Hannah Grenham
Contact Details: hlg29@st-andrews.ac.uk
Thesis title: Computers and the Cultural Cold War in the United States
Supervisor: Prof. Gerard DeGroot
I came to the University of St Andrews in 2007 as an undergraduate studying English and Modern History. Following this degree, I undertook an MLitt in Modern History at the university in 2011, before beginning my PhD in 2012.
My introduction to research came in 2009 when I participated in the Undergraduate Research Internship Programme, whereby I spent ten weeks researching ‘The “British Invasion” of Popular Music in the United States, 1963-7’. In 2010, I spent eight weeks working as an intern in the Computers Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, DC, an experience which introduced me to the history of technology, computers, and video games. Upon leaving the museum, I wrote a piece discussing my experiences, which can be found here.
My research interests lie in the history of the twentieth-century United States, with emphasis on cultural and social perspectives. In particular, my work focuses on technological history, predominantly the introduction of computer technology to the United States and its effects on American culture and society. In the course of my Masters, I undertook research into responses to computer games in the 1980s, and produced a dissertation which focused upon the emergence of the personal computer in the United States and changing attitudes towards technology.
My doctoral research, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, examines the way in which the developing computer industry in the United States participated in a ‘cultural Cold War’ during the 1970s and 1980s. At a time when the United States suffered economic, political, and social crises – from the Watergate scandal and the end of the war in Vietnam, to oil embargoes and economic stagflation – the burgeoning industry of computer technology offered an avenue by which American prestige and confidence might be regained. As a result, this technology assumed particular ideological and symbolic significance, operating as propaganda in efforts to project notions of American superiority.
My research focuses on this increasing appropriation of computer technology as a cultural symbol, seeking to understand the development and role of the computer in the cultural Cold War. It will include material sourced from archives at leading centres of computer development, particularly in Silicon Valley, as well as material from the Charles Babbage Institute, the Library of Congress, and the National Archives of the United States. The history of this technology is a rapidly growing area of interest for modern historians, and I am excited to be able to contribute to this dynamic field with my research.