Marie Hicks, assistant professor of history at Illinois Institute of Technology, was recently appointed as a fellow of the National Humanities Center. Hicks is one of 39 new fellows who will work on individual research projects during the 2018–19 academic year. During her fellowship Hicks will work on the project, “Queer Users and the Digital State: A Prehistory of Algorithmic Bias.”

Joining the Department of Humanities faculty in 2011, Hicks is a historian of technology, gender, and modern Europe, specializing in the history of computing. Her research focuses on how gender and sexuality bring hidden technological dynamics to light, and how the experiences of women and LGBTQI people change the core narratives of the history of computing in unexpected ways. Her 2017 book, Programmed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing, has received many accolades, including the 2018 PROSE Award in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine category.

According to the center’s announcement, the newly appointed fellows represent 15 U.S. states as well as the countries of Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Jamaica, Mexico, South Africa and the United Kingdom. They will study a variety of humanistic scholarship projects, including African diaspora studies; American literature; anthropology; Asian studies; classics; English language and literature; environmental humanities; ethnomusicology; feminist, gender, and sexuality studies; film and media studies; history; history of art and architecture; indigenous studies; philosophy; and religion. Learn more about the center at nationalhumanitiescenter.org.