Rosalind Helen Williams is an American

historian of technology The history of technology is the history of the invention of tools and techniques and is one of the categories of world history. Technology can refer to methods ranging from as simple as stone tools to the complex genetic engineering and inform ...

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 The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

Education and career

After studying at

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

from 1962 to 1964, Williams earned a BA in history and literature from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1966. She went to the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

for a master's degree in modern European history in 1967, and completed her Ph.D. at the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

in 1978. 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. She served as president of the

Society for the History of Technology The Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) is the primary professional society for historians of technology. SHOT was founded in 1958 in the United States, and it has since become an international society with members "from some thirty-five ...

, in 2005–2006.

Recognition

MIT named Williams the Robert M. Metcalfe Professor of Writing in 1995, and the Bern Dibner Professor in 2006. Williams was the 2012 Dibner Lecturer of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. In 2013, she won the Leonardo da Vinci Medal of the Society for the History of Technology, its highest award. She has honorary doctorates from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden (2008), and from

Eindhoven University of Technology The Eindhoven University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven), abbr. TU/e, is a public technical university in the Netherlands, located in the city of Eindhoven. In 2020–21, around 14,000 students were enrolled in its BSc a ...

in the Netherlands (2011). She was a distinguished professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology from 2011 to 2015.

Books

Williams's books include: *''Dream Worlds: Mass Consumption in Late Nineteenth-Century France'' (University of California Press, 1982) *''Notes on the Underground: An Essay on Technology, Society, and the Imagination'' (The MIT Press, 1990) *''Retooling: A Historian Confronts Technological Change'' (The MIT Press, 2002) *''The Triumph of Human Empire: Verne, Morris, and Stevenson at the End of the World'' (University of Chicago Press, 2013)

References

External links

Home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Rosalind H. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American historians Harvard University alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty