On 14 September 2026, Prof. dr. Felienne Hermans, professor of Computer Science Education at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, delivered the lecture ‘More gender balance in computer science, let’s talk about curriculum design first!’. This presentation was part of the Huygens Diversity Lecture series organised by the Gender, Diversity and Inclusion Committee of the Faculty of Science (GenDI).
Prof. Hermans drew a full house of students, staff and board members. She started her talk by illustrating the culture in the field of computer science, based on her own career and scientific studies. Through these examples, prof. Hermans showed how computer science students and scholars often feel that different identities cannot coexist, e.g. being both a woman and a programmer. To move away from this culture, prof. Hermans argues for redesigning computer science curricula, drawing on insights from on feminist epistemology theories.
Currently, the guidelines for curricula in computer science focus on technical aspects, often lacking courses on research methods, philosophy of science and history of the field. As a result, there is less attention to the social aspects of computing, even though these aspects may attract diverse students and are beneficial to the overall understanding of the field.
In her talk, prof. Hermans outlined a research-informed plan to first change curricula of computer science, before investing additional time and effort in attracting more women, arguing ‘culture follows infrastructure’. To support this change, she highlighted three key recommendations:
- Focus more on people and less on things: to attract students that care about social change.
- Introduce research methods and philosophy of science courses: to discuss the fields’ social dynamics and difficult parts of history.
- Re-order courses: place courses that focus on ethics and society at the start of education to avoid techno-solutionism in students.
More inspirational writing from prof. Hermans can be found in her newsletter (www.felienne.nl). For those who could not attend on the 14th, the slides are available via prof. Hermans’ website and a similar talk can be watched on YouTube.