William Davis
About
As our technological creations increasingly permeate all that surrounds us, altering our behaviors and bodies in subtle and obvious ways, we ought to ask ourselves: how should we engage with technologies, other creatures, and our environments? Over the past two decades, my academic training and teaching have provided me the chance to discuss these topics with undergraduate and graduate students in the USA and in Mexico. Before coming to UVA, I worked with students in the health sciences. Where once I taught the users of technologies (health science practitioners), now I teach the designers and implementers of these technologies.
I received a BA in English from Virginia Tech (2000), and an MA in Literature from Northern Arizona University (2005). After receiving my MA, I taught at Universidad del Istmo (UNISTMO) in Oaxaca and Tecnológico de Monterrey (ITESM) in Mexico City for three years and began investigating the social impacts of emerging technologies on various communities. Desiring to made this shift in teaching more explicit, I returned to the US and earned an MS in Science and Technology Studies (2011), and a PhD in Science and Technology Studies (2016), both from Virginia Tech. My graduate work in STS focused on philosophy of technology, and in my teaching and current research I investigates topics in the ethical and social implications of technology, including those related to artificial intelligence, automation, bioethics, machine ethics, post and trans-humanism, as well as social epistemology.
Education
B.A. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2000
M.A. Northern Arizona University, 2005
M.S. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2011
Ph.D. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2016