Homepage | Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine

Race Against the Robots: Artificial Intelligence and Inequality in Postwar America

Salem Elzway brings together labor history, political economy, and Science and Technology Studies to examine the history of automation in postwar America. His research traces how political and economic institutions shaped the development and use of industrial robots, from