S05 Episode 230 | KIANA KAZEMI ON THE OPPRESSIVE HISTORY OF ENGINEERING + TECH, THE NEED TO REFRAME THE "PROBLEMS" ENGINEERS ARE TRYING TO FIX, AND WHAT THIS HAS TO DO WITH FASHION

In episode 230, Kestrel welcomes Kiana Kazemi, a current undergraduate student at UC Berkeley, studying the intersections of technology and environmental justice, to the show. The Editor in Chief of the campus environmental publication The Leaflet and the Digital and Community Operations Coordinator at Intersectional Environmentalist, Kiana is also the Co-Founder and CEO of Circularity, a soon-to-launch multi-medium environmental justice platform.

“Climate change is a huge problem that we’re facing, but it’s really the symptom of capitalism, of the patriarchy, of so many other systems that have bigger histories and have been in place for such a long time. And so, if as engineers, we’re only taught to tackle those surface-level symptoms, we’re not tackling the wider systems, which is what we need to be tackling. ” -Kiana Kazemi, Intersectional Engineer

On this week’s show, Kiana shares more on her backstory, what led her to pursue engineering, and what being an “intersectional engineer” means to her. Also, she helps provide some historical context on the ways in which engineering has and continues to perpetuate systemic injustices.

For Kiana, community engineering is important for a more equitable future — she shares more on what this means to her, and how it can be more effectively integrated into practice for the engineering and tech industries.

• Of course technology perpetuates racism. It was designed that way. by Charlton McIlwain in the MIT Technology Review
• Khalid Kadir, professor Kiana mentions
• “Because engineering is often about innovation and about the future, we’re never told to study the past or even the current systems — it’s always about create, create, create more, innovate more and think about the future. But again, if we don’t take into account that context and that history, then we’re just going to perpetuate those same problems over and over again.” -Kiana
• Why intersectional environmental pedagogy belongs in all fields by Kiana Kazemi
• Engineering x Social Justice Conversation with Kiana Kazemi and Diandra Marizet
• Co-Founder of Circularity (launching soon!)
• Tech Community Leader at Intersectional Environmentalist
• Slow Factory Foundation, founded by Céline Semaan
• Follow Kiana on Instagram >