UWM does not have a history of technology or STS curriculum or a well developed media studies program, but I’d be happy to work with any faculty or students who would like to incorporate the lab resources into their research. That could include students from English, Art History or Anthropology where there are some faculty with relevant interests. We also have a newly introduced graduate certificate in digital cultures and an undergraduate certificate and interdisciplinary major in Digital Arts and Culture. The English department has the cryptically named “graduate plan H” in Media, Cinema, and Digital Studies and an undergraduate program in film studies which has some digital elements.
Having had the experience of using these old machines, including the Apple II (which I’d never glimpsed while growing up in 1980s Britain) helped me to rework portions of my recent book to better capture aspects of the user experience. The experience of putting together the lab and restoring its contents has also made me more aware of the huge community of retrocomputing enthusiasts, whose rituals and practices should be an important research topic in their own right for scholars of STS and computing culture.
The lab has already been used by UWM library staff to access and archive material on floppy disk. The lab computers can access files in a range of computer media and formats, including hard drives, floppy disks (3.5 and 5.25 inch), Zip disks and Jaz cartridges.