God and Nature Winter 2024
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Hidden Figures
By Mike Clifford
It is often said that history is written by the victors. In terms of the history of technology, the victors appear to be mostly white, dead British men. For instance, if you were asked to name a famous engineer, then George Stephenson, James Watt, Alexander Graham Bell, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel will probably come to mind. Perhaps my American readers will add Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Herbert Hoover to the list. The lack of diversity presents a problem, and the absence of non-white, non-British/American role models can perpetuate the stereotype that engineering isn’t a career option that’s available to everyone.
Work has been underway at the University of Nottingham and elsewhere on “decolonising the curriculum”. Significant progress has been made in the Faculty of Arts, where reading lists have been updated to feature neglected authors. In the Medical School, illustrations of patients now include non-white bodies. This is not just window dressing; it is essential for medical professionals to understand how health issues can present on the full range of skin tones, since a lack of this understanding can lead to misdiagnoses. In Social Science, the impact of colonialism on disciplines such as law, politics, and sociology is now acknowledged more fully. For instance, the narrative that considered some parts of the world to be “civilised” and other parts “uncivilised” must be re-evaluated, along with the effects that this artificial and arbitrary distinction has had on development.
In the Faculty of Science and in the Faculty of Engineering, progress on decolonising the curriculum has been slower. Two common objections to the approach have been firstly that, in terms of who invented what, “Well, that’s just the way it was”, and, secondly, that science and engineering deal with objective facts rather than the fluffier stuff that passes itself off as knowledge on the other side of campus. These objections ignore the fact that there continues to be a significant gender imbalance in some subjects, and degree outcomes are often correlated with ethnicity and with gender. For some, the data reinforces the prejudice that certain types of people aren’t cut out to be engineers. Others will point out that an environment where the contributions and achievements of women, non-white people, and so on is ignored is likely to perpetuate the status quo.
So, what can be done about this? Regular readers may remember that I used to give a lecture on the history of technology to my undergraduate engineering students. The lecture covered the inventions of the usual suspects, and, of course, I’d deliver it dressed as Isambard Kingdom Brunel. In the lecture, I included a few slides on the contributions made to engineering by Islamic engineers, but it left me feeling that something was missing.
Roll forwards about fifteen years, and, to my joy and delight, I’m back teaching the module, albeit with revised learning outcomes, with a greater focus on Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion. Rather than scour the internet for non-traditional engineering role models, I decided to let my students do the job for me and set them an assignment to give a short presentation on the topic: “an engineer who deserves greater recognition”, with the stipulation that they should choose someone other than a white, British man.
The results of this bold experiment were astonishing. Students gave presentations on a wide range of individuals who I’d mostly not heard of before. Names included: Walter Braithwaite, Elijah McCoy, Alice Parker, Mary Jackson, Zhan Tianyou, Garrett Morgan, and Emily Warren-Roebling. As well as detailing the achievements of these hidden figures and the barriers that they had faced to become accepted as engineers, some students reflected on the barriers that they personally faced in their journey to become chartered engineers.
Jesus spent time with those on the margins of society—tax collectors, fishermen, beggars, women, Samaritans, the sick, the disabled, the ceremonially unclean—and he celebrated their achievements. As his followers, we should do the same.
Mike Clifford is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Nottingham. His research interests are in combustion, biomass briquetting, cookstove design, and other appropriate technologies. He has published over 80 refereed conference and journal publications and has contributed chapters to books on composites processing and on appropriate and sustainable technologies.
It is often said that history is written by the victors. In terms of the history of technology, the victors appear to be mostly white, dead British men. For instance, if you were asked to name a famous engineer, then George Stephenson, James Watt, Alexander Graham Bell, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel will probably come to mind. Perhaps my American readers will add Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Herbert Hoover to the list. The lack of diversity presents a problem, and the absence of non-white, non-British/American role models can perpetuate the stereotype that engineering isn’t a career option that’s available to everyone.
Work has been underway at the University of Nottingham and elsewhere on “decolonising the curriculum”. Significant progress has been made in the Faculty of Arts, where reading lists have been updated to feature neglected authors. In the Medical School, illustrations of patients now include non-white bodies. This is not just window dressing; it is essential for medical professionals to understand how health issues can present on the full range of skin tones, since a lack of this understanding can lead to misdiagnoses. In Social Science, the impact of colonialism on disciplines such as law, politics, and sociology is now acknowledged more fully. For instance, the narrative that considered some parts of the world to be “civilised” and other parts “uncivilised” must be re-evaluated, along with the effects that this artificial and arbitrary distinction has had on development.
In the Faculty of Science and in the Faculty of Engineering, progress on decolonising the curriculum has been slower. Two common objections to the approach have been firstly that, in terms of who invented what, “Well, that’s just the way it was”, and, secondly, that science and engineering deal with objective facts rather than the fluffier stuff that passes itself off as knowledge on the other side of campus. These objections ignore the fact that there continues to be a significant gender imbalance in some subjects, and degree outcomes are often correlated with ethnicity and with gender. For some, the data reinforces the prejudice that certain types of people aren’t cut out to be engineers. Others will point out that an environment where the contributions and achievements of women, non-white people, and so on is ignored is likely to perpetuate the status quo.
So, what can be done about this? Regular readers may remember that I used to give a lecture on the history of technology to my undergraduate engineering students. The lecture covered the inventions of the usual suspects, and, of course, I’d deliver it dressed as Isambard Kingdom Brunel. In the lecture, I included a few slides on the contributions made to engineering by Islamic engineers, but it left me feeling that something was missing.
Roll forwards about fifteen years, and, to my joy and delight, I’m back teaching the module, albeit with revised learning outcomes, with a greater focus on Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion. Rather than scour the internet for non-traditional engineering role models, I decided to let my students do the job for me and set them an assignment to give a short presentation on the topic: “an engineer who deserves greater recognition”, with the stipulation that they should choose someone other than a white, British man.
The results of this bold experiment were astonishing. Students gave presentations on a wide range of individuals who I’d mostly not heard of before. Names included: Walter Braithwaite, Elijah McCoy, Alice Parker, Mary Jackson, Zhan Tianyou, Garrett Morgan, and Emily Warren-Roebling. As well as detailing the achievements of these hidden figures and the barriers that they had faced to become accepted as engineers, some students reflected on the barriers that they personally faced in their journey to become chartered engineers.
Jesus spent time with those on the margins of society—tax collectors, fishermen, beggars, women, Samaritans, the sick, the disabled, the ceremonially unclean—and he celebrated their achievements. As his followers, we should do the same.
Mike Clifford is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Nottingham. His research interests are in combustion, biomass briquetting, cookstove design, and other appropriate technologies. He has published over 80 refereed conference and journal publications and has contributed chapters to books on composites processing and on appropriate and sustainable technologies.