The Department of Information Science Presents:
The Flatirons Seminar on the History of Computing, Information, and Society

Dr. Jennifer Light
Director of the Program in Science, Technology, and Society
Bern Dibner Professor of the History of Science and Technology
Professor of Urban Studies and Planning
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

TITLE:
Expanding the Usable Past

ABSTRACT:
Across diverse industries and professions, speculations about the future of computers and information technologies have been joined by frequent invocations of the past. These efforts to look backwards and forwards find many uses for history. Yet the turn to a usable past has been unnecessarily limited in its device-centered focus, particularly in light of the growing interest in a much broader set of objects of analysis among professional historians. This presentation uses the history of the junior republic movement to illustrate the broader opportunities for thinking with history that recent developments in computing and information history represent.

BIOGRAPHY:
Jen Light’s eclectic interests span the history of science and technology in America over the past 150 years. She is the author of three books as well as articles and essays covering topics from female programming pioneers, to early attempts to organize smart cities, to the racial implications of algorithmic thinking in federal housing policy, to the history of youth political media production, to the uptake of scientific and technical ideas and innovations across other fields. Professor Light is especially fascinated by smart peoples’ bad ideas: efforts by well-intentioned scientists and engineers to apply scientific methods and technological tools to solve social and political problems—and how the history of their failures can inform contemporary scientific and engineering practice.

Light holds degrees from Harvard University and the University of Cambridge. She has been a member of the Institute for Advanced Study and the Derek Brewer Visiting Fellow at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge. Her work has been supported by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and honored with the Catherine Bauer Wurster Prize from the Society for American City and Regional Planning History and an honorary doctorate from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Light serves on the editorial boards IEEE Annals of the History of Computing; Information and Culture; Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences; and Journal of Urban History. Professor Light was previously on the faculty of the School of Communication and the Departments of History and Sociology at Northwestern University.

ABOUT:
The Information Science seminar is a weekly talk series and gathering for the Information Science department and its extended community. Any faculty, students, and interested parties regardless of affiliation are welcome. Keep an eye out for future announcements!