SAM H FRANZ


Doctoral Candidate
History & Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania

I study the relationship between computing technologies and work. My dissertation research investigates the rise and institutionalization of computing training and research in US universities in the 20th century. Beginning with statistics laboratories and tabulating services in the early 20th century and ending with computer-aided instruction research and computer science departments, my work tracks the role of computing in the transformations of higher education in the United States, especially after 1945.

Broadly, my research interests include: History of Science & Technology; History of Computing; Political Economy; Intellectual History; Materialist History of Science; Historical Epistemology; History of Higher Education; (Critical) University Studies

samfranz@sas.upenn.edu
WRITING


“Man on Fire” in “Mental Health at Michigan,” Michigan in the World Digital Exhibit. 2020.


SPEAKING


“An Interdisciplinary Computing Science: Initiatives at the University of Michigan, 1960-1990” at History of Science Society (HSS) Annual Meeting 2023, Portland, OR, 9-12 November 2023.

“Computing Labor, Computing Science: The Computer and Communication Sciences at the University of Michigan, 1960-1990” at Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) Annual Meeting 2023, Los Angeles, CA, 26-29 October 2023.

“Interdisciplinarity Beyond Knowledge: Training and Research at the University of Michigan” at Special Interest Group for Computing, Information, and Society (SIGCIS) Annual Meeting 2023 (virtual), 21-23 September 2023.

“Archaeology and the History of Disciplines in the History of Science” at French Historical Epistemology Workshop, Organized by University of Pennsylvania Philosophy and History and Sociology of Science Departments (virtual), 29 March 2023.

“Adaptation as Learning” at Graduate Student Works-in-Progress Group, University of Pennsylvania, 11 April 2022.

“Adaptation as Learning: John H. Holland and Evolutionary Computing at the University of Michigan” at The 56th Joint Atlantic Seminar in the History of Biology, Jointly held by MIT HASTS and Harvard History of Science (virtual), 8-9 April 2022.

“Adaptation as Learning: John H. Holland and Evolutionary Computing” at Histories of Artifical Intelligence, Winter Symposium, Homerton College, University of Cambridge, UK, 14-15 December 2021.

“Thinking about Automating Thinking: A History of Early Computing” at Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) Annual Meeting, New Orleans, USA, 4-7 September 2019.

“A History of Computing(s),” at Michigan Museum of Natural History Scientist Spotlight, Ann Arbor, MI, 18 August 2019.

“A (Pragmatic) Computer Science: Arthur W. Burks and the Logic of Computers Group,” at Michigan Museum of Natural History Scientist Spotlight, Ann Arbor, MI, 4 August 2019.

ORGANIZING & MISC.


Co-Organizer, “Unity and Interdisciplinarity in the Postwar Sciences” w/ Libby O'Neil, History of Science Society (HSS) Annual Meeting 2023, Portland, OR, 9-12 November 2023.

Co-Organizer, French Historical Epistemology Online Workshop, Organized by University of Pennsylvania Philosophy and History and Sociology of Science Departments (virtual), 29 March 2023.

Organizer, Graduate Student Works-in-Progress Group, University of Pennsylvania, 2021-2023.