Sat Sep 28, 02024, 6:00PM UTC
Danya Glabau and Laura Forlano
Cyborgs for the 21st Century
Explore how technology, power, and identity intersect with Laura Forlano and Danya Glabau, authors of Cyborg. Join us at the Cambridge Science Festival as we explore critical cyborg literacy for the 21st century.
Event summary coming soon!
Join us for an insightful afternoon with Laura Forlano and Danya Glabau, authors of Cyborg, as they explore the deep connections between technology, power, and identity through the lens of critical cyborg theory. In a time when automation, AI, and embedded technologies are reshaping our world, Cyborg offers a critical examination of how these developments are more than just technical advancements—they are lived, political experiences. With years of interdisciplinary research in the social sciences, design, and engineering education, Forlano will guide us through the ways gender, race, and disability influence our interactions with technology, challenging us to rethink the integration of these tools into our everyday lives.
Glabau and Forlano will introduce the concept of critical cyborg literacy, providing a fresh perspective on the complex relationships between humanity and technology across various fields, from art and design to healthcare and computing. Drawing on insights from feminist, critical race, and disability studies, she will chart potential futures for cyborg theory in the twenty-first century. Whether you're a technologist, artist, or simply curious about the future of our cyborg world, this talk promises to inspire new ways of thinking about the role of technology in shaping our shared future. Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with one of the leading voices in the critical study of technology and society.
⮕ With your event ticket, you'll also receive a code for 60% discount on the audiobook of Cyborg!
We’re proud and excited to welcome Laura and Danya to the Long Now Boston community, and hope to see you there!
Danya Glabau is a medical anthropologist and STS scholar researching health activism, the medical economy, and how human bodies become valuable data. She directs the Technology Ethics undergraduate curriculum at NYU Tandon School of Engineering and also teaches in the Integrated Design and Media graduate program. She earned her PhD from the Department of Science and Technology Studies (STS) at Cornell University.
Her first book, Food Allergy Advocacy: Parenting and the Politics of Care (2022, University of Minnesota Press), examined how food allergy activists get involved in scientific research and political advocacy, and how race, class, and gender shape their advocacy goals. Her second book, Cyborg (2024, MIT Press; co-authored with Laura Forlano, Northeastern University), offers a 21st century introduction to cyborg theory in contexts like work, medicine and disability, art and design, and feminist theory. Her latest research investigates how new parents use parenting advice, with a focus on how digital resources, apps, and devices shape modern ideas about what makes a “good” parent.
Danya Glabau
Laura Forlano, a Fulbright award-winning and National Science Foundation funded scholar, is a writer, social scientist and design researcher. Currently, Forlano is Professor in the department of Art + Design at the College of Arts, Media, and Design (CAMD) at Northeastern University.
From 2011-2022, she was an Associate Professor of Design at the Institute of Design and Affiliated Faculty in the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where she was Director of the Critical Futures Lab. In 2018-2019, she was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Digital Life Initiative at Cornell Tech in New York City and Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Her research is focused on the aesthetics and politics of socio-technical systems and infrastructures at the intersection between emerging technologies, material practices and the future of cities; specifically, she writes about emergent forms of work, organizing and urbanism. Forlano’s research and writing has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Journal of Business Anthropology, Demonstrations, Catalyst, She Ji, Design Issues, the Journal of Peer Production, Fibreculture, Digital Culture & Society, ADA, Journal of Urban Technology, First Monday, The Information Society, Journal of Community Informatics, IEEE Pervasive Computing and Science and Public Policy. She is co-editor with Marcus Foth, Christine Satchell and Martin Gibbs of From Social Butterfly to Engaged Citizen (MIT Press 2011). She received her Ph.D. in communications from Columbia University.
Laura Forlano
