Inclusive World-Building: Cyborg Concerns, Disabled Knowledge, and Engineering for the Disabled Future | 2025 Bovay Lecture | Ashley Shew (Virginia Tech)

The Sue and Harry Bovay Lecture on the History and Ethics of Engineering is an annual event that brings distinguished speakers to Cornell to provoke thought and conversation around social and ethical issues in engineering.

The 2025 Bovay Lecture was delivered by Ashley Shew, Associate Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech. Her current research sits at the intersection of technology studies, biotech ethics, and disability studies. She is the author of the very well-received 2023 book Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement (W.W. Norton & Co.), which argues that “to forge a more equitable world…we must eliminate ‘technoableism’—the harmful belief that technology is a ‘solution’ for disability; that the disabled simply await being ‘fixed’ by technological wizardry; that making society more accessible and equitable is somehow a lesser priority.” Dr. Shew’s past work has been in philosophy of technology with particular interest in technological knowledge, animal studies, and emerging technologies.