Professor Alison Adam

My research and teaching interests lie in the area of Science and Technology Studies (STS). I spent many years researching in information systems and gender issues, but I have now returned to research in STS with a focus on historical topics, particularly the history of forensic science. Major works include: Artificial Knowing: Gender and the Thinking Machine, (Routledge 1998) and Gender, Ethics and Information Technology (Palgrave 2004).

My latest book is A History of Forensic Science: British beginnings in the twentieth century (Routledge, 2016) which charts the influences on the development of forensic sciences in the UK in the first half of the twentieth century, a surprisingly neglected area. In this book, I consider the broad spectrum of factors that went into creating the discipline in Britain in the first part of the twentieth century. These influences were criminological, criminalistic, scientific, technological and even fictional. 

My research shows that a new interest in managing crime scenes arrived on British shores, from the Continent, via British India and Egypt, and was channelled into the ‘scientific aids’ movement of the 1930s - Continental and Colonial criminalistics in British clothing. My book charts the strategies of the new forensic scientists to gain an authoritative voice in the courtroom and to forge a professional identity in the space between forensic medicine, scientific policing, and independent expert witnessing - they enlisted the moral voice of the forensic scientist alongside the cultural authority of the fictional scientific detective. Having completed this book I am continuing to research the history of forensic sciences and have plans to write another book on the topic.

I was a member of RAE 2008 sub-panel UoA 37, Library and Information Management. I was Deputy Chair of REF2014 sub-panel UoA 36, Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management.

Science and technology studies, history of forensic science

Science, Technology and Arts

EPSRC/ESRC/TSB VOME project (2008-2011) on on-line privacy, at University of Salford jointly with Sunderland City Council, Consult Hyperion, Royal Holloway and Cranfield. £393K.

• Art and Design Research Centre, Communication and Computing Research Centre
• Cultural Communication and Computing Research Institute

A list of publications is available from the institutional repository, SHURA

Chapters in Books

Alison Adam (2010) “Personal Values and Computer Ethics”, in Luciano Floridi (ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK, 149-162

Alison Adam (2010) “Women as Knowledge Workers: From the Telegraph to the Computer”, in: Debra Howcroft, and Helen Richardson (eds.), Work and Life in the Global Economy: A Gendered Analysis of Service Work, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK, 15-32.

Christopher Bull and Alison Adam (2009) “Ethics in the Design and Use of Best Practice Incorporated in Enterprise Information Systems”, in Alessandro DAtri and Domenico Sacca (eds.), Information Systems: People, Organizations, Institutions and Technologies, Springer Physica-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, 327-334.

Alison Adam (2008) “The Gender Agenda in Computer Ethics” in Kenneth Himma and Herman Tavani (eds.), Handbook of Computer Ethics, John Wiley, Hoboken NJ, 589-619

Articles in refereed journals

Danijela Bogdanovic, Michael Dowd, Eileen Wattam and Alison Adam (2012) “Contesting Methodologies: evaluating focus group and privacy diary methods in a study of on-line privacy”, Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society.

Alison Adam, (2008) “Ethics for Things” Ethics and Information Technology, 10(2-3), pp.149-154.

Conference Papers

Alison Adam (2015) ‘Technoscience, crime and Crippen in early 20th century Britain’, British Society for the History of Science annual conference, Swansea.

Alison Adam (2014) ‘Autobiography and the history of forensic science in the twentieth century’, British Society for the History of Science annual conference, St Andrews.

Alison Adam, (2013) ‘Romantic moments for bacteriologists: life, death and bacteriology in Tutankhamun’s tomb’, International Conference on the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, Manchester.

Alison Adam (2013) ‘Crime does pay: Autobiography and the history of forensic science’, British Society for Literature and Science annual conference, Cardiff.

Alison Adam, Danijela Bogdanovic, Michael Dowd and Eileen Wattam (2012) “Performing Privacy”, IR13, Salford MediaCity.

Alison Adam (2012)’ Looking for Life in the Mummy's Tomb: Vitalism, Mummy Wheat and. Bacteriology.’ Science in Public Conference, University College, London.

Alison Adam, Danijela Bogdanovic, Michael Dowd and Eileen Wattam (2011) “Mapping the Privacy Landscape”, ETHICOMP 2011, Sheffield Hallam University (in procs.).

Alison Adam (2011) “The Development of Forensic Chemistry in the UK 1900-1950”, British Society for the History of Science Annual Conference, University of Exeter.

Alison Adam, Danijela Bogdanovic, Michael Dowd and Eileen Wattam (2010) “Privacy On-Line Something must be done/ Must something be done?”, CRESC Annual Conference, The Social Life of Methods, Oxford.

