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by Jenn Stroud Rossmann (Author)
Engineers across the globe are building our future and, by extension, our world. But how can these engineers -- whose educations have often encoded historical gendered, raced, competitive, and capitalist norms -- responsibly engage in worldbuilding, which is both an art and a science? How can we better prepare the next generation to build a world that is more inclusive and intersectional?
In this concise and accessible book, writer and engineer Jenn Stroud Rossmann argues that we need to upgrade the "engineering imagination". By interrogating engineering's history and storytelling traditions, she reveals how we could better understand and anticipate the impacts and implications of new technology, and better envision alternative futures. Far from being a merely technical science, engineering has been shaped -- and can be revolutionised -- by the ways that we talk about the history of technology, how art and literature portray scientists and technologists, and the ways that we pass on knowledge through education.
Drawing upon sources as varied as literature, poetry, visual art, and film as well as history, theory, philosophy, and the technicalities of science, Worldbuilding is a guide to thoughtful technological citizenship for makers and users alike.
Author Biography
Jenn Stroud Rossmann is the Baird Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Lafayette College, where she also served as founding co-director of the Hanson Center for Inclusive STEM Education. She is an award-winning educator and advocate for interdisciplinarity and inclusion. She is the co-author of two textbooks, Engineering Mechanics: A Continuum Approach (2015, with Clive Dym and Lori Bassman), and Continuum Mechanics for Engineers (2020, with Tom Mase and Ron Smelser). Rossmann is also the author of the essay series "An engineer reads a novel" for Public Books and the novel The Place You're Supposed to Laugh (7.13 Books, 2018).
