SouthTalks: “Computers, Welfare, and Southern Politics: The Technological Environments of Government in Mississippi” by Marc Aidinoff

“Computers, Welfare, and Southern Politics: The Technological Environments of Government in Mississippi”  by Marc Aidinoff

In this SouthTalk, Marc Aidinoff will explore what the government looks like when it becomes computerized and how the expectations of citizenship have changed as a result. Moving from 1970 to the present, Aidinoff will trace the changing politics, practices, and technological environments of government in Mississippi by examining the computers that made the state function. It shows how questions of race, gender, and poverty became coded as technical choices of program administration.

Marc Aidinoff is an incoming assistant professor of the history of technology at Harvard University. His current book project, Rebooting Liberalism, examines the experiences of welfare in the US South in order to understand the changing politics and practices of an increasingly digital system of government.

SouthTalks is a series of events, including lectures, performances, film screenings and panel discussions, exploring the interdisciplinary nature of Southern Studies, sponsored by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture. All events are free and open to the public.