Research Progress Report #2

Research Progress Report #2

Mariel Emanuel

ES 410

2/22/11

As I have explained before in my previous posts I believe engineering is lacking aspects of creativity and diversity. This is not only affecting the type of products being produced, it is leading to the continual perpetuation of patriarchal values and morals into the field of engineering. In order to confront these biased roots of engineering and increase ingenuity within the field we must incorporate a multiplicity of engineers/researchers that come from a variety of backgrounds in order to tackle the assortment of new issues that are confronting scientists/engineers every day. In order to do this we must not only focus on recruit of women and colored engineers but most importantly, we need to focus on an education reform which involves incorporating more of the humanities into engineering education. Recruitment of diverse types of engineers may temporarily solve our need for more diversity/creativity in the field; however, if these “new” engineers remain trained under the academic paradigm that was created to uphold patriarchal values then we have not completely solved the problem. In my current research I am wondering how and why we have lost the “human” or “craft” in engineering? And what can we do about it?

I believe that the socially constructed separation of humanities and engineering was a socio-political tactic used by governments in order to preserve the patriarchal values and hierarchies inherent in STEM fields. By looking at the creation of humanities and the separation of the subject from engineering in France and Italy it is clear that the humanities were created under a strict socio-political agenda and were indeed strategically deemed a second class field of study because of the states desire to separate the “human” from the technical. For example, at the first Polytechnic school located in France there was a clear and constructed separation of humanities from engineering and in 1859 Italy followed in their footsteps with the Casati Law which proposed a “rigid separation between classical and technical culture”*. And it was only in 1976 that Frances most prestigious polytechnic school decided it was time to add a humanities department.

Now we can see that the separation of the humanities and engineering was deliberate and did not just randomly occur. This is so very interesting to me because “the humanities are commonly seen as being aimed at understanding or comprehending reality as opposed to the sciences of nature which are limited to explaining phenomena”*;however, shouldn’t the understanding or reality be necessary for the explanation? So why is it that the comprehension of reality is separated from the explaining?

Since hierarchies have been ever present within the creation of engineering, this separation seems to be a clear tactic aimed at keeping these hierarchies in place. By subtly placing one type of knowledge (the explaining of reality) above another (the understanding of reality) our society is inevitably keeping the hierarchies in place. This is very dangerous because the current engineering education being taught favors this biased hierarchy of knowledge which clearly reflects the ideals of patriarchy. The ideals of patriarchy predictably work against the inclusion of women and people of color into STEM fields which in turn inhibits the potential for new creative/diverse perspectives. Therefore, through an education reform we must call for a “renewed effort to integrate the techno-scientific and humanistic spheres in order to recover a global vision of problems through a reciprocal relation between explaining and comprehending”*.

All in all, in order to create the most innovative/fair engineering products we must get the HUMANities perspective back into engineering education. Engineering has become so closely linked with technology that it is making it harder and harder for an engineer to even apply their technological knowledge to real human problems that need to be solved. By incorporating more of the humanities into STEM fields we could begin to combat the hierarchies at play within STEM fields and ensure a better-rounded, wholesome education for engineering students.

*Russo, Maria. "The Newcomers: Humanities in Engineering Education." University, Rome, Italy. Web. 20 Feb. 2011. .