Hosted by the Humanities Center and featuring graduate fellow, Maria Ryabova.

Ryabova focuses on gender, class, and nation in relation to roboticists' fantasies of the future. By examining utopian and dystopian imaginaries among American and Chinese roboticists on the U.S. East Coast through an intersectional approach to time and studying how U.S.- China robotics competition reinforces patriarchal orders, she argues that robotics future-making is an inherently masculinist project. This masculinist, techno-utopian project places the benefits of development in a distant future while preserving a utopian present for the privileged few.

Respondents include Seth Davis from Communication + Matthew Wolf-Meyer, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Professor of Science and Technology Studies and Undergraduate Program Director. This event will be hybrid, so you can attend it either in person in 602 CL or via Zoom as you prefer. Please email CE Mackenzie (humctr@pitt.edu) for the precirculated material for this colloquium.