Rosalind Helen Williams is an American historian of technology whose works examine the societal implications of modern technology. She is Bern Dibner Professor of the History of Science and Technology, Emerita at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[1]
Education and career
editAfter studying at Wellesley College from 1962 to 1964, Williams earned a BA in history and literature from Harvard University in 1966. She went to the University of California, Berkeley for a master's degree in modern European history in 1967, and completed her Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1978.[1][2]
She joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty in 1982, in the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies. She was dean of students and undergraduate education at MIT from 1995 to 2000, after which she moved to the Program in Science, Technology, and Society.[1]
She served as president of the Society for the History of Technology, in 2005–2006.[1]
Recognition
editMIT named Williams the Robert M. Metcalfe Professor of Writing in 1995, and the Bern Dibner Professor in 2006.[2]
Williams was the 2012 Dibner Lecturer of the Smithsonian Institution.[3] In 2013, she won the Leonardo da Vinci Medal of the Society for the History of Technology, its highest award.[4]
She has honorary doctorates from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden (2008), and from Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands (2011).[1][2] She was a distinguished professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology from 2011 to 2015.[2]
Books
editWilliams's books include:
- Dream Worlds: Mass Consumption in Late Nineteenth-Century France (University of California Press, 1982)[5]
- Notes on the Underground: An Essay on Technology, Society, and the Imagination (The MIT Press, 1990)[6]
- Retooling: A Historian Confronts Technological Change (The MIT Press, 2002)[7]
- The Triumph of Human Empire: Verne, Morris, and Stevenson at the End of the World (University of Chicago Press, 2013)[8]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e "Rosalind Williams", People, MIT Program in Science, Technology, and Society, retrieved 2022-10-31
- ^ a b c d Curriculum vitae, 2014, retrieved 2022-10-31
- ^ Rosalind H. Williams to Deliver 2012 Dibner Lecture, Smithsonian Institution, 19 November 2012, retrieved 2022-10-31
- ^ Williams awarded the Leonardo da Vinci Medal: Society for the History of Technology prize recognizes lifetime achievement, MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, 2013, retrieved 2022-10-31
- ^ Reviews of Dream Worlds: John R. Chamberlin, Ethics, doi:10.1086/292486 Priscilla P. Clark, American Journal of Sociology, JSTOR 2779211; Barbara T. Cooper, Nineteenth-Century French Studies, JSTOR 23536448; Neil Harris, Technology and Culture, JSTOR 3104769; William A. Hoisington Jr., The Historian, JSTOR 24445682; Jab-Eerik Leppanen, Scripted, [1]; Richard Holt, Comparative Studies in Society and History, JSTOR 178599; Terry Lovell, Social History, JSTOR 4285351; Michael Miller, The Business History Review, JSTOR 3114585; Chandra Mukerji, Contemporary Sociology, JSTOR 2068009; Patricia O'Brien, Journal of Social History, JSTOR 3787482; Pamela Pilbeam, History, JSTOR 24419821
- ^ Reviews of Notes on the Underground: Gene H. Bell-Villada, Science & Society, JSTOR 40404630; Cornelis Disco, Technology and Culture, JSTOR 40928011; Sophie Forgan, The British Journal for the History of Science, JSTOR 4027249; Joseph Haberer, Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, doi:10.1177/027046769301300510; Randall McGowen, Comparative Literature, JSTOR 1770866; Jeffrey Melnick, Isis, JSTOR 233281; Miles Orvell, Issues in Science and Technology, JSTOR 43310739; Bill Overton, Literature and History, ProQuest 1303915129; Joseph W. Slade, Technology and Culture, JSTOR 3106190; W. Warren Wagar, The Journal of Modern History, JSTOR 2124722
- ^ Reviews of Retooling: Gerben Bakker, Business History, doi:10.1080/00076790412331270149; Manuel Castells, Technology and Culture, JSTOR 25148164; Paul E. Ceruzzi, Isis, doi:10.1086/386508, JSTOR 10.1086/386508; Mikael Hård, Technikgeschichte, [2]; Lucy C. Morse, Engineering Management Journal, ProQuest 208970830; Geoff Peters, Education, Communication and Information, doi:10.1080/14636310303139, [3]; Juan Romero Moñivas, Revista Internacional de Sociología, [4]; Diane T. Rover, Journal of Engineering Education, ProQuest 217950213; K. Stephan, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, doi:10.1109/MTAS.2004.1273466; Keith Vernon, The British Journal for the History of Science, JSTOR 4028364
- ^ Reviews of The Triumph of Human Empire: Stephen Arata, Nineteenth-Century Contexts, doi:10.1080/08905495.2015.1080405; Siobhan Carroll, Nineteenth-Century Literature, doi:10.1525/ncl.2014.69.3.416; JSTOR 10.1525/ncl.2014.69.3.416; Nicholas Daly, Technology and Culture, JSTOR 24468746; Craig Ashley Hanson, Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, doi:10.1525/hsns.2015.45.3.493, JSTOR 10.1525/hsns.2015.45.3.493; Ingo Heidbrink, Environmental History, JSTOR 24691554; Marie-Hélène Huet, Science Fiction Studies, doi:10.5621/sciefictstud.41.3.0642, JSTOR 10.5621/sciefictstud.41.3.0642; Isaac Land, The Journal of Modern History, doi:10.1086/681170, JSTOR 10.1086/681170; David Spanagel, Isis, doi:10.1086/679168, JSTOR 10.1086/679168; Nicholas M. Williams, Victorian Studies, doi:10.2979/victorianstudies.58.1.30, JSTOR 10.2979/victorianstudies.58.1.30; Tom Wright, Times Higher Education, [5]