Yes, one major historical issue that jumps out: the "rule[s] of composition" she attributes to UNIX authors were consciously adapted from existing engineering practices (e.g. "blackboxing" in electrical engineering), which practices were not particularly U.S.-centric.

"Modularity" in this extremely broad sense could be traced much further back in mathematics and the mathematical sciences.

On Mon, Aug 17, 2015 at 4:57 PM, Janet Abbate <abbate@vt.edu> wrote:

Anyone seen this piece by Tara Mcpherson? It starts with some interesting questions, but I found the follow-through to be disappointingly ahistorical. Again and again she argues that there must be a connection between the modularity of Unix and the compartmentalization of race within American culture, but then immediately admits that she has no evidence for any direct connection. As far as I can tell, the only reason she singles out Unix is because it coincides conveniently with the US Civil Rights era. I'm curious to know what others think.

"Why Are the Digital Humanities So White? or Thinking the Histories of Race and Computation."
http://dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/debates/text/29

Janet

Dr. Janet Abbate
Associate Professor, Science & Technology in Society
Co-director, National Capital Region STS program
Virginia Tech
www.sts.vt.edu/ncr
www.linkedin.com/groups/STS-Virginia-Tech-4565055
www.facebook.com/VirginiaTechSTS

_______________________________________________
This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org