Historian Devin Kennedy

Biography

I am currently Assistant Professor of History and the Evelyn and Herbert Howe Bascom Professor of Integrated Liberal Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I received my PhD in the History of Science from Harvard in 2019, where Peter Galison was my advisor. My research is primarily concerned with the economic and scientific dimensions of computing. My research has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Association for Computing Machinery, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, and the New-York Historical Society.

My first book Coding Capitalism: Computers and the Remaking of the Postwar US Economy (Columbia University Press, 2026) is an economic history of the first forty years of computing in the United States. I am currently working on several papers related to the history of theoretical computer science.

At UW-Madison, I teach in History the Program in the History of Science, Technology & Medicine at UW-Madison, as well as the undergraduate ILS program. I am also on the steering committee, and inagural research fellow of the Center for the Humanistic Study of Artificial Intelligence and Uncertainty

A recent CV is here.

A picture of Devin

Current Research Areas

Historical and philosophical aspects of computational complexity theory
US business and economic history, the history of capitalism, and financial markets

Book: Coding Capitalism: Computers and the Remaking of the Postwar US Economy

(Columbia University Press Studies in the History of US Capitalism)

Coding Capitalism: Computers and the Remaking of the Postwar US Economy situates the history of computer science within developments in the US economy, tracing how the manufacturing and financial industries molded technology and scientific research towards their needs, and how in turn, computing supported the emergence of a financialized economy. The book covers a forty-year period spanning between the earliest discussions of computers as tools to solve the dilemmas of the postwar industrial firm, through the collapse of the US stock market on Black Monday 1987.

Order the Book Here

Recent Works

"Silent Partners: Indirect Investment and Financialization in the United States, 1950-1975" Journal of American History 111 No. 4 (March 2025): 712-734.)

This article explores how, in the second half of the 20th century, Americans came to be owners of companies they did not know, and entangled in financial activities beyond their control. Specifically, the article examines the rise of institutional investing in stock by pension funds, insurance companies, universities and other third-parties, and their influence on American finance and capitalism more broadly.

Works in Progress

An article on the history of the "computational problem" as an object in computer science and related fields.
An article on the "Societal Vulnerability" debate within Computer Science in the 1980s, and more broadly on notions of responsibility in the computer professions. Supported by the Association of Computing Machinery History Committee

Graduate Training & Recruitment

I teach in the History and History of Science, Medicine and Technology Programs at UW-Madison. I am especially interested in working with graduate students in these programs and in other fields working on topics related to the history of computer technology and computer science, 20th century economic, institutional and labor history, as well as the history of technology and science broadly. I emphasize a combination of approaches drawing from media studies, STS, business and economic history. I am particularly interested in supporting students considering projects related to:

Please note: I am not accepting graduate students as primary advisor for entrance in Fall 2027

History of 20th century science, especially computer science
History of mathematics, statistics, analytic philosophy and other fields related to CS and AI
History of technology in the 20th century

2026-27 Courses

Spring: History of Science 330: Can Machines Think? The History of AI 1650-Present

Regularly Offered Courses

History of Science 150: The Digital Age
History of Science/Integrated Liberal Studies 202: The Making of Modern Science
History of Science 720: Historiography & Methods

Previous Courses

History of Science 350: Science and Technology in the Global Cold War
History 201: The Historians Craft: Histories of Data and Data Science
History of Science 907: Technology, Democracy and Power