History of Science, Technology and Medicine
The history of science, medicine and technology is an established and vibrant discipline that uses historical methods to understand the interaction of science and society in context. With two new joint hires in history of science in the Department of History and Lyman Briggs College during the last several years, and another search in process, four members of the Department of History will be in residence by Fall 2008 with strengths in the history of modern science during the 19th and 20th Centuries. In addition to these joint appointments, students have access to a number of other historians of science in Lyman Briggs College and James Madison College.
Our new program has strengths in modern European history of science with faculty specialties in history of medicine, psychiatry, physics and the life sciences as well as science and society, the politics of science, German science, science and religion, science and war. Current Department of History faculty members in the history of science, major book publications and their interests are listed below:
Kristie Macrakis, Associate Professor, Ph.D, Harvard University, History of Science
Research Interests: history of science in modern Germany, especially Nazi Germany and post-war Germany; espionage history; macro-histories; history of science in education
- Surviving the Swastika: Scientific Research in Nazi Germany. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
- Science under Socialism: East Germany in Comparative Perspective. Editor and Author. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.
- Seduced by Secrets: Inside the Stasi’s Spy-Tech World. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
- In preparation: Prisoners, Lovers and Spies: the Story of Invisible Ink, from Ancient to Modern Times.
Matt Stanley, Assistant Professor, Ph.D, Harvard University, History of Science
Research Interests: history of physics and astronomy; science and religion; science and war; history of science in education
- Practical Mystic: Religion, Science, and A.S. Eddington. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.
John Waller, Assistant Professor, Ph. D, University College, London, History of Science
Research Interests: History of Medicine, Psychiatry, and the Life Sciences; 19th century European social history
- Einstein’s Luck: The Truth Behind some of the Greatest Scientific Discoveries. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
- The Discovery of the Germ: Twenty Years that Transformed the Way We Think about Disease . Cambridge: Icon Books, 2002 & New York: Columbia University Press, 2003.
- Leaps in the Dark: the Forging of Scientific Reputations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
- The Real Oliver Twist: the Life of Robert Blincoe, a Life that Illuminates an Age Cambridge: Icon Books, 2005.
- A Time to Dance, A Time to Die: the Story of the Dancing Mania. Cambridge: Icon Books, 2008.
Mark Largent, Assistant Professor, Ph.D., University of Minnesota, History of Science and Technology
Research Interests: History of American science, particularly the history of biology in the United States
- Breeding Contempt: The History of Coerced Sterilization in the United States. Rutgers, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2006.