c:o/re short-term fellow 10/24 – 12/24
Ricky Wichum is a Sociologist teaching the History of Technology at ETH Zurich. He is interested in the history of (super-)computing, the emergence of electronic government, and the securitization of our current societies. He received his PhD from the University of Freiburg (2015) and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study on Media Cultures of Computer Simulation (MECS) in Lüneburg. Ricky was a Junior Fellow at MECS (2013/14) and received a grant to finish his doctoral thesis by the FAZIT Stiftung (June 2014-Februrary 2015). In January 2017, he was an academic guest at the Chair of History of Technology, ETH Zurich. From November 2017 – December 2020, Ricky was a research associate at the Collegium Helveticum (fellow period on “Digital Societies”). In April 2022, he was an academic guest at the Department for Communication, University of Copenhagen. In the Fall Semester of 2023, Ricky was a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society at the University of California, Berkeley.
The administrative knowledge of computer science
The research project at the KHK c:o/re investigates the collaboration between ETH Zurich computer scientists and Swiss public administration during the 1970s and 1980s. These computer scientists served as experts when public administrations began implementing networked computers and databases for data processing. Simultaneously, they leveraged their administrative practice experience to address research problems. This project is featured in the book ‘The Age of Information Systems: Digital Statecraft and the Transformation of the Digital (1960-1990)’ and aims to propose initial ideas for a political history of computer sciences.
Publications (selection)
Wichum, Ricky, and Daniela Zetti (Eds.). 2022. Zur Geschichte des digitalen Zeitalters. Geschichte des digitalen Zeitalters. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
Gugerli, David, and Ricky Wichum. 2021. Simulation for All: The Politics of Supercomputing in Stuttgart. Zurich: Chronos.
Wichum, Ricky. 2017. Biometrie. Zur Soziologie der Identifikation. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink 2017.
Kaufmann, Stefan, and Ricky Wichum. 2016. Risk and Security: Diagnosis of the Present in the Context of (Post-)Modern Insecurities. In: Historical Social Research 41(1): 48 – 69.
