Amy Slaton, PhD

Slaton holds a doctorate in the History and Sociology of Science from the University of Pennsylvania, and has taught courses in the history of American science, technology and architecture, as well as in U.S. labor history and race relations. Slaton has long been interested in the social character of expertise and work, along with emerging issues of 'competency-based education," the rise of on-line higher education, and the role of community colleges in American technical education, workforce preparation and global economic competition. She has written on the history of building technologies and materials testing, with a focus on who gets credit when things go well and who gets blamed when structures and materials fail. Slaton is also interested in understandings of technical aptitude in American manufacturing and engineering , with particular emphasis on the role of race. Her most recent book is Race, Rigor, and Selectivity in U.S. Engineering: The History of an Occupational Color Line (Harvard University Press, 2010). Slaton produces the blog, STEMequity.com, centered on equity in technical education and workforce issues.