[Alta-Logic] Alan Turing, the Politics of Sexual Science, and the Making of a Gay Icon (Chris Waters, November 6)

[Richard Zach]

*** Please distribute! ***

2012 marks the centenary of Alan Turing, mathematical genius, WWII
codebreaker, pioneer of computing, and gay icon. The Departments of
Computer Science and Philosophy with support from the Faculties of Arts
and Science as well as the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical
Sciences are hosting a series of events honouring Turing's life and work
throughout 2012.

http://ucalgary.ca/turing
http://facebook.com/TuringYYC

Next event:

*** Alan Turing, the Politics of Sexual Science, and the Making of a Gay 
Icon  ***

Chris Waters
Hans W. Gatzke '38 Professor of Modern European History
Williams College

Tuesday, November 6, 4-5:30 pm, ICT 121
http://ucalgary.ca/turing/node/31


In the 1940s Alan Turing’s homosexuality was an open secret amongst his 
co-workers at Bletchley Park. In 1952 the secret became widely known 
when Turing was arrested on charges of “gross indecency” under the same 
1885 law that had led to the imprisonment of Oscar Wilde over half a 
century earlier. Opting for chemical “treatment” of his “condition” 
rather than imprisonment, Turing was one of many well-known casualties 
of a heightened drive against homosexuality in a postwar Britain that 
drew the line between the normal and the deviant more sharply than ever 
before. In his talk, Chris Waters will discuss Turing’s sexual 
proclivities and their meanings in the context of his times, focusing in 
particular on his arrest and subsequent fate in the context of the 
sexual politics of the first half of the 1950s. In addition, he will 
discuss the shaping of Turing’s posthumous reputation, beginning with 
the attempts made by the Gay Liberation Front in the 1970s to render 
Turing the gay icon he has become today.

Poster:
http://ucalgary.ca/turing/node/34
http://ucalgary.ca/turing/files/turing/aty2012waters.pdf


*** Watch previous lectures in this series on Mathtube ***

http://mathtube.org/conference/lecture_video/Alan%20Turing%20Year

Listen to the CJSW Presents feature on Alan Turing:
http://cjsw.com/program/cjsw-presents/alan-turing-episode-1/
http://cjsw.com/program/cjsw-presents/turing-episode-2/


*** Mark your calendars ***

December 4: Turing and Intelligent Machines (Nicole Wyatt, University of 
Calgary)
http://ucalgary.ca/turing/node/32