The seminar focuses on the development and rediscovery of the life stories and the work of some important mathematicians and computer scientists in the 19th and 20th centuries. The life and work of Sophie Germaine (1776-1831), Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), Sonja Kovalevskaya (1850-1891), Emmy Noether (1882-1935), Ruth Moufang (1905-1977), Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1992) and other female scientists are examined.
The seminar is not about highlighting these women as an exception, because it would only set them on their exotic status. Rather, it is about a historical contextualization of their life and work. This not only enables an exemplary examination of social and cultural inclusion and exclusion processes along the gender category, but also the development of new perspectives on the traditional cultural history of both disciplines. The seminar is based on the approach of researching or discovering learning, i.e. the students will independently prepare and present individual seminar topics in group work. These presentations will then be discussed in the seminar. Through the use of observation sheets, a feedback culture is also to be tested that will be helpful in dealing with pupils and/or colleagues in later professional life.