Alison Adam (2010) “‘Scientific Aids to Criminal Investigation’: The Achievement of Administrative Objectivity in Forensic Sciences”, British Society for the History of Science Annual Conference, University of Aberdeen.

Alison Adam (2010) “Junking Science: Managing the Science/Not Science Boundary” AHRC Owning and Disowning Invention project Conference, Managing Knowledge in the Techno-Sciences,1850-2000, University of Leeds.

Alison Adam (2010) “Scientists Behaving Badly: Media and Scientific Morals”, Science and the Public Annual Conference, Imperial College, London.

Alison Adam (2010) “Alfred Lucas and the Development of Forensic Chemistry”, Forensic Cultures in Interdisciplinary Perspective Workshop, University of Manchester.

Alison Adam, (2009), “The Social Construction of ‘Junk’ Science”, Science and the Public Annual Conference, University of Brighton.

Michael Dowd, Danijela Bogdanovic and Alison Adam (2010) “Private Lives: Researching On-line Privacy”, British Sociological Association Annual Conference, Glasgow.

Alison Adam (2009), “Objectivity and the sciences of identification”, British Society for the History of Science Annual Conference, University of Leicester.

Adam, A. (2009) “Certainty and Authority: The Case of Forensic Science”, British Sociological Association Annual Conference, Cardiff.

Alison Adam and Christopher Bull (2008) Exploring MacIntyre’s Virtue Ethics in Relation to Information Systems, European Conference in Information Systems, Galway, Ireland. (in procs.).

Monographs

Alison Adam (2005) Gender, Ethics and Information Technology, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke and New York.

Edited Books (from 2000 onwards)

Eileen Green and Alison Adam (eds.) (2001) Virtual Gender: Technology, Consumption and Identity, Routledge, London and New York.

Conference Proceedings (from 2000 onwards)

Alison Adam, Andrew Basden, Helen Richardson, Bruce Robinson, (eds) (2004) Critical reflections on critical research in information systems : The Second International CRIS Workshop, Information Systems, Organisation and Society Research Centre, 14th July 2004

Eileen Green and Alison Adam (eds) (2002) Occasional Papers No 1, Equal Opportunities On-Line, Centre for Social & Policy Research, University of Teesside.

Alison Adam, Debra Howcroft, Helen Richardson and Bruce Robinson (eds) (2001) (Re-) Defining Critical Research in Information Systems, Proceedings of Workshop, July 2001.

Chapters in Books

Alison Adam (2007) “lists”, encyclopaedia entry in Matthew Fuller (ed.), Software Studies, MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 174-178.

Alison Adam, Marie Griffiths, Claire Keogh, Karenza Moore, Helen Richardson, and Angela Tattersall (2006) “Gender and Information Systems Research at the University of Salford”,in Eileen Trauth, (ed.), Encyclopaedia of Gender and Information Technology, Idea Group, Hershey PA, xxviii-xliii.

Angela Tattersall, Claire Keogh, Helen J. Richardson, and Alison Adam (2006) “Women and the IT Workplace in North West England”, in Eileen Trauth, (ed.), Encyclopaedia of Gender and Information Technology, Idea Group, Hershey PA 1252-1257.

David Kreps and Alison Adam (2006) “Failing the Disabled Community?: The Continuing Problem of Web Accessibility” in Sri Kurianam, (eds.), Advances in Universal Web Design and Evaluation. Idea Group, Hershey PA,25-42.

Alison Adam (2005) “Knowing Subjects: AI from Feminist Philosophy” in Stefan Franchi and Guven Gulzedere, (eds.), Mechanical Bodies: Computational Minds, MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 327-344.

Alison Adam (2005) “Against Rules: The Ethical Turn in Information Systems” in Debra Howcroft and Eileen Trauth (eds.) Handbook of Critical Information Systems: Research, Theory and Application, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham and Northampton MA,123-131.

Alison Adam (2003) “Gender/Body/Machine” in Michael Proudfoot (ed.) The Philosophy of the Body, Blackwell Oxford, 40-61.

Alison Adam (2002) “Contemporary Issues in Gender and Computer Ethics”, in Eileen Green and Alison Adam (eds.), Occasional Papers No 1, Equal Opportunities On-Line, Centre for Social & Policy Research, University of Teesside, 2-6

Alison Adam (2002) “The Ethical Dimension of Cyberfeminism” in Mary Flanagan and Austin Booth (eds.), Reload: Rethinking Women and Cyberculture, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 158-174.

Alison Adam (2001) “Cyberstalking: Gender and Computer Ethics” in Eileen Green and Alison Adam (eds.), Virtual Gender, Routledge, London, 209-224.

