Pfaffenberger, Bryan

In 1985, convinced that technology represented an area ripe for social analysis, I resigned a tenured position in anthropology in order to take a tenure-track job in the University of Virginia's School of Engineering and Applied Science. The School's Dean, a distinguished material scientist named Ed Starke, encouraged me to pursue two goals in my research: first, to persuade my colleagues in anthropology to study technology, and second, to bring anthropological theory to technology studies. The risky move proved to be a wise one: I was tenured in 1990, joining what must be a very small club (n...