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This is a preliminary notice to let you know that Judy Wajcman (of the
Australian National University) will be giving a brown bag lunch talk at
STS on January 25, 2006. The event will be held in E51 (exact location
and title yet to be announced). <br><br>
Wajcman has long-standing research interests in the social studies of
technology, employment relations and organizational analysis. Her first
book, <i>Women in Control: Dilemmas of a Workers' Co-operative
</i>(1983), explored the relationship between paid and unpaid work, and
gender divisions in the home and workplace. <br><br>
During the early 1980s at the University of Edinburgh she further
developed her approach to the analysis of technology and social change in
the book <i>The Social Shaping of Technology</i> (with Donald MacKenzie,
1985). While at the University of New South Wales, she continued this
theme with a major empirical research project on the future of work,
examining the employment implications of new information technology. This
research resulted in a number of articles on the implications for
economic and domestic change of electronic homework, or
telework.<br><br>
Another field of expertise is gender theory. As a graduate student at
Cambridge University, together with other faculty and postgraduates,
Wajcman established the first women's studies program in the UK. A book
based on the course was published as <i>Women in Society:
Interdisciplinary Essays</i> (1981). She is probably best known
internationally for her analysis of the gendered nature of technology in
<i>Feminism Confronts Technology</i> (1991). Her more recent book
<i>TechnoFeminism </i>(2004) deals with the relationship between the
Internet, cyberspace, humans and machines, and biotechnology. It
critically examines theories about the post-industrial, network society
and new economy, and how technological risk has become a central public
concern.<br><br>
During an appointment as Principal Research Fellow at Warwick Business
School, Wajcman conducted a major research project on senior
management, the restructuring of organizations and changing workplace
culture. The book based on the research, <i>Managing Like a Man: Women
and Men in Corporate Management</i> (1998), was the first British study
to investigate the gender relations of senior management in a post-equal
opportunities world. Her most recent book, <i>Working Life in Capitalist
Organizations </i>(co-authored with Paul Edwards 2005), consolidates her
research on the sociology of work and employment. A major theme is the
effect of technological change on the workplace, identity and personal
life. <br><br>
Wajcman has a number of current research projects including one with
Michael Bittman on the impact of information and communication
technologies on the management of time, examining such themes as people’s
experience of time pressure and the quality of domestic life. She
is also developing a large project on the impact of mobile phones on
work/life balance, in conjunction with the Australian Mobile
Telecommunications Association. Wajcman is one of the editors for a
<i>New Handbook of Science and Technology Studies </i>to be published by
MIT Press in 2007. This is the official handbook for the Society of the
Social Studies of Science (4S). <br><br>
The presence of this distinguished scholar should be of interest to many
in the larger sts community, so please mark this date on your calendars
now.<br><br>
Rosalind Williams<br><br>
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Robert M. Metcalfe Professor of Writing<br>
Director, Program in Science, Technology, and Society<br>
President, Society for the History of Technology<br><br>
Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br>
77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room E51-185<br>
Cambridge, MA 02139<br><br>
phone: (617) 253-4062<br>
FAX: (617) 258-8118<br>
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email: rhwill@mit.edu</body>
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