[ecrea] CfP Texts and Contexts: The Cultural Legacies of Ada Lovelace

*Texts and contexts: the cultural legacies of Ada Lovelace*

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/“That brain of mine is more than merely mortal; as time will show.”/


A workshop for graduate students and early career researchers


Tuesday 8 December 2015


Mathematics Institute and St Anne’s College, Oxford


The mathematician Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), daughter of poet Lord Byron,
is celebrated as a pioneer of computer science. The notes she added to
her translation of Luigi Menabrea’s paper on Charles Babbage’s
analytical engine (1843) are considered to contain a prototype computer
program. During her short life, Lovelace not only contributed original
ideas to the plans for this early computer; she also imagined wider
possibilities for the engine, such as its application to music, and
meditated on its limitations. Lovelace leaves a legacy not just as a
computer scientist, but also as a muse for literary writers, a model to
help us understand the role of women in science in the nineteenth
century, and an inspiration for neo-Victorian and steampunk traditions.


As part of the University of Oxford’s celebrations to mark the 200th
anniversary of Lovelace’s birth, this one-day workshop will bring
together graduates and early career researchers to discuss the varied
cultural legacies of this extraordinary mathematician. The day will
feature an expert panel including graphic novelist *Sydney Padua* and
biographer *Richard Holmes*, as well as a keynote address from
*Professor Sharon Ruston*, Chair in Romanticism in the Department of
English and Creative Writing at Lancaster University.


The day will conclude with a reception and buffet when there will be
opportunities to meet with speakers from the Ada Lovelace 200 Symposium,
which will also take place in the Mathematics Institute on the following
two days (9-10 December). Researchers from all disciplines are invited
to submit proposals for papers on the influences of Lovelace’s work, on
topics including, but not limited to, literature, history, mathematics,
music, visual art, and computer science. This might include:

  * Lovelace’s place in the study of the history of science;
  * Lovelace and *women in science* in the nineteenth century;
  * Early nineteenth-century *scientific networks*, including Lovelace’s
    relationship with such individuals as Charles Babbage and Mary
    Somerville. We also encourage papers which consider other scientific
    networks from this period, beyond Lovelace’s circle;
  * Lovelace and discussions about the *role of the imagination in
    scientific practice* in the nineteenth century;
  * Lovelace as *translator and commentator*;
  * *Mathematics**and music*, and the musical possibilities Lovelace
    envisaged for Babbage’s engine;
  * Lovelace’s own *textual legacies*, such as her correspondence,
    childhood exercises and mathematical notes held in the Bodleian;
  * Lovelace’s *technological legacies*, from her seminal work on
    Babbage’s Analytical Engine to her impact on computer programming 
today;
  * Lovelace’s role in the *steampunk tradition*, from Gibson and
    Sterling’s /The Difference Engine/ to Sydney Padua’s /The Thrilling
    Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage/, and neo-Victorian fashion;
  * Efforts and activities to *commemorate and memorialise *Lovelace,
    from the recent Google Doodle to the annual Ada Lovelace Day.

Proposals, not exceeding 250 words, for 15-minute papers should be
submitted to (adalovelaceworkshop /at/ ell.ox.ac.uk)
<mailto:(adalovelaceworkshop /at/ ell.ox.ac.uk)> by *Midnight**, Friday 18
September 2015*. Those who are accepted to speak at this graduate
workshop will also be offered free registration for the Ada Lovelace 200
Symposium taking place on the following two days.

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