Web

Affiliation Website

http://is.gseis.ucla.edu/

Personal Information

First Name

Christopher

Last Name

Kelty

Title

Associate Professor

Affiliation

UCLA Department of Information Studies

Short Biography

Christopher M. Kelty is an associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has a joint appointment in the Center for Society and Genetics and in the department of Information Studies. His research focuses on the cultural significance of information technology, especially in science and engineering. He is the author most recently of Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software (Duke University Press, 2008), as well as numerous articles on open source and free software, including its impact on education, nanotechnology, the life sciences, and issues of peer review and research process in the sciences and in the humanities.

Research Interests

Current projects include: 1) An ethnographic study of research in nanotechnology, which focuses on new formulations of responsibility in the study of the environmental and biological implications of new materials. 2) An ongoing historical/media theoretical investigation of the development of computer science, and in particular the development of “logical instruments” such as regular expressions and l-systems.
3) a project on the history of “grey literature” in the life sciences, in particular newsletters and forms of cooperation/coordination around model organisms like the Drosophila Information Service. 4) An analysis of the diverse claims to public participation in the life science, from recreational genetics to DIY Biology.

History

Member for

7 years 52 weeks

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