A Celebration of Ada Lovelace
Saturday, January 16, 2016, 2:30 p.m.
Jefferson Market Library
Willa Cather Room, First Floor
425 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY, 10011
The New York Nineteenth Century Society celebrates the Enchantress of Numbers Ada Lovelace and the publication of Ada’s Legacy, an academic edited collection co-edited by Robin Hammermann and Andrew Russell. Please join us for an academic exploration of Ada Lovelace and her legacy in contemporary art, steampunk literature, and the digital age.
Ada’s Legacy illustrates the depth and diversity of writers, thinkers, and makers who have been inspired by Ada Lovelace, the English mathematician and writer. The volume, which commemorates the bicentennial of Ada’s birth in December 1815, celebrates Lovelace’s many achievements as well as the impact of her life and work, which reverberated widely since the late nineteenth century. In the twenty-first century we have seen a resurgence in Lovelace scholarship, due to the growth of interdisciplinary thinking and the expanding influence of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Ada’s Legacy is a unique contribution to this scholarship, thanks to its combination of papers on Ada’s collaboration with Charles Babbage, Ada’s position in the Victorian and steampunk literary genres, Ada’s namesake programming language, Ada’s representation in and inspiration of contemporary art, and her continued relevance in discussions about gender and technology in the digital age.
Because of its broad focus on subjects that reach far beyond the life and work of Ada herself, Ada’s Legacy will appeal to readers who are curious about her enduring importance in computing and the wider world.
Our distinguished presenters are:
Dr. Robin Hammerman
Dr. Robin Hammerman is a professor at Stevens Institute of Technology, where she teaches literature and communications in the College of Arts and Letters. Her research and teaching interests include nineteenth century British literature, science fiction, women’s studies, and comics and graphic Novels. Professor Hammerman organized the first international conference on Ada Lovelace’s life and legacy in October 2013. Her recent book Ada’s Legacy, co-edited with Andrew Russell, was inspired by ideas generated from the conference proceedings.
Dr. Julia Markus
Julia Markus is an award-winning novelist and biographer. Her five novels include Uncle and Friends Along The Way and her four biographies include Dared And Done: The Marriage Of Elizabeth Barrett And Robert Browning and the recently published Lady Byron And Her Daughters (Norton), which is receiving critical acclaim in the US and UK. She is Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at Hofstra University. She will speak on Ada Lovelace’s complex relationship to Lord Byron, the seductive poet-father Ada never knew, and on Lady Byron, the brilliant single mother who raised and educated the difficult Ada as well as being an important progressive force in the England of her day.
Lev AC Rosen
Lev AC Rosen is the author of two books for adults and one for children. His first book, featuring Ada Lovelace as a major character, All Men of Genius, was listed for the Tiptree award and an Audie award finalist. This year, his adult noir Depth and his first middle grade book Woundabout were both released to critical acclaim. His books have been translated into several different languages and sold around the world. He has another book for young readers, The Memory Wall, coming out in September 2016.
Dr. Catherine Siemann
“Ada Bright and Dark: Steampunk Representations of the Enchantress of Numbers”
Catherine Siemann is a contributor to Ada’s Legacy. She directs the Writing Center at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and has a Ph.D. in 19th Century British Literature from Columbia University. More of her writing on steampunk can be found in the edited collections Steaming into a Victorian Future ed.Taddeo and Miller (Rowman & Littlefield 2013) and the forthcoming Like Clockwork, ed. Croxall and Bowser (University of Minnesota press). See more at https://njit.academia.edu/CatherineSiemann.
This event is free and all are welcome to attend.
