"The Use of Technology and Science"

Cornell University, Ithaca NY

Investigators

Abstract

Hurricane Katrina and the breaking of the levees brought national and international attention to Louisiana and the surrounding areas' infrastructure. This dissertation investigates the significance of technology and labor in the making of New Orleans, southern regional commodities, and infrastructure. The project focuses in particular on engineers' use of technology to manage laborers in undertaking the public works projects of New Orleans, including the construction of levees and waterways, railroads, and waterworks. Many of these laborers were enslaved men and women; this project brings their experiences to the forefront. This project is based on archival sources such as personal narratives, legislative, municipal, and penitentiary records. These sources situate technology and labor within the context of historical changes in the rationalization of work. The project contributes to technology studies by centering the experiences of men and women in slavery within the social and technological construction of public works to facilitate the production and distribution of commodities and urban infrastructure. Here, the use and experience of technologies literally produce a region. They also shape the practices and meanings of freedom, work, and identity. This dissertation transforms scholarship on technology users, showing how research findings change when conditions beyond markets and consumers are examined.