The Digital Transformation. Computers and the Remaking of Society, 1980s to 2000

The workshop is organised by the University of Lucerne’s Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Starting Grant project »The Microcomputer as a Medium of Transformation in Europe, 1980–2000« hosted at the University of Lucerne, in collaboration with the Leibniz research group »Digital Inequalities. Divides, Hierarchies, and Boundaries in Germany, 1970s to 1990s« headed by the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam (ZZF).

Organization: Gleb J. Albert, David Betzing, Milka Lehner

Workshop Programme

Thursday, 3 September 2026

9:00–10:00 | Welcome/Introduction
Gleb J. Albert (University of Lucerne), Michael Homberg (Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam) 

10:00–11:45 | Panel I

• Aurelia Brandenburg  (Bern Academy of the Arts): Mom Wanted to Take ›Their‹ Games Away? German Gaming Magazines and the Myth of the State as an Oppressor of Gamer Culture 1980–2000
• Nils Bühler (University of Cologne): Divided yet United? An Entangled History of East and West German Video Game Policy

12:00-13:30 | Lunch break

13:30–15:15 | Panel II

• Ivo Furman (Istanbul Bilgi University): Framing Computer Literacy. Computing Magazines and Educational Reform in Türkiye, 1984–1991
• Lennart V. Schmidt (Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam): Coding the Border. West Germany’s Migration Databases and the Making of the Schengen Information System, 1967–1995

15:30–17:30 | Panel III

• Laura Kurz (Technical University of Darmstadt): Co-constructing Gender-sensitive Technology. Scientific Approaches and Policies in Germany in the 1990s
• Nina Neuscheler (Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam): From Secretary to Assistant. How Computers Transformed Women’s Clerical Work

Friday, 4 September 2026

9:00–10:45 | Panel IV

• David Betzing (University of Lucerne): Digital Unification. Reactions from West German Gaming Actors to Reunification
• Ignasi Medà Calvet (La Salle Campus Barcelona – Universitat Ramon Llull): Domesticating the Microcomputer. User Appropriation and the Construction of the Spanish 8-bit Videogame Market (1980–1990s)

11:00–13:00 | Panel V

• Milka Lehner (University of Lucerne): The Peaceful Computer versus »Evil Media«? BBSs During the Bosnian War 1992–1995
• Antonino Sciotto (University of Eastern Piedmont): Local Connections, Global Relations. Italian Radical Left and Telematic Links

13:00-14:30 | Lunch break

14:30–16:45 | Panel VI

• Jeannine Honig (Technical University of Darmstadt): »The Efficient Problem Solver«. Piaget’s Epistemology and AI as the Foundation for Education in the United States from the 1970s onward
• Tim Schinschick (Georg Eckert Institute Braunschweig): ›Chancengleichheit‹ in Computer Classes? The Introduction of Computers in West German Schools as a History of Digital In-/Equalities

17:00–18:00 | Roundtable: Doing Computing History. Approaches and Blind Spots 

Participants: 

• Maria B. Garda (University of Turku) 
• Ivo Furman (Istanbul Bilgi University) 
• Patryk Wasiak (Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences) 
• Gleb J. Albert (University of Lucerne) 
• Michael Homberg (Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam)