This fall, the Holtz Center will be welcoming historian, Devin Kennedy as a scholar within our center, which serves as a gathering place for scholars with an interest in science and technology studies across campus. Kennedy is a new Assistant Professor in the Department of History this semester, with research interests in the history of technology, science and technology studies, history of capitalism, and finance and society.
His scholarly work surrounds the historical interaction between computing and capitalism in the United States after World War II. His particular interests involve the role of the manufacturing and financial industries in shaping the research and outcomes of computer science and technology.
Kennedy is a member of the Society for the History of Technology and the Special Interest Group for Computing, Information and Society (SIGCIS), as well as the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S) and the Business History Conference.
Kennedy has transitioned to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, while working on his first book, tentatively titled “Virtual Capital: Computing Power in the US Economy, 1947-1987”. The book “situates computing developments in conflicts over the factory floor, conglomerate power, and financialization”. This busy historian has also recently authored an article that he began writing, while serving as a postdoc at the New York Historical Society. His article describes the growth and social context of institutional investment on Wall Street in the 1950s and the 1960s.
The Department of History and the Holtz Center are both fortunate to welcome this eager assistant professor to campus this semester.
