Emma Benser Spoke About the Importance of Teaching Computer Science in Prison for CACM
Emma Benser, assistant professor of computer science.
Emma Benser, assistant professor of computer science at Bard College, published an article in the Communications of the ACM (CACM), the monthly journal of the Association for Computing Machinery. In the article and in a video interview with CACM, Benser stresses the importance of creating educational opportunities for those who are incarcerated. She cites how the demand for computer science education is high, and how engaging directly with incarcerated students can help in addressing systemic blind spots in the criminal justice system, while training a new population of technologists with relevant experience to prevent harm. “Expanding [computer science] education in prison is a vote toward a future where people with lived experience of incarceration are represented among computing faculty and industry, informing our research and practice of computing in and outside of prison,” writes Benser.
The Computer Science Program at Bard focuses on the fundamental ideas of computer science and introduces students to multiple programming languages and paradigms, covering theoretical, applied, and systems-oriented topics. Most courses include hands-on projects so that students can learn by building, and by participating in research projects in laboratories devoted to cognition, computational biology, robotics, and symbolic computation.
Post Date: 05-14-2026
The Computer Science Program at Bard focuses on the fundamental ideas of computer science and introduces students to multiple programming languages and paradigms, covering theoretical, applied, and systems-oriented topics. Most courses include hands-on projects so that students can learn by building, and by participating in research projects in laboratories devoted to cognition, computational biology, robotics, and symbolic computation.
Post Date: 05-14-2026