2025 Mahoney Prize winner

Theodora Dryer, "Settler Computing: Water Algorithms and the Equitable Apportionment Doctrine on the Colorado River, 1950–1990" Osiris 38 (2023): 265-285.

Following a careful review of submissions, we are proud to announce the awarding
of the 2025 Mahoney prize for outstanding article in the history of computing and
information technology to Theodora Dryer for Settler Computing: Water Algorithms
and the Equitable Apportionment Doctrine on the Colorado River, 1950–1990. In this
article Dryer demonstrates how the legal denial of Native American Water rights
coincides with the establishment of algorithmic systems driven by a colonial
approach to space and time termed settler computing. Settler computing, as a
concept, showcases the insight the history of computing and information technology
can provide to longstanding and urgent social struggles. It is a reminder that
colonialism is far from over and that water allocation and distribution systems can be
understood as material, infrastructural, and systemic forms of settler-colonial power.

In addition to providing a theoretical contribution to research on the temporal and
spatial extension of settler colonialism, Settler Computing: Water Algorithms and the
Equitable Apportionment Doctrine on the Colorado River, 1950–1990 is unique from
a methodological perspective. Dryer’s analysis of linear programming algorithms
designed to quantify and monetize abstract conceptions of ‘western water’ is clear
and concise without sacrificing technical insight, connecting the optimization of ‘least
cost’ water use for agricultural production to the gatekeeping of water data and the
erasure of indigenous rights.

In closing, the committee would like to thank everyone who submitted an article for
consideration. The quality of research was high, and the scoring was close.