dear peter, i have a germany-centric response to your question, i hope it is not too narrow in scope. the year i started studying computer science, university of bremen introduced a summer school called informatica feminale, which had the intention of providing an alternative computer science curricula to women in computing. the "alternative" in my opinion referred to two things: a) to a women's space in which the gender roles are for a moment shifted (all the participants, i.e., instructors, organizers, and students are women, at the time women made up 4-7% of cs students in germany) and b) to providing a background similar to that which you are searching, with a feminist twist. i looked at the program for this year and have to admit that the curricula has swayed into a training program/career planning help, but the curricula of the prior years give some insihgt into some of the aspirations of the summer school in the beginning of the 00s. for example, see the link to the colloquim: http://www.informatica-feminale.de/Sommerstudium/Sommer2001/Liste_Ringvorles... or, simply check older curricula here: http://www.informatica-feminale.de/Sommerstudium/index.html with our little group back then, i remember reading and discussing much around alan turing, his life, his construction of the turing test (can the machine fake a "man" or a "woman" in the immitation game? can the machine fake a human? replacing the question: can the machine think? see here the original article: http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/TuringArticle.html) and its significance for computer science. this also was accompanied by a historical conception of the computer as a machine, a tool and later as media. here we were relying on the work of heidi schelhowe who was inspired by carl adam petri and worked together with friedrich nake. see for example (unfortunately in german): SCHELHOWE, H., F. NAKE (1994). "Der Computer als instrumentales Medium". In: F. Nake (Hrsg.): Zeichen und Gebrauchswert. Beiträge zur Maschinisierung von Kopfarbeit. Universität Bremen, FB Mathematik/ Informatik, Bericht Nr. 6/94 (1994). 15-28 in germany, the "alternative" curriculum is covered by a sub- department within computer science traditionally called "informatik und gesellschaft". the old school informatik und gesellschaft professors have come up with great topics, again i propose looking at the works of friedrich nake, wolfgang coy, heidi schelhowe, britta schinzel, bernd lutterbeck, and many more. i hope that you also find some of their texts in english. here is one i found by wolfgang coy on "defining a discipline": http://waste.informatik.hu-berlin.de/coy/Coy_Defining_Discipline.html it will be a pitty if the critical initiative of these professors get lost now that they are slowly retiring. :) i certainly miss their presence in belgium, where the computer science tradition has no equivalebt sub-discipline. s. Disclaimer: http://www.kuleuven.be/cwis/email_disclaimer.htm