<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">I am forwarding a query from Melissa Terras, who asks if anyone knows of oral histories of women in computing that are not in English. Does anyone know of any?<div><br></div><div>Melissa has a blog with information about early women in computing in Italy (see link below) that may be of interest to SIGCIS members. "From 1949, an Italian Jesuit priest called <a href="http://www.osservatoreromano.va/portal/dt?JSPTabContainer.setSelected=JSPTabContainer%2FDetail&last=false%3D&path=%2Fnews%2Fcultura%2F2011%2F184q11-Lettore-fermati----morto-padre-Busa.html&title=Lettore+fermati%21+%C3%83%C2%88+morto+padre+Busa&locale=en">Father Roberto Busa</a>
(November 13, 1913 – August 9, 2011) pioneered the use of computing for
linguistic and literary analysis, teaming up with IBM to produce an <a href="http://www.corpusthomisticum.org/it/index.age">index of the works of St Thomas Aquinas</a>." </div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://melissaterras.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/for-ada-lovelace-day-father-busas.html">http://melissaterras.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/for-ada-lovelace-day-father-busas.html</a></div><div><br></div><div>thanks,</div><div>Janet<br><div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br></div></span></div></span></span>
</div>
<div><br><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>From: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">Melissa Terras <<a href="mailto:melissaterras@gmail.com">melissaterras@gmail.com</a>><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>Date: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">February 3, 2015 6:21:12 AM EST<br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>To: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;"><a href="mailto:abbate@vt.edu">abbate@vt.edu</a><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>Subject: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;"><b>Oral History of women computer programmers</b><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>Reply-To: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;"><a href="mailto:m.terras@ucl.ac.uk">m.terras@ucl.ac.uk</a><br></span></div><br>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
Dear Janet,<br>
<br>
<span><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;
charset=ISO-8859-1">I hope you dont mind me writing. I’m a big fan of
your book, Recoding Gender, Women's Changing Participation in Computing,
which has been an invaluable help as I work
with a colleague on a slice of computing history in my discipline
(humanities computing, now known as digital humanities): we have been
undertaking an oral history of women in Italy that helped with the first
major project in Humanities Computing in the 1950s. See my blog post <a href="http://melissaterras.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/for-ada-lovelace-day-father-busas.html" target="_blank">http://melissaterras.blogspot.<wbr>co.uk/2013/10/for-ada-<wbr>lovelace-day-father-busas.html</a>
which kicked this all off - following putting these pics up, we managed
to identify various surviving women in the pictures. We’re writing up
our findings now, after a successful trip to Milan to meet with and
interview them.<br>
<br>
My question is this - all the oral histories of women in the early days
of computing I can find are in the English language. Would you know of
any other set of oral histories in this area that are not undertaken in
English? I have had a good look, but can’t dig anything up, and thought I
would drop you a line! I know that you undertook some interviews with
Estonian computer programmers - were those in English or Estonian? </span><br>
<br>
There are obviously methodological issues about using oral histories in
translation, and comparing our approach to others in this area would be
very useful. <span><span>Any pointers gratefully received - or
confirmation that you haven’t seen anything in any other language other
than English would be useful, too! </span></span><br>
<br>
best,<br>
<br>
Melissa<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>Melissa M. Terras MA MSc DPhil CLTHE
CITP FHEA<br>
Director, UCL Centre for Digital Humanities<br>
Vice Dean of Research (Projects), UCL Faculty of Arts and Humanities<br>
Professor of Digital Humanities<br>
Department of Information Studies<br>
Foster Court<br>
University College London<br>
Gower Street<br>
WC1E 6BT<br>
<br>
Tel: 020-7679-7206 (direct), 020-7679-7204 (dept), 020-7383-0557 (fax)<br>
Email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:m.terras@ucl.ac.uk">m.terras@ucl.ac.uk</a><br>
Web: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dis/people/melissaterras">http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dis/people/melissaterras</a><br>
Blog: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://melissaterras.blogspot.com/">http://melissaterras.blogspot.com/</a><br>
Twitter: @melissaterras</div>
</div>
</blockquote></div><br></div><div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Dr. Janet Abbate<br><div>Associate Professor, Science & Technology in Society</div>Co-director, National Capital Region STS program</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Virginia Tech</div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: normal; "><a href="http://www.sts.vt.edu/ncr" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">www.sts.vt.edu/ncr</a><o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: normal; "><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/groups/STS-Virginia-Tech-4565055" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">www.linkedin.com/groups/STS-Virginia-Tech-4565055</a><o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: normal; "><span lang="DE" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; "><a href="http://www.facebook.com/VirginiaTechSTS" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">www.facebook.com/VirginiaTechSTS</a></span></div><br></div></div></body></html>