COMPUGIRLS

COMPUGIRLS is a peer-led space where girls of color use both digital tools and social ties to pursue dignity and hope. The book examines an enrichment program funded by the National Science Foundation. Built around project-based learning, it serves teenagers aged 13 to 18 who attend high-needs schools, where advanced computer science courses are scarce and few chances exist to become technology creators. The program also aims to give these girls teachers who foster their sense of empowerment.

Though the program is often described as a technology initiative, its core principles are sociocultural. They center on identity, including race, gender and ethnicity, on the relationships participants form with one another, and on advancing the wider community. The author argues that by studying these concepts closely, the girls can understand their intersubjectivities and see themselves as agents who shape social life, which in turn improves their chances of becoming technologists.

By looking at how the girls reveal themselves and analyzing that process, the book shows which structures and systems help them succeed, and which constraints keep them from liberation and from taking part in technological innovation. It offers a fuller account of how some girls of color find and define themselves in the present technological era.