Lecture Series

Rediet Abebe is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley and a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. Abebe holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Cornell University and graduate degrees in mathematics from Harvard University and the University of Cambridge. Her research is in artificial intelligence and algorithms, with a focus on equity and justice concerns. Abebe is a co-founder and co-organizer of the multi-institutional, interdisciplinary research initiative Mechanism Design for Social Good (MD4SG). Her dissertation received the 2020 ACM SIGKDD Dissertation Award and an honorable mention for the ACM SIGEcom Dissertation Award for offering the foundations of this emerging research area. Abebe’s work has informed policy and practice at the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the Ethiopian Ministry of Education. She has been honored in the MIT Technology Reviews’ 35 Innovators Under 35 list as a pioneer and the Bloomberg 50 list as a one to watch. Her work has been featured in BBC, ELLE, Forbes, and Shondaland and presented at venues including the National Academy of Sciences,United Nations, and Museum of Modern Art. Abebe also co-founded Black in AI, a non-profit organization tackling representation and equity issues in AI. Her research is influenced by her upbringing in her hometown of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Ashley Shew is an associate professor of Science, Technology, and Society (STS) at Virginia Tech. With a team of graduate and undergraduate students, she currently studies the stories disabled people tell about technology with the help of an NSF CAREER Award. She also works with a team from Engineering Education on the experiences of disabled civil engineering students and as part of an interdisciplinary graduate education program on regenerative medicine.She centers her work in philosophy of technology with strong interests in animal studies, disability studies, bioethics, and emerging technologies. Shew is author of Animal Constructions and Technological Knowledge(2017), co-editor of three philosophy of technology volumes, and serves as co-editor-in-chief of the academic journal Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology.

Dr. Wynia’s training is in internal medicine, infectious diseases, public health and health services research. His career has included developing a research institute and training programs focusing on bioethics, professionalism and policy issues (the AMA Institute for Ethics) and founding the AMA’s Center for Patient Safety. His research has focused on novel uses of survey data to inform and improve the practical management of ethical issues in healthcare and public policy.He has led projects on a wide variety of topics related to ethics and professionalism, including understanding and measuring the ethical climate of healthcare organizations and systems; ethics and quality improvement; communication, team-based care and engaging patients as members of the team; defining physician professionalism; public health and disaster ethics; medicine and the Holocaust (with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum); and inequities in health and health care. He has served on committees, expert panels and as a reviewer for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, The Joint Commission, the Hastings Center, the American Board of Medical Specialties, federal agencies, and other organizations.Dr. Wynia is a past president of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH), and has chaired the Ethics Forum of the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the Ethics Committee of the Society for General Internal Medicine (SGIM). He is an elected Fellow of the Hastings Center and serves on the Fellows’ Council

Dr. Judith Shapiro is on the faculty of the Global Environmental Politics program and directs the Dual Degree in Natural Resources and Sustainable Development (NRSD) with University for Peace in Costa Rica. Her new book, China Goes Green: Coercive Environmentalism for a Troubled Planet, with Yifei Li, was published in 2020 by Polity. She is also the author of China’s Environmental Challenges (Polity 2012, Second Edition 2016), Mao’s War against Nature (Cambridge 2001) and the co-author of Son of the Revolution (Knopf 1983) and other books on China. Her current research is on the political and social dynamics of environmental degradation, and on the prospects for sustainable development in China.

Dr. Winkle completed her PhD at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory in the U.K in 2020. Currently, she is a Digital Futures Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, where she is based in the Division of Robotics, Perception and Learning. She is interested in using social robots to positively influence human behavior in the ‘real world’ – this could be anything from robots that motivate you to do your exercises to robots that reduce bullying in schools. Clearly, these situations are very human-centered and socially complex, so she works on design and automation methodologies that look to leverage and utilize human domain expertise.

Boyoung Kim is a 1st-year post-doctoral researcher at the U.S. Air Force Academy’s Warfighter Effectiveness Research Center. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Brown University and Master’s degree in Experimental Psychology from Korea University. Her research interests lie in the field of social cognition, particularly, in social norms, moral judgments and decision-making, and human-robot interaction.

Dr. Kim is currently (2021) a post-doctoral research fellow at George Mason University

Stay Tuned … Video will be available soon.

Dr. An received his Ph.D. in Asian Languages and Cultures from the University of Michigan in 1997. Before coming to the U.S. in 1991, he served as associate director of a research section at Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He joined the faculty of Clemson University in 1999, after two years teaching at the University of Michigan and Princeton University. He has taught courses on Ancient and Modern Chinese Philosophy, Pre-modern Chinese literature, Chinese Buddhism, Comparative Philosophy, and Chinese language at all levels, modern and classic.

