Biography

>Lauren Bonilla is a geographer and anthropologist interested in how people envision and design pathways to social and ecological well-being, especially in spaces of uncertainty, change, or crisis. Lauren began her broad training as a social scientist at Macalester College, where she double majored in Anthropology and Geography. At Macalester, she became fascinated by transformations taking place in Mongolia, a country that has inspired her research trajectory for the last two decades. She obtained a PhD in Geography from Clark University, completing a dissertation that ethnographically tracked the evolution and impacts of Mongolia’s much-hyped 2011-2012 mining boom. She expanded that research as a postdoctoral researcher working with a team of anthropologists at University College London to examine emerging subjectivities amid economic flux in Mongolia. She joined MIT Anthropology in 2018, teaching a range of classes: anthropological approaches to international development, introduction to anthropology, technology and culture, disease and health, and anthro-engineering.

Lauren’s latest work focuses on developing engaged, collaborative anthropological approaches to sustainability education and solution-building as part of the “Anthro-Engineering Decarbonization at the Million-Person Scale” project. She has led two experiential learning trips to Mongolia for undergraduate students to research Ulaanbaatar's energy landscape and explore the design of a culturally relevant, affordable, and sustainable technology to help households decarbonize their heating.

Research

Collaborative Practices; Engineering Education; Political Ecology; Extractive Industry; Anthropology of Sustainability; Decarbonization

Selected Publications

News

3 Questions: Bridging anthropology and engineering for clean energy in Mongolia

Leda Zimmerman | School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences | MIT News

October 2, 2024

In 2021, Michael Short, an associate professor of nuclear science and engineering, approached professor of anthropology Manduhai Buyandelger with an unusual pitch: collaborating on a project to prototype a molten salt heat bank in Mongolia, Buyandelger’s country of origin and place of her scholarship. It was also an invitation to forge a novel partnership between two disciplines that rarely overlap. Developed in collaboration with the National University of Mongolia (NUM), the device was built to provide heat for people in colder climates, and in places where clean energy is a challenge. 

Buyandelger and Short teamed up to launch Anthro-Engineering Decarbonization at the Million-Person Scale, an initiative intended to advance the heat bank idea in Mongolia, and ultimately demonstrate its potential as a scalable clean heat source in comparably challenging sites around the world. This project received funding from the inaugural MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium Seed Awards program. In order to fund various components of the project, especially student involvement and additional staff, the project also received support from the MIT Global Seed Fund, New Engineering Education Transformation (NEET), Experiential Learning Office, Vice Provost for International Activities, and d’Arbeloff Fund for Excellence in Education.

Powering the future in Mongolia

Jiyoo Jye, School of Engineering | MIT News

June 12, 2023

Mongolia, often hailed with the celestial moniker of “The Land of the Eternal Blue Sky,” paradoxically succumbs to a veil of pollution and energy struggles during the winter months, obscuring the true shade of the cherished vista.

MIT students from classes 22.S094 (Climate and Sustainability Systems: Decarbonizing Ulaanbaatar at Scale) and 21A.S01 (Anthro-Engineering: Decarbonization at the Million-Person Scale) visited Mongolia to conduct on-site surveys, diving into the diverse tapestry of local life as they gleaned insight from various stakeholder groups.

Anthro-Engineering in Ulaanbaatar: MIT NEET Article | Powering the Future

Story by Jiyoo Jye, Head of Communications | NEET, MIT

May 22, 2023

21A.S01 Anthro-Engineering: Decarbonization at the Million-Person Scale, co-taught by Professors Manduhai Buyandelger of MIT Anthropology and Michael Short of MIT Nuclear Science and Engineering (and faculty lead of MIT’s NEET Climate & Sustainability Systems thread) catalyzed MIT students and educators to journey to the Mongolian capital city, Ulaanbataar, over IAP 2023.

 

Prof. Buyandelger's framing of Ulaanbataar's power and pollution problem through an anthropological lens proved instrumental in deepening students' understanding of the intricate dynamics at play. She asks, "The prototype works in the lab, but does it work in real life once you factor in the challenges in the larger structures of delivery, production, and implementation in Mongolia?"

Teaching

21A.S01
Anthro-Engineering Decarbonization at the Million Person Scale

This class explores and experiments with pathways of decarbonization at the million-person scale through an interdisciplinary “anthro-engineering” approach.  By putting people first, we examine how user-centric design, holistic ally and stakeholder inclusion, responding to cultural and political constraints on clean energy issues, and working in and with diverse groups on open-ended problems can create impactful and equitable changes in energy systems.  Students engage with anthropological approaches to energy, development, sustainability, and climate-related issues while simultaneously exploring the possibilities for practical, real-world intervention into an energy landscape dominated by fossil fuels.

21A.301
Disease and Health: Culture, Society, and Ethics

From a cross cultural and global perspective, examines how medicine is practiced, with particular emphasis on biomedicine. Analyzes medical practice as a cultural system, focusing on the human and social side of things. Considers how people in different societies think of disease, health, body, and mind

21A.500
Technology and Culture

Examines the intersections of technology, culture, and politics in a variety of social and historical settings ranging from 19th-century factories to 21st-century techno dance floors, from Victorian London to anything-goes Las Vegas. Discussions and readings organized around three questions: what cultural effects and risks follow from treating biology as technology; how computers have changed the way we think about ourselves and others; and how politics are built into our infrastructures. Explores the forces behind technological and cultural change; how technological and cultural artifacts are understood and used by different communities; and whether, in what ways, and for whom technology has produced a better world. 

21A.00
Introduction to Anthropology: Comparing Human Cultures

Through the comparative study of different cultures, anthropology explores fundamental questions about what it means to be human. Seeks to understand how culture shapes societies, from the smallest island in the South Pacific to the largest Asian metropolis, and affects the way institutions work, from scientific laboratories to Christian mega-churches. Provides a framework for analyzing diverse facets of human experience, such as gender, ethnicity, language, politics, economics, and art.

21A.400
Stakes of International Development

Offers an anthropological perspective on international development. Students consider development, not in policy or technical terms, but through its social and political dynamics and its impacts on daily life. Examines the various histories of, and meanings given to, international development as well as the social organization of aid agencies and projects. Follows examples of specific projects in various parts of the world. Examples: water projects for pastorialists in Africa, factory development in Southeast Asia, and international nature parks in Indonesia.