Engineering Studies

A discussion with Guru Madhavan, author of Wicked Problems: How to Engineer a Better World (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2024), https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393651461.
 
We'll focus our discussion on Guru's recent post in NAE Perspectives: 
https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2024/03/engineering-our-wicked-pr...

Questing Excellence in Academia
A discussion with Knut H. Sørensen and Sharon Traweek about their recently published open-access book, Questing Excellence in Academia: A Tale of Two Universities (London: Routledge, 2022).
*NOTE SPECIAL DATE AND TIME*
Click on the book title to access a description of the book, its table of contents, and a link to free digital copy of the book.
From the authors to guide our discussion:
To build our argument about variations in global higher education we juxtapose changes at two public universities over the last 75 years: NTNU and UC/UCLA, both prominent and serving wealthy regions. We claim that universities are disciplined by multiple forces to generate both public and private goods. We focus on the changing cultural, economic, material, political, and social techniques and technologies of both the disciplining and generative processes at NTNU and UCLA, as well as the different strategies those two universities have developed for adapting to and avoiding the changing demands imposed upon them.
We show that there is no singular ‘neo-liberal university’ but a patterned array of strategic engagements with differently configured local and global ecologies. Among other positions we argue that the current governing infrastructures are unsustainable; we also claim that teaching about our research is the primary way that universities engage with innovations in global political economies. We present 4 concepts to convey our interpretative strategies: domesticating, co-morphing, meshworking, and faultlines. Some key topics in our interpretation are sustainability, funding, governance, rankings, revenue streams, reputations, factions, and the required 'subject formation' of students, faculty, and administrators.
Tersely, we suggest reading pages 5-9, 13-22, 26-35, note the keywords listed on pages 221-225, and then pick a chapter of interest to you. There are very brief histories of NTNU and UCLA, plus the systems in which they are embedded on pages 26-32. The book’s argument is summarized on 5-9 and the book’s structure is described on 33-35. Our recommendations are presented 200-205. We use archival, ethnographic, and interview research methods, as described on pages 18-22. We invoke and challenge scholarship from four fields: higher education studies, organization studies, and history of universities, plus Science, Technology, and Society studies (STS), as discussed on pages 13-18.
 

Electrifying Indonesia: Technology and Social Justice in National Development
 
A discussion with Anto Mohsin, Assistant Professor in the Liberal Arts Program at Northwestern University in Qatar, of his recently published book, Electrifying Indonesia: Technology and Social Justice in National Development (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2023). Purchase the book here.
 
The fourth chapter is attached below (login required). [Edit: I've re-uploaded a new document that has abbreviations and notes.]

Spanning the Gilded Age: James Eads and the Great Steel Bridge
 
A discussion with Jack Brown, professor emeritus at University of Virginia, of his forthcoming book, Spanning the Gilded Age: James Eads and the Great Steel Bridge, with Johns Hopkins University Press (21 May 2024; available for preorder). At the broadest level, Spanning the Gilded Age explores the work of a brilliant polymath, the nature of engineering creativity, and the shifting tides of success and failure across time.
 
The preface and third chapter are attached below (login required).

"Bridging Glass Education, Research, and Practice: Art, Engineering, and Experiential Learning at the MIT Glass Lab, 1967-1988." A paper draft and presentation by Alexander Evenchik, PhD Student in the Robotic Matter Lab at Northwestern University.
 

Abstract: The emergence and persistence of new community spaces in established environments often signals and reflects the desires, values, and trajectories of their home institutions. As a space that bridged artistic practice, experiential engineering education, and interdisciplinary research, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Glass Lab reflected the values of not only its founders, but also its broader community. This paper draws on this historical case with contemporary relevance for how we think about the value of such teaching spaces and their effects on practice, interdisciplinarity, community, and education.

 
Download available below (visible when you are logged in with your CHSTM account).

Open discussion: Beginning a shared bibliography project using Zotero
Please join us as we start building our shared library!
 
Guest discussants, two contributors to the Envirotech bibliography:

• Finn Arne Jørgensen, Greenhouse Center for Environmental Humanities, Department of Cultural Studies and Languages, University of Stavanger (Norway)
• Julie Cohn, Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University, and Center for Public History, University of Houston (USA)

 
Link to our Getting Started guide (also attached as pdf, version 6 December 2023): 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OUHUyrXaqccyzI3o-MgOU2ABNZq9AeXVgcjO...
 
Register here: 
https://www.zotero.org/groups/5036327/engineering_studies 

Meeting postponed to December 15.

Introductions, SHOT Annual Conference preview, and Bibliography Collaborations

Reflections on May 18-20 IEEE Ethics Conference and May 20 INES Workshop: A discussion led by Sarah Appelhans (Postdoctoral Research Associate, Bucknell University).
 
We will also briefly discuss a bibliography project working through the Zotero group, Engineering Studies. For useful background reading on Zotero groups, visit:
https://www.zotero.org/support/groups 
 
NOTE: All are welcome and encouraged to attend this follow-up discussion. You do not need to have attended the May 20 workshop.

Dialogue with Professor Jessica Smith, Editor-in-chief of Engineering Studies
Readings:

Downey, Gary Lee. “What Is Engineering Studies for? Dominant Practices and Scalable Scholarship.” Engineering Studies 1, no. 1 (March 1, 2009): 55–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/19378620902786499.
Smith, Jessica M. “Introduction to the New Editor-in-Chief.” Engineering Studies 15, no. 1 (January 2, 2023): 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/19378629.2023.2178524.