Colloquium Series: Priya Jain & Martin Peterson 2/4/25
The ‘Fridge’: How Colonial Attitudes to Cooking and Cooling Shaped the Mid-Century Indian Kitchen

Priya Jain, Associate Professor | Architecture
Abstract:
This project charts how the refrigerator was introduced as a sign of modernity in the early to mid-twentieth century in colonial India. Specifically, it investigates how the Global South was positioned, initially as a contrast in homemaking between the developed and the developing world, and later as a market of opportunity for the refrigerator. Besides just a box that keeps heat out and perishable food last longer, the advent of the refrigerator radically redefined kitchen and home design in the twentieth century, not to mention its broader sociocultural and dietary implications on how and what we eat. Ample scholarship exists on the advertising, role and impact of the refrigerator in the West—specifically in America and Europe. Yet, how the refrigerator was marketed to the Global South, in countries like India, during the colonial era remains largely undiscussed. Through archival research in manufacturing and advertising literature, this project investigates ways in which colonial attitudes towards heat, health and race were complicit in the construction of domestic modernity in India.
"Aligning technology with human values"
Martin Peterson, Professor | Philosophy
Abstract:
According to the General Value Alignment Thesis (GVAT), all technologies should align with the values and norms specified by human users and other stakeholders. Once we recognize that every technology can be aligned with values and norms, there is no need to claim that technological artifacts are inherently value-laden. Claims about the morality of technologies should instead focus on their value alignment. For example, Robert Moses’ low bridges on Long Island were designed to block buses, restricting access for low-income groups and racial minorities who relied on public transportation. While Langdon Winner claims that these bridges “embody … systematic social inequality” (1980: 124), GVAT sees them as morally neutral but poorly aligned with values like racial justice and equity.
The Colloquium Series offers Glasscock Center Fellows an opportunity to discuss a work-in-progress with faculty and graduate students from different disciplines. Each colloquium begins with the presenter’s short (10-15 minute) exposition of the project, after which the floor is open for comments and queries. The format is by design informal, conversational, and interdisciplinary.
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