Dave Walsh is a Senior Lecturer in the AMCS program. He teaches core requirements and many topics courses, including a 400 level seminar on design and innovation, What Could Go Wrong?, co-designed and taught with the Sam Fox School as part of their master degree program, Design for Human-Computer Interaction and Emerging Technology.

Dave specializes in technological history and material culture study, offering a variety of courses that examine the cultures of industry and innovation in the American tradition. His research area focuses on how the emergence of novel technologies surface latent anxieties and optimisms about what tech means, what it does, and what it does against us. His primary research is the field of computers and computational engineering during the early period of the Cold War. He also teaches the infrastructural design and innovation histories of the internet, encryption, and so-called ‘hacker’ culture. Dave blends study of tech and culture with St. Louis regional history in courses about the industrial history of St. Louis, automobiling and transportation, and the 1904 World’s Fair. He also offers courses on the pop culture expressions of tech and social futurism, the technological politics of propaganda, and surveillance cultures. Beginning summer of 2026, he will participate in the university’s AI Curriculum Corps pilot project to innovate the study and use of ai in his Cold War course, Machines & Monsters.

Dave also advocates for digital privacy rights and participates in conversations about the role of the humanities in cyber security careers. To that end he devotes time to train people how they can operate safely and securely in their everyday digital habits and, importantly, how they can teach others.

If you are interested in hearing more about these topics or to learn about the major, contact him at dgwalsh@wustl.edu.