Christopher J. Preston is the author of The Synthetic Age: Outdesigning Evolution, Resurrecting Species, and Reengineering Our World (MIT Press, 2018); editor of Climate Justice and Geoengineering: Ethics and Policy in the Atmospheric Anthropocene (Rowman and Littlefield, 2016); editor and contributor to Engineering the Climate: The Ethics of Solar Radiation Management (Lexington, 2012). He wrote Saving Creation: Nature and Faith in the Life of Holmes Rolston, III (Trinity University Press, 2009) and Grounding Knowledge: Environmental Philosophy, Epistemology, and Place (University of Georgia Press, 2003). He has published more than thirty articles in environmental philosophy and related areas. His philosophical interests include wilderness and re-wilding, ecofeminism, the Anthropocene, climate engineering, the science/ethics interface, and environmental epistemology. He holds a Masters degree in applied ethics from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Oregon in Eugene. He is a research fellow at the university’s Program on Ethics and Public Affairs.

Dr. Marion Hourdequin is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Colorado College, specializing in environmental philosophy. Her research and teaching interests also include ethics, comparative philosophy, animal studies, and philosophy of science. Dr. Hourdequin’s current research focuses on climate ethics, climate justice, and the social and ethical dimensions of ecological restoration. She is the author of Environmental Ethics: From Theory to Practice (Bloomsbury, 2015) and editor, with David Havlick, of Restoring Layered Landscapes (Oxford, 2015). She serves as an Associate Editor for the journal Environmental Values, and is on the editorial board of Environmental Ethics.

Dr. Jim Malazita is holds a joint appoint in the Games & Simulation Arts & Sciences (GSAS) Program and in the Department of Science & Technology Studies (STS) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is the PI on a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)-funded educational initiative, alt.code, that uses arts and the digital humanities to bridge critical social theory with computer science education. Dr. Malazita founded and directs RPI’s Tactical Humanities Lab, a critical digital humanities research and pedagogical space. As a hybrid space for technical production and humanistic inquiry, work in the THL centers around two intersecting initiatives: Critical Platform Studies, or the analysis of political, epistemic, and structural power built into technical systems, and Critical Platform Design, or the construction of digital and material technosystems that promote alternative and subversive ways of thinking about technology and society.

Dr. Jim Malazita is holds a joint appoint in the Games & Simulation Arts & Sciences (GSAS) Program and in the Department of Science & Technology Studies (STS) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is the PI on a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)-funded educational initiative, alt.code, that uses arts and the digital humanities to bridge critical social theory with computer science education. Dr. Malazita founded and directs RPI’s Tactical Humanities Lab, a critical digital humanities research and pedagogical space. As a hybrid space for technical production and humanistic inquiry, work in the THL centers around two intersecting initiatives: Critical Platform Studies, or the analysis of political, epistemic, and structural power built into technical systems, and Critical Platform Design, or the construction of digital and material technosystems that promote alternative and subversive ways of thinking about technology and society.

Dr. Frazier Benya is a Senior Program Officer with the Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine (CWSEM) at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Dr. Benya’s work focuses on ensuring that science, engineering, and medicine are ethical and socially responsible, both in their practice and in who gets to participate in the work. She recently served as the study director for the National Academies consensus study report Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Dr. Benya holds a Ph.D. in History of Science, Technology, and Medicine from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Benya was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences in 2017.

Dr. Frazier Benya is a Senior Program Officer with the Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine (CWSEM) at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Dr. Benya’s work focuses on ensuring that science, engineering, and medicine are ethical and socially responsible, both in their practice and in who gets to participate in the work. She recently served as the study director for the National Academies consensus study report Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Dr. Benya holds a Ph.D. in History of Science, Technology, and Medicine from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Benya was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences in 2017.

Dr. Laurie Baefsky is the Associate Dean for Research, Collaboration and Innovation in the College of Arts & Media at the University of Colorado Denver. As the first college in Colorado devoted exclusively to arts and entertainment, the College of Arts & Media is one of the few public institutions nationally, with program and curricula that includes 3D and Digital Animation, Digital Design, Music Business, Singer/Song Writing, Recording Arts, Film & TV and other areas that are central to the creative industries.. She has developed and led arts integrated educational initiatives for over 15 years. As executive director of ArtsEngine and the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru) housed at the University of Michigan, she works locally and nationally to support and strengthen arts and transdisciplinary arts endeavors in higher education. She is currently PI on a three-year Mellon Foundation-supported research initiative, SPARC — Supporting Practice in the Arts, Research and Curricula.

*Dr. Baefsky is currently (2021) the Dean of the College of Arts and Media and the University of Montana

Irene Ngun is an Associate Program Officer with the Board on Higher Education and Workforce (BHEW) at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She also serves as Research Associate for the Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine (CWSEM), a standing committee of the National Academies. Before joining the National Academies she was a congressional intern for the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology (Democratic Office) and served briefly in the office of Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas (D-33).

