Environmental Racism in St. Louis

September 26   12 pm

  https://umsystem.zoom.us/j/4757708789

This talk will address the various ways in which environmentalism, racism, and disinvestment collide, disparately impacting Black St. Louisans and causing significant harm to health, safety, and financial stability.  

Tara A. Rocque is an Assistant Professor of Practice and Assistant Director of the Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic, focusing on issues of environmental justice, water protection, and the effects of coal-fired power plants. She joined the law school after over 10 years of litigation experience, including work on efforts to hold a mining and smelting organization responsible for lead poisoning caused by its operations.

Environmental Racism in St. Louis Flyer

S&T 2022 Student Research Symposium
Sponsored by the Center for Science, Technology, and Society
November 30, 2022
The Collaboratory, G-2 Humanities-Social Sciences

The Center for Science, Technology, and Society is accepting proposals for student
research presentations or posters for a Student Research Symposium on November 30,
2022. CSTS would like to showcase student research, completed or in progress, related to
the interrelations of science, technology, and society.
We invite research from all disciplines—scientific, technological, philosophical, historical,
rhetorical, artistic, or any combination. Of particular interest this year are topics that
address the question of “technology and good living.” We hear a lot about smart living
and innovation. But how might or how has technology help/ed society to move toward
the “good”?

Student Research Symposium Flyer

Reflections on Engineering: Scholarship in Service to Society
May 5, 2022- 1 pm

https://umsystem.zoom.us/j/4757708789

Historically, engineering curricula and the research enterprise have remained highly focused and “inside the fence” of academic labs or under very controlled research settings in the field.  But increasingly, we see are seeing rapid growth and interest in community-engaged research, learning, and outreach by engineering academics.  Community-engaged work can occur in various forms: research in partnership with communities, service-learning oriented courses, and professional outreach through civic organizations or professional associations

Reflections on Engineering Flyer

Policing Electricity: Power Theft and Everyday Life in Mexico City, 1901-1918
November 10, 2021 2 pm
https://umsystem.zoom.us/j/4757708789

Diana J. Montaño's research interests include the construction of modern Latin American societies with a focus on technology and its relationship to nationalism, everyday life and domesticity. Her first book Electrifying Mexico: Technology and the Transformation of a Modern City examines how ordinary citizens used electricity, both symbolically and physically, in the construction of a modern nation. The book weaves together how these "electrifying agents" first crafted a discourse for an electrified future and secondly, how they shaped its consumption. It shows how these agents of modernity promoted and created both imaginary and tangible notions of this technology. Taking a user-based perspective, this study reconstructs how electricity was lived, consumed, rejected, and shaped in everyday life.

Policing Electricity Flyer

The Innovation Delusion: How Our Obsessions with the New Has Disrupted the Work thatMatters Most
December 2, 2021 1 pm
https://umsystem.zoom.us/j/4757708789

Since the 1950s, we have literally heard the word "innovation" more and more every year.  But is this innovation-speak getting us what we want? In this talk, I will examine the history of innovation-speak, argue that it isn't getting us more innovation and comes with serious costs, including distracting us from important issues like maintenance and repair. I will outline some of the ideas of The Maintainers community, which has been thinking about these topics for the past six years. The Maintainers is a global, interdisciplinary research network focused on maintenance, repair, and the mundane work that keeps our world going.

The Innovation Delusion Flyer