Bio

B.A. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2000M.A. Northern Arizona University, 2005M.S. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2011Ph.D. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2016

My work has a normative (as opposed to descriptive) focus: how should we engage with technologies, other creatures, and our environments? Over the past two decades, my academic training and teaching has 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. Now that I am at the School of Engineering and Applied Science, I see my last 7 years of teaching this way: 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. 

Awards

  • Service Award, California Northstate University College of Health Sciences 2019-2020

Selected Publications

  • “Growing a WAC Program alongside a New College.” Proceedings for the International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference 2020/2021. Baxmeyer, Liz, Rikki Corniola, William Davis, Gloria Poveda and Christopher Wostenberg
  • “A Gathering Crowd: Collective Intelligence and Medicine.” Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 8 (11): 1-7. https://wp.me/p1Bfg0-4D7. William Davis
  • “Crisis. Reform. Repeat.” Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 7(10): 37-44 William Davis
  • “Speculative Ethics and Public Accountability of Emerging Technologies.” In F. Scalabrino (Ed.), Social Epistemology and Technology: Toward Public Self-Awareness Regarding Technological Mediation (pp. 91-100). Rowan and Littlefield International William Davis

Courses Taught

  • STS 2500 Engineering Ethics Spring 2023
  • STS 2600 Engineering Ethics Fall 2023
  • STS 4500: STS and Engineering Practice Fall 2023