Irene Ngun received her M.A. from Yonsei Graduate School of International Studies (Seoul,South Korea), where she developed her interest in  science policy. She received her B.A. from Goshen College in Biochemistry/Molecular Biology and Global Economics.

Dean Nieusma is Division Director and Associate Professor of Engineering, Design, & Society. He received his Ph.D. in science and technology studies from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering and general studies from the University of Michigan. Prior to graduate school, he worked as a manufacturing engineer at Ford Motor Co. His research focuses on integrating social and technical dimensions of engineering in education and practice, with a focus on design and project-based learning. He is also broadly interested in the social and ethical implications of technologies and the application of engineering and design expertise to enduring social and environmental problems. He has received several awards and fellowships for research, teaching, and service, including a Fulbright fellowship (Sri Lanka) and, most recently, ASEE’s Olmsted Award for contributions to the liberal education of engineers.

Sarah Jayne Hitt is a Professor of Liberal Studies at the New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering, Herefordshire, UK. She is a passionate and dedicated educator with a talent for developing innovative curricula that integrates engineering and applied sciences with the arts, humanities, social sciences, and policy; experienced administrator with a track record of building successful and sustainable educational programs; unique expertise in engineering ethics, technical communication, and interdisciplinary teaching and scholarship that has been recognized at the national and international level.

Dr. Amy E. Slaton is a professor of history at Drexel University. She holds a PhD in the History and Sociology of Science from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on the history of technical expertise and work, seen through the lens of historical ideas of human difference. Her most recent book, Race, Rigor and Selectivity in U.S. Engineering: The History of an Occupational Color Line (Harvard University Press, 2010), follows racial ideologies in engineering higher education since the 1940s. Her current book project, All Good People: Diversity, Difference and Opportunity in High-Tech America describes the limits of American commitments to equity around race, gender, LGBTQ identities, and disabilities as those are expressed in the training of the nation’s industrial workforce. In 2017 she won the Sterling Olmsted Award, which honors those who have made distinguished contributions to the development and teaching of liberal arts in engineering education. It is the highest award given by the Liberal Education/Engineering and Society Division of the American Society for Engineering Education.

Dr. Amy E. Slaton is a professor of history at Drexel University. She holds a PhD in the History and Sociology of Science from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on the history of technical expertise and work, seen through the lens of historical ideas of human difference. Her most recent book, Race, Rigor and Selectivity in U.S. Engineering: The History of an Occupational Color Line (Harvard University Press, 2010), follows racial ideologies in engineering higher education since the 1940s. Her current book project, All Good People: Diversity, Difference and Opportunity in High-Tech America describes the limits of American commitments to equity around race, gender, LGBTQ identities, and disabilities as those are expressed in the training of the nation’s industrial workforce. In 2017 she won the Sterling Olmsted Award, which honors those who have made distinguished contributions to the development and teaching of liberal arts in engineering education. It is the highest award given by the Liberal Education/Engineering and Society Division of the American Society for Engineering Education.

Dr. Alice Pawley (she, her, hers) is an Associate Professor in the School of Engineering Education and an affiliate faculty member in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, Environmental and Ecological Engineering, and the Purdue Climate Change Research Center at Purdue University. She was co-PI of Purdue’s ADVANCE program from 2008-2014, focusing on the underrepresentation of women in STEM faculty positions. She runs the Feminist Research in Engineering Education Group, whose diverse projects and group members are described at pawleyresearch.org. She was a National Academy of Engineering CASEE Fellow in 2007, received a CAREER award in 2010 and a PECASE award in 2012 for her project researching the stories of undergraduate engineering women and men of color and white women, and received the Denice Denton Emerging Leader award from the Anita Borg Institute in 2013. More recently, she received her school’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring, the Award for Leadership, and a 2019 award from the College of Engineering as an Outstanding Faculty Mentor of Engineering Graduate Students. In 2020 she won the Sterling Olmsted Award from the Liberal Education/Engineering and Society Division of ASEE. She is president of Purdue’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors (2020-22). She helped found, fund, and grow the PEER Collaborative, a peer mentoring group of early career and recently tenured faculty and research staff primarily evaluated based on their engineering education research productivity.

Dr. Alice Pawley (she, her, hers) is an Associate Professor in the School of Engineering Education and an affiliate faculty member in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, Environmental and Ecological Engineering, and the Purdue Climate Change Research Center at Purdue University. She was co-PI of Purdue’s ADVANCE program from 2008-2014, focusing on the underrepresentation of women in STEM faculty positions. She runs the Feminist Research in Engineering Education Group, whose diverse projects and group members are described at pawleyresearch.org. She was a National Academy of Engineering CASEE Fellow in 2007, received a CAREER award in 2010 and a PECASE award in 2012 for her project researching the stories of undergraduate engineering women and men of color and white women, and received the Denice Denton Emerging Leader award from the Anita Borg Institute in 2013. More recently, she received her school’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring, the Award for Leadership, and a 2019 award from the College of Engineering as an Outstanding Faculty Mentor of Engineering Graduate Students. In 2020 she won the Sterling Olmsted Award from the Liberal Education/Engineering and Society Division of ASEE. She is president of Purdue’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors (2020-22). She helped found, fund, and grow the PEER Collaborative, a peer mentoring group of early career and recently tenured faculty and research staff primarily evaluated based on their engineering education research productivity.

Christopher J. Preston is the author of The Synthetic Age: Outdesigning Evolution, Resurrecting Species, and Reengineering Our World (MIT Press, 2018); editor of Climate Justice and Geoengineering: Ethics and Policy in the Atmospheric Anthropocene (Rowman and Littlefield, 2016); editor and contributor to Engineering the Climate: The Ethics of Solar Radiation Management (Lexington, 2012). He wrote Saving Creation: Nature and Faith in the Life of Holmes Rolston, III (Trinity University Press, 2009) and Grounding Knowledge: Environmental Philosophy, Epistemology, and Place (University of Georgia Press, 2003). He has published more than thirty articles in environmental philosophy and related areas. His philosophical interests include wilderness and re-wilding, ecofeminism, the Anthropocene, climate engineering, the science/ethics interface, and environmental epistemology. He holds a Masters degree in applied ethics from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Oregon in Eugene. He is a research fellow at the university’s Program on Ethics and Public Affairs.

Christopher J. Preston is the author of The Synthetic Age: Outdesigning Evolution, Resurrecting Species, and Reengineering Our World (MIT Press, 2018); editor of Climate Justice and Geoengineering: Ethics and Policy in the Atmospheric Anthropocene (Rowman and Littlefield, 2016); editor and contributor to Engineering the Climate: The Ethics of Solar Radiation Management (Lexington, 2012). He wrote Saving Creation: Nature and Faith in the Life of Holmes Rolston, III (Trinity University Press, 2009) and Grounding Knowledge: Environmental Philosophy, Epistemology, and Place (University of Georgia Press, 2003). He has published more than thirty articles in environmental philosophy and related areas. His philosophical interests include wilderness and re-wilding, ecofeminism, the Anthropocene, climate engineering, the science/ethics interface, and environmental epistemology. He holds a Masters degree in applied ethics from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Oregon in Eugene. He is a research fellow at the university’s Program on Ethics and Public Affairs.

Dr. Brent K. Jesiek is an Associate Professor in the Schools of Engineering Education and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. He also leads the Global Engineering Education Collaboratory (GEEC) research group, and is the recipient of an NSF CAREER award to study boundary-spanning roles and competencies among early career engineers. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Michigan Tech and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Science and Technology Studies (STS) from Virginia Tech. Dr. Jesiek draws on expertise from engineering, computing, and the social sciences to advance understanding of geographic, disciplinary, and historical variations in engineering education and practice.

Dr. Brent K. Jesiek is an Associate Professor in the Schools of Engineering Education and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. He also leads the Global Engineering Education Collaboratory (GEEC) research group, and is the recipient of an NSF CAREER award to study boundary-spanning roles and competencies among early career engineers. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Michigan Tech and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Science and Technology Studies (STS) from Virginia Tech. Dr. Jesiek draws on expertise from engineering, computing, and the social sciences to advance understanding of geographic, disciplinary, and historical variations in engineering education and practice.

Dr. Michael C. Loui holds the Dale and Suzi Gallagher Professorship in Engineering Education at Purdue University. He was previously Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and University Distinguished Teacher-Scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has conducted research in computational complexity theory, in professional ethics, and in engineering education. He is a Carnegie Scholar, a Fellow of the IEEE, and a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education. Professor Loui was the editor of the Journal of Engineering Education from 2012 to 2017 and the executive editor of College Teaching from 2006 to 2012. He was Associate Dean of the Graduate College at Illinois from 1996 to 2000. He directed the theory of computing program at the National Science Foundation from 1990 to 1991. He earned the Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980 and the B.S. at Yale University in 1975.

*Dr. Loui is now (2021) a Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Michael C. Loui holds the Dale and Suzi Gallagher Professorship in Engineering Education at Purdue University. He was previously Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and University Distinguished Teacher-Scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has conducted research in computational complexity theory, in professional ethics, and in engineering education. He is a Carnegie Scholar, a Fellow of the IEEE, and a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education. Professor Loui was the editor of the Journal of Engineering Education from 2012 to 2017 and the executive editor of College Teaching from 2006 to 2012. He was Associate Dean of the Graduate College at Illinois from 1996 to 2000. He directed the theory of computing program at the National Science Foundation from 1990 to 1991. He earned the Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980 and the B.S. at Yale University in 1975.

*Dr. Loui is now (2021) a Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.