#46 Reconfigurable: Elanor Huntington Talks Engineering, Anthropology, & How We're Making Our World

“Not only do we need engineers working alongside anthropologists to do good quality engineering, I also think that we need to do an anthropology of engineers… Engineers are making our world, right? And, the way that we, as engineers, think collectively, behave collectively, what we consider to be important... I think somebody should be watching that and reflecting on that and [relaying] that back to us, to society, to understand how the people who are making our world actually view the world.”

This is the eighth and FINAL episode in our STS podcast series. The aim of this series was to explore the intersection between science and anthropology, to better understand the contemporary issues that the amazing people featured in this series try to solve. We'd like to take this moment to thank everyone who has been a part of our STS series, as well as everyone who has listened along with us.

So in this episode, Ian chats with Professor Elanor Huntington, the first (and current) female Dean of Engineering and Computer Science at the Australian National University. While Elanor's research has specialised in quantum optics (which, from my understanding, relates to the application of quantum mechanics to phenomena involving light), she is also looking to the future - a future of STEM that needs anthropologists. They talk about the problematic nature of describing human behaviour through numbers and algorithms, unpack what an anthropology of the internet would entail, they discuss the importance of trust in scientific endeavours and the decline of the 'expert', and ponder what the future of engineering will look like, as well as what it means to take control of making your future.

For a list of our links and citations, as well as our favourite quotes from this episode, visit thefamiliarstrange.com

Our Patreon can be found at https://www.patreon.com/thefamiliarstrange

This anthropology podcast is supported by the Australian Anthropological Society, the ANU’s College of Asia and the Pacific and College of Arts and Social Sciences, and the Australian Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, and is produced in collaboration with the American Anthropological Association.

Music by Pete Dabro: dabro1.bandcamp.com

Shownotes by Deanna Catto

Podcast edited by Ian Pollock