Queer Herstory/History in Computer Science

Ian Harold
Nov 7 · 3 min read

understanding the people who have paved the way before you in a particular space, is important to understanding how we arrived at present day.

in a field that changes rapidly and never seems to tire, we often forget the ancestors and who they were as people. through my journey in a full stack bootcamp, it has been all to easy to focus on the details, read the logs and never take a step back, looking at the entirety of the industry from 10k above.

we will briefly review some of the more influential queer thinkers who have influenced the space to great lengths.

Sofia Kovalevskaya (1850–1891): Russian mathematician

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Sofia was allowed to audit mathematics classes at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and was the first woman to earn her doctorate in mathematics. she presented on partial differential equations, and had an intimate romantic friendship with another woman that persisted until the end of her life.

Alan Turing (1912–1954): English computer scientist, mathematician, and cryptanalyst

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regarded as the father of theoretical computing science,Turing was an extremely important cryptanalyst during World War II, who also developed the blueprint for stored program computing. He was later arrested and prosecuted for “gross indecency” when authorities discovered he was gay. Turing is considered as one of the most influential people of the twentieth century.

Peter Landin (1930–2009): British computer scientist

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Peter understood that computer programming could be influenced by mathematical logic which lead to the development that code could be universally understood by different machines. was openly bisexual and spent many of his later years working with the GLF (gay libertarian front)

by no means is this list comprehensive, it barely scratches the surface of all the queer identified folks who have influenced computer science. knowing that people with related identities have pathed the way for new minds to enter the space gives me historical guidance that i can contribute as well to the storyline.

sources referenced

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