Alison Adam (2001) “Gender and Computer Ethics” in Richard Spinello and Herman Tavani (eds.), Readings in CyberEthics, Jones and Bartlett, Sudbury MA, 63-76.

Alison Adam (2000) “The Knowing Subject in AI”, in (ed.) Ron L. Chrisley, Artificial Intelligence: Critical Concepts in Cognitive Science, Routledge, London and New York, Vol. 4., 391-.

Alison Adam (2000) “Big Girls’ Blouses: Learning to Live with Polyester” in Ali Guy, Eileen Green and Maura Banim (eds.). Through the Wardrobe: Women’s Relationships with their Clothes, Berg, Oxford and New York, 39-51.

Alison Adam (2002)“Cyborgs in the Chinese Room: Boundaries Transgressed and Boundaries Blurred”, in John Preston and Mark Bishop (eds.), Views into the Chinese Room: New Essays on Searle and Artificial Intelligence, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 319-337.

Alison Adam (2000) “Feminist AI Projects and Cyberfutures” in. G Kirkup et al. (eds.), The Gendered Cyborg: A Reader, Routledge, London and New York, 276-290,. Also published in M. Barbercheck, D. Cookmeyer, H. Ozturk, M. Wayne and M. Wyer (eds). Women, Science and Technology: A Reader in Feminist Science Studies, Routledge, New York and London, 2001, 332-354

Alison Adam (2000) “corporeality” p. 142, “embodiment” p. 221, “nature/culture” pp. 408-409, “participant observation” p. 362, entries (1450 words) in Lorraine Code, (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Feminist Philosophy, Routledge, New York and London.

Articles in refereed journals

Alison Adam and Paul Spedding (2007) “Trusting Computers Through Trusting Humans: Software Verification in a Safety-Critical Information System” International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction, 3(4), 1-14. Nominated by IJTHI for Senior Scholars/ICIS/AIS Best Publications Awards 2007.

Alison Adam and David Kreps (2006) “Enabling or Disabling Technologies?: A Critical Approach to Web Accessibility”, Information Technology and People, 19 (3), 203-218.

Alison Adam, Marie Griffiths, Claire Keogh, Karenza Moore, Helen Richardson and Angela Tattersall (2006) “Being an it in IT – Gendered Identities in the IT Workplace”, European Journal of Information Systems, 15 (4), 368-378.

Alison Adam (2005) “Delegating and Distributing Morality: Can We Inscribe Privacy Protection in a Machine?” Ethics and Information Technology, 7 (4), 233-242.

Alison Adam, Debra Howcroft and Helen Richardson (2004) “A Decade of Neglect: Reflecting on Gender and IS”, New Technology, Work and Employment, 19 (3), 222-240. (Paper received Emerald Management Reviews award for one of the top 50 management articles of 2004)

Alison Adam (2002) “Feministische Ethik fur Informationstechnologien: das Problem des Cyberstalking”(Feminist Ethics for Information Technologies: The Problem of Cyberstalking), FifF-Kommunikation, 3, 5-8.

Alison Adam (2002) “Gender/ Body/ Machine” Ratio: The Journal of Analytic Philosophy, 15 (4), 354-375.

Alison Adam (2002) “Exploring the Gender Question in Critical Information Systems”, Journal of Information Technology, 17 (2), 59-67.

Alison Adam (2002) “Cyberstalking and Internet Pornography: Gender and the Gaze”, Ethics and Information Technology, 4 (2), 133-142.

Alison Adam, Debra Howcroft, Helen Richardson (2002) “Introduction to special issue”, Information Technology and People, 15 (2), 96-97.

Alison Adam (2001) “Computer Ethics in a Different Voice”, Information and Organization, 11 (4), 235-261.

Alison Adam (2001) “Heroes or Sibyls? Gender and Engineering Ethics” IEEE Technology and Society special issue on Engineering Ethics, 20(3), 39-46.

Alison Adam and Helen Richardson (2001) “Feminist Philosophy and Information Systems”, Information Systems Frontiers, 3(2), 143-154.

Alison Adam and Jacqueline Ofori-Amanfo (2000) “Does Gender Matter in Computer Ethics?”, Ethics and Information Technology, 2(1), , 37-47.

Alison Adam (2000) “Deleting the Subject: A Feminist Reading of Epistemology in Artificial Intelligence”, Minds and Machines, Journal for Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy and Cognitive Science, 10 (2), 231-253.

Articles in refereed journals

Frances Bell, Beryl Burns, Alison Adam, Briony Oates (2007) ‘Ethical aspects of a women’s on-line network’, Towards a Social Science of Web 2.0, York.

Alison Adam, Marie Griffiths, Claire Keogh, Karenza Moore, Helen Richardson and Angela Tattersall (2007) ‘Disappearing from the Knowledge Based Economy’, Gender, Work and Organization conference, Keele.

Alison Adam and David Kreps (2006) “Inscribing Disability: Web Accessibility”, Information, Communication and Society conference, York.

Alison Adam and David Kreps (2006) “Web Accessibility: A Digital Divide for the Disabled?” IFIP 8.2 conference, Limerick. (in procs.).

Alison Adam (2006) “Feminist ethics for computer mediated communications: a cyberfeminist alternative” CATAC (Cultural Attitudes Towards Technology and Communications), Tartu, Estonia. (in procs.).

Alison Adam (2005) “Feminist Business Ethics?”, International Conference on Business Ethics, St Johns University, New York. (in procs.).

Alison Adam (2005) “Chips in Our Children: Can We Delegate Morality to a Machine?” Computer Ethics Philosophical Enquiry, Twente, Netherlands, (in procs.).

Alison Adam, Claire Keogh, Karenza Moore, Helen Richardson and Angela Tattersall, “You Don’t Have to be Male to Work Here but it Helps! Women and the IT Industry” (2005) Women into Computing: The Gender Politics of ICT, Greenwich, (in Conference book).

Ben Light and Alison Adam (2004)“The Ethics of Software Vendors” European Conference in Information Systems, Turku, Finland, (in procs.).

Frances Bell and Alison Adam (2004) “What ever Happened to Information Systems Ethics? Caught Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” IFIP 8.2 Manchester (in procs.).

Frances Bell and Alison Adam (2004) The problem of integrating ethics into IS practice” European Conference in Information Systems, Turku, Finland. (in procs.).

Alison Adam (2003) “Hacking into Hacking: Gender and the Hacking Phenomenon”, Proceedings Computer Ethics and Philosophical Enquiry, Boston, (in procs.).

Alison Adam and Frances Bell (2003) “Information Ethics and Systems Analysis” Critical Management Conference, University of Lancaster.

Alison Adam (2002) “Knowledge Transfer: What are We Transferring and Where are We Transferring it?”, Proc 26th International Conference on Software and Applications (COMPSAC), Oxford, 526-527. (invited paper)

Alison Adam (2002)“Democracy, Gender and Technology: Historical Connections” in Fay Sudweeks and Charles Ess (eds.) Proceedings of 3rd International Conference on Cultural Attitudes Towards Technology and Communication( CATaC), Montreal, 143-151. (in procs.).

Alison Adam (2001) “Cyberstalking and Internet Pornography: Gender and the Body”, in Ruth F. Chadwick, Lucas Introna and Antonio Marturano (eds.) Proc. Computer Ethics: Philosophical Enquiry- IT and the Body, University of Lancaster,1-11. (in procs.).

Alison Adam (2001) “Exploring the Gender Question in Critical Information Systems”, in Alison Adam, Debra Howcroft, Helen Richardson and Bruce Robinson (eds.) (Re)-Defining Critical Research in Information Systems, International Workshop, University of Salford, 35-43. (in procs.).

Alison Adam (2001) “Gender, Emancipation and Critical Information Systems” in Steve Smithson, Joze Gricar, Mateja Podlogar and Sophia Avgerinou (eds.) Proc. 9th European Conference on information Systems, Global Co-operation in the New Millennium, Bled, Slovenia,139-147, (in procs.).

Alison Adam, Debra Howcroft and Helen Richardson (2001) “Absent Friends? The Gender Dimension in IS Research.” in Nancy L. Russo, Brian Fitzgerald and Janice I. DeGross (eds.), Realigning Research and Practice in Information Systems Development: The Social and Organizational Perspective, Kluwer, Norwell MA and Dordrecht, 2001, 333-352, (Proc. IFIP 8.2 conference, Boise, Idaho,) ISBN 0792374207. (in procs.).

Alison Adam (2000) “Gender and Computer Ethics: A Review” in D.G. Johnson, J.H. Moor, H.T Tavani (eds.), Proc. Computer Ethics: Philosophical Enquiry , Dartmouth College, NH, 1-18. (in procs.).

Alison Adam (2000) “Information Systems: We Still Need a Feminist Approach” IFIP WG 9.1, Women Work and Computerization Conference, WWC2000, Vancouver. published in E. Balka and R. Smith (eds.), Women, Work and Computerization: Charting a Course to the Future, Kluwer, Norwell, MA and Dordrecht, 2000, 102-110, (in procs.).

Deputy Chair of REF2014 sub-panel UoA 36, Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management.