STS.088 Africa for Engineers

Fall 2016: Mondays and Wednesdays 2:30-4:00pm
HASS-H
Prereq: None
3-0-9 units
Instructor: Professor Clapperton Mavhunga

The aim of this course is to immerse students in the historical, cultural, ethical, and contemporary dimensions of engineering in Africa so that they will become better engineers capable of deploying their skills in multi-cultural contexts. It focuses on everyday forms of making, by ordinary people in ‘informal settings,’ as well as the construction of big projects like cities, hydroelectricity dams, roads, railway lines, ports and harbors, transport and communication, mines, industrial processing plants, and plantations. We will focus on pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial engineering projects like pyramid and hydrological works of Ancient Egypt, stone architecture of Great Zimbabwe, the Rand Gold Mines, Cecil John Rhodes’s Cape-to-Cairo rail and telegraph projects, port construction at Beira, the Kariba and Cahora Bassa HEP projects, cellular and fiber optic projects, and 2010 World Cup stadia. Emphasis will be on convergence of the inbound and the locally generated. The course is for students who seek skills to do their craft in multi-cultural contexts where their lab-derived skills must collaborate with skills derived from other traditions of knowing. It is especially critical as pre-fielding preparation for students intending to travel to Africa, the Global South, and communities within the United States to undertake UROPs and co-innovation work in partnership with the locals. The weekly instruction will be composed of two one-and-half hour slots of lectures and group work. It has no written exam but is graded based on written assignments and discussions.