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“Engineers as Radical Intellectuals:<br>
Contested 'Responsibilities' in the 1960s”<br>
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Matthew Wisnioski, Washington University<br>
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Sponsored by the MIT Anthropology Program<br>
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Monday, December 4 @ 12:30<br>
MIT</font> Building 16, Room 220<br>
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<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>Engineers in the 1960s found
themselves losing control. Scientists seemed to take their credit,
work in the “military-industrial complex” eroded their ethos of autonomy,
and, most disconcerting, technology increasingly was assailed as
alienating, destructive, and inhumane. In this talk, we’ll explore
how engineers reconciled themselves with this intellectual crisis of
technology by calling upon contradictory rhetorics of responsibility.
Responsibility (perhaps the political watchword of the Cold War era) was
central not only to the cultural politics of the New Left, cold warriors,
and conservatives, but shaped also how engineers envisioned technology
and social change. In calling for new responsibilities engineers
appropriated the ideas of establishment intellectuals, Quaker moralists,
and critical social theorists to redefine their authority over the
meaning of technology.<br>
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<i>Lunch will be provided. <br>
Please RSVP to: <a href="mailto:asteward@mit.edu">asteward@mit.edu</a> by
Tuesday November 28<sup>th</sup>.<br>
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<br>
Amberly Steward<br>
Administrative Assistant<br>
Anthropology Program<br>
Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br>
77 Massachusetts Avenue<br>
Bldg. 16-267<br>
Cambridge, MA 02139<br>
p) 617.253.3065<br>
f) 617.253.5363 </font></blockquote></body>
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