Me. We. - Moving from Ethics to Justice in Engineering

Ethical concerns have had a place in the engineering profession for over 100 years. Our profession’s approaches to ethics, however, have not prevented us from contributing to the unequal social and environmental outcomes that we see in the world today. In fact, engineers have had a key role in creating the physical and regulatory structures that lead to discriminatory outcomes. How might we do differently? To start, we must move beyond Me -- our narrow constructions of personal ethics -- towards We -- a broader conception of our place in the social world around us.

Dr. Khalid Kadir is a Continuing Lecturer at UC Berkeley, teaching courses in the Global Poverty & Practice program, Political Economy, and Civil and Environmental Engineering. After completing his Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering at Berkeley, Khalid focused his research on the complex role that engineering expertise plays in the politics of international development and poverty alleviation, and his current work focuses on the intersection of poverty, expertise, and politics. He is a recipient of the 2017 Distinguished Teaching Award, UC Berkeley’s most prestigious honor for teaching, as well as the 2020 Constellation Prize and the 2019 American Cultures Teaching Award.

Dr. Kadir will be joined by Valerie Michel, a current Ph.D. student at UVA. The webinar will be hosted by Dr. Caitlin Wylie, Associate Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at UVA’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

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