Star

Susan Leigh Star was an American scholar known for influential work in Science and Technology Studies, sociology, and information science. She produced foundational studies on classification, infrastructure, and boundary objects that shaped research across anthropology, computer science, library science, and medicine. Her interdisciplinary career involved collaborations with scholars at institutions such as Stanford University, University of California, Santa Cruz, Cornell University, and Utrecht University.

Early life and education

Born in 1955, Star grew up in the United States and pursued higher education that combined interests in sociology, philosophy, and technology. She completed undergraduate and graduate studies culminating in a doctorate that positioned her within the networks of qualitative research, symbolic interactionism, and emerging science and technology studies programs. During her formative years she engaged with scholars connected to Harvard University, University of Chicago, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and other major research centers, situating her work in dialogues with figures associated with actor–network theory, ethnomethodology, and social constructionism.

Academic career and positions

Star held faculty and research positions across multiple universities and research institutes, contributing to departments and centers linked to information studies, anthropology, sociology, and computer science. Her appointments included roles at University of California, San Diego, University of Tennessee, and visiting affiliations that brought her into collaboration with researchers at Stanford University, Cornell University, Duke University, and University of Michigan. She co-directed and participated in projects funded or supported by organizations such as the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and European research bodies associated with Utrecht University and other European University Association members. Star also served on editorial boards and advisory committees for journals and conferences tied to Information Processing Society of Japan, ACM SIGCHI, and cross-disciplinary venues connecting library and information science with healthcare and biomedical informatics.

Research contributions and theories

Star is best known for developing and popularizing the concept of "boundary objects" to explain collaboration across heterogeneous social worlds, a concept that linked practices in museum studies, healthcare, geography, computer-supported cooperative work, and library science. Her analytic work interrogated standards, classification systems, and infrastructures, drawing on case studies involving biomedical classification, taxonomies, geospatial information, and healthcare informatics. She emphasized the political and social consequences of "invisible work" and the making and maintenance of infrastructure, engaging with themes present in debates around public policy, urban planning, and science policy while dialoguing with scholars from Bruno Latour, Anselm Strauss, and researchers in qualitative methodology. Her writings explored how artifacts and systems serve as boundary objects across sites such as hospitals, museums, libraries, archives, and laboratories, and how standards and classification regimes produce inclusion and exclusion that intersect with issues in race relations, gender studies, and disability studies.

Publications and major works

Star authored and co-authored numerous influential articles and edited volumes that have been widely cited in sociology and information science. Her major works include the edited volume "Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences" and collaborative pieces on the ethnography of infrastructure and boundary objects, which appeared in journals and collections connected to American Sociological Review, Social Studies of Science, and disciplinary anthologies used in library schools and medical schools. She produced methodological reflections on ethnography that informed work in computer science fields such as human–computer interaction and information retrieval. Star also contributed chapters to volumes associated with Oxford University Press, MIT Press, and other academic publishers, and presented keynote addresses at conferences organized by Association for Information Science and Technology, Society for Social Studies of Science, and International Communication Association.

Awards, honors, and legacy

Throughout her career she received recognition from professional societies and academic institutions, including fellowships, visiting professorships, and awards from organizations that support research in social science, information studies, and interdisciplinary research. Her concepts, especially "boundary objects", continue to be taught in courses at Yale University, Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, and other universities, and to inform practice in fields ranging from museum curation to health informatics. After her death in 2010, conferences, symposia, and special issues in journals such as Social Studies of Science and Science, Technology, & Human Values commemorated her contributions, and her work remains a touchstone for scholars working across disciplinary boundaries.

Category:Sociologists Category:Science and Technology Studies scholars Category:Information scientists