Susan Hockey facts for kids

Susan Hockey was born in 1946. She is a smart English computer scientist. She is a special professor at University College London who teaches about libraries and information.

She has written many things. She wrote about how computers help us study history and languages (this is called digital humanities). She also wrote about how computers can look at text, how to mark up digital books, and how libraries can keep digital information safe. In 2014, her university, University College London, started a special series of talks about digital humanities to honor her.

Early Life and Education

Susan Hockey was born in 1946 in a town called Halifax, West Yorkshire, in England. Her birth name was Susan Petty. She went to Princess Mary High School in Halifax. Later, she studied at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, which is a part of Oxford University.

Her Career in Computing

Starting in Computer Science

In 1969, Susan Hockey started working at the Atlas Computer Laboratory in Chilton, Oxfordshire. This was a place where people used big computers. At Atlas, she created computer programs. These programs helped display characters from languages that are not Western.

Developing Computer Tools

In 1973, she helped start the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing (ALLC). This group helps people use computers to study literature and languages. In 1975, she began working at Oxford University Computing Services.

At Oxford, she played a big part in making the Oxford Concordance Program. This program came from an older software called COCOA. These tools were very important for people using computers to study the humanities in the United States and the UK.

Leading Digital Humanities Centers

From 1991 to 1997, Susan Hockey was the director. She led the Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities. This center was at Rutgers University and Princeton University in New Jersey, USA.

After that, from 1997 to 1999, she was a professor. She also directed the Canadian Institute for Research Computing in Arts. This was at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.

Teaching at University College London

In 2000, she joined University College London (UCL). She became a Professor of Library and Information Studies. From 2001, she was the director of the School of Library, Archive and Information Studies at UCL. She retired from her work in 2004.

Awards and Recognition

In 2004, Susan Hockey received a special award. It was the Roberto Busa Prize from the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations. This award recognized her amazing achievements. It honored her work in using computers and technology for humanities research throughout her life.

She also shared her career story in an interview. She talked about her journey in Digital Humanities during the 1960s and 1970s.

Important Groups She Helped Start

Susan Hockey is a founding member of several important groups. These groups are all about digital humanities.

• She helped start the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing (ALLC) in 1973.
• She also helped start the Association for Computers and the Humanities (ACH) in 1978.
• She was an editor for the ALLC Bulletin from 1979 to 1983.
• She was the chair of the ALLC from 1984 to 1997.
• She was a member of the steering committee for the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) from 1987 to 1999.

See also

In Spanish: Susan Hockey para niños