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Aug 26, 2024
On the Importance of Square (as in NOT COOL) Scientists and Engineers
A Discussion with Cyrus Mody
Summary
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks to Cyrus Mody, Professor in the History of Science, Technology, and Innovation and Director of the STS Program at Maastricht University, about his book, The Squares: US Physical and Engineering Scientists in the Long 1970s (MIT Press, 2022). Many narratives about contemporary technologies, especially digital computing and the Internet, focus on the influences of 1960s counter-cultures.
In The Squares, Mody takes the opposite approach and asks how square, non-counter-cultural scientists and engineers reacted to their changing environments in the 1970s. Vinsel and Mody also talk about what this story may suggest about current efforts to refocus STEM education on “values.” The pair also discuss how, over the course of his career, Mody has continually used a set of historical actors he knows a great deal about to examine different historical themes and questions. Finally, they discuss Mody’s current projects and where he is headed.
Your Host
Lee Vinsel
Lee Vinsel is an associate professor in the Department of Science, Technology and Society at Virginia Tech. He studies human life with technology, with particular focus on the relationship between government, business, and technological change. His first book, Moving Violations: Automobiles, Experts, and Regulations in the United States, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in July 2019.