[SIGCIS-Members] History courses in CS departments

[Kaltman, Eric]

Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science offers a History of Computing Course: http://coursecatalog.web.cmu.edu/schools-colleges/schoolofcomputerscience/courses/

It does not appear to be special topics.

From: Members <members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of Troy Astarte via Members <members at lists.sigcis.org>
Date: Friday, February 17, 2023 at 06:48
To: Evan Koblentz <evank at njit.edu>
Cc: Tracy, Kim via Members <members at lists.sigcis.org>
Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] History courses in CS departments
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Dear Evan, all,

You can add a couple others to your list. Swansea University has had a course on the history of computing taught by my colleague John Tucker since 1994—it is now called Invention and Innovation in Computing<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fintranet.swan.ac.uk%2Fcatalogue%2Fdefault.asp%3Ftype%3Dmoddetail%26dept%3Dany%26mod%3DCSC309%26ayr%3D23%2F24%26psl%3DTB1%2B2%26detailOnly%3Dfalse&data=05%7C01%7Ceric.kaltman%40csuci.edu%7Cf688717496cd4d3cb14b08db10f6017f%7Ce30f5bdb7f18435b84369d84aa7b96dd%7C1%7C0%7C638122421024527936%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=VJIWlWa9QGcwS1%2FFANbqEIkcFtL4R0o3qnpHJ48VSF4%3D&reserved=0> but covers a great deal of topics (I sat in on one lecture and enjoyed a lengthy discussion on Jacquard). Historical aspects are taught in a number of other modules throughout the department, for context of material, and to provide fodder for discussions of, e.g., ethics.

Swansea has a research theme (not quite a research group… yet?) on Educational, Historical, and Philosophical Foundations<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.swansea.ac.uk%2Fcompsci%2Fresearch-and-impact%2Feducational-historical-philosophical-foundations%2F&data=05%7C01%7Ceric.kaltman%40csuci.edu%7Cf688717496cd4d3cb14b08db10f6017f%7Ce30f5bdb7f18435b84369d84aa7b96dd%7C1%7C0%7C638122421024527936%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=25Chq408H86caxyOZ4j6vlBlFZIVYqxeJbs24Ud1EJI%3D&reserved=0> of computing. This helped create our History of Computing collection<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.swansea.ac.uk%2Flibrary%2Farchive-and-research-collections%2Fhocc%2F&data=05%7C01%7Ceric.kaltman%40csuci.edu%7Cf688717496cd4d3cb14b08db10f6017f%7Ce30f5bdb7f18435b84369d84aa7b96dd%7C1%7C0%7C638122421024527936%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=3XXu8OEiGsYD0XGtXEpkyGRh1TXQAsaHUIXI7tDgnBo%3D&reserved=0>, where I am currently sitting, which has a great deal of material. See also The Computer Revolution and Us: Computer Science at Swansea University from the 1960s.<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcollections.swansea.ac.uk%2Fs%2Fswansea-2020%2Fpage%2Fcomputer-science&data=05%7C01%7Ceric.kaltman%40csuci.edu%7Cf688717496cd4d3cb14b08db10f6017f%7Ce30f5bdb7f18435b84369d84aa7b96dd%7C1%7C0%7C638122421024527936%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=K%2BvE5jM%2B1zMLIkqc1WwEXLkG0gtXl7AL0zXpbXgW8C0%3D&reserved=0>

The second course you can add is the History of Digital Cultures<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdatanose.nl%2FCourse%2FManual%2F61441%2FHistory%2520of%2520Digital%2520Cultures%2F2017&data=05%7C01%7Ceric.kaltman%40csuci.edu%7Cf688717496cd4d3cb14b08db10f6017f%7Ce30f5bdb7f18435b84369d84aa7b96dd%7C1%7C0%7C638122421024527936%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=AXGOeflz8N82ybHWE9FOqRERJK0fmErwY45ZtpfDz2o%3D&reserved=0> Master’s module taught jointly by University of Amsterdam (UvA) and Vrije Universiteit (VU). Danny Beckers now has control since Gerard Alberts retired. I worked as a TA on that for a few years—the link is for when I was still involved and a few things may have changed but it is still running. This attracts mostly CS and AI students, but a few from other programmes of study.

As a general remark to the list, it would be nice to have a list somewhere of such courses!

Best,

Dr. Troy Kaighin Astarte (they/them / nhw)

Lecturer, Computer Science / Darlithydd, Cyfrifiadureg
Swansea University / Prifysgol Abertawe

For students: my office hours are on the Intranet<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffse-intranet.swan.ac.uk%2Fintranet%2Fstaff_officehours%3Fselected_staff_id%3D203842&data=05%7C01%7Ceric.kaltman%40csuci.edu%7Cf688717496cd4d3cb14b08db10f6017f%7Ce30f5bdb7f18435b84369d84aa7b96dd%7C1%7C0%7C638122421024527936%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=zqeGE5SOeGpEYA59%2FQPBhyPBvZBYNvxeam0Mc0rTp8Q%3D&reserved=0>.
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On 16 Feb 2023, at 15:47, Evan Koblentz via Members <members at lists.sigcis.org> wrote:


Thank you to everyone who replied to my post from yesterday.

I determined that at least five universities -- Yale, Cornell, Colorado/Boulder, Minnesota, and Athens -- all have history courses, not just special topics (as is my current course), as part of the catalogs in technical departments. I shared that list and the course links with my department administration.


On 2/15/23 12:40 PM, Evan Koblentz wrote:

Hi everyone,

I've been teaching a special topics course in computer history for three semesters here at NJIT. The university policy is three semesters maximum, then the course must be made permanent or cancelled. So I'm going through the process of trying to make it permanent.

The department administration supports it, but it has to be voted on by the rank-and-file faculty, many of whom don't seem to understand the value of a history course -- or at least not of a history course in a technical department, rather than through our humanities college.

It would help if I can show them other examples. Can anyone point me existing examples of history courses in CS, EE, or other technical departments at U.S. universities?
--
Evan Koblentz

New Jersey Institute of Technology
- Senior Writer, Office of Strategic Communications
- Adjunct Instructor, Ying Wu College of Computing
- Faculty/Staff Advisor, NJIT Lego Club

evank at njit.edu<mailto:evank at njit.edu>
(973) 596-3065
https://web.njit.edu/~evank<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fweb.njit.edu%2F~evank%2F&data=05%7C01%7Ceric.kaltman%40csuci.edu%7Cf688717496cd4d3cb14b08db10f6017f%7Ce30f5bdb7f18435b84369d84aa7b96dd%7C1%7C0%7C638122421024684179%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=9F1SxUAlgxzgovIAiShPxp47Oq4JZPRrRy2exT4T680%3D&reserved=0>
--
Evan Koblentz

New Jersey Institute of Technology
- Senior Writer, Office of Strategic Communications
- Adjunct Instructor, Ying Wu College of Computing
- Faculty/Staff Advisor, NJIT Lego Club

evank at njit.edu<mailto:evank at njit.edu>
(973) 596-3065
https://web.njit.edu/~evank<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fweb.njit.edu%2F~evank%2F&data=05%7C01%7Ceric.kaltman%40csuci.edu%7Cf688717496cd4d3cb14b08db10f6017f%7Ce30f5bdb7f18435b84369d84aa7b96dd%7C1%7C0%7C638122421024684179%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=9F1SxUAlgxzgovIAiShPxp47Oq4JZPRrRy2exT4T680%3D&reserved=0>
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