Max Kwass-Mason

Research Interests: History of computing; urban history; legal history; labor history.

Max Kwass-Mason is a doctoral candidate in the History of Science Department.  His research centers on the intersection of computing, municipal government, and the rule of law in the United States.  His dissertation, “Computing in Crisis: Los Angeles and Digital Fraud, 1968-1977” explores how the city’s expanded police authority and fiscal politics converged to define novel criminal categories and lay the foundation for the field of computer security.  His work is generously supported by the Charles Babbage Institute and Association for Computing Machinery.

Max earned a B.A. from Columbia University with coursework in History and Computer Science. His undergraduate thesis focused on the introduction of word processing technology and management to the United States Supreme Court.  Before pursuing his P.hD., he worked on pandemic oversight as a federal data scientist.

Previous Degrees:

B.A. History, Computer Science, Columbia University