Feminist Iterations of “The Implosion”: New Techniques for Teaching About Science, Technology, and Society through The “Implosion Project”

This article outlines a new and explicitly feminist iteration of Professor Joseph Dumit’s (2014) “Implosion Project.” The “Implosion Project” is a classic pedagogical technique used widely in the field of Science and Technology Studies as an innovative way to teach students to critically engage with the complex relationships of science, technology, and society, and provides an important opportunity to center an explicitly feminist pedagogical approach when teaching students about the systems of power that shape, and are shaped by, the complex relationships between science, technology, and society. Since the “Implosion Project” does not center an explicitly feminist pedagogical approach, this article outlines an explicitly feminist, adjunctive approach to the “Implosion Project” called “Feminist Iterations of the Implosion,” consisting of a Suggested Reading List with discussion questions, and a new assignment sequence, designed to elucidate, strengthen, and innovate on the current potential of the “Implosion Project” for fostering critical feminist engagement with science, technology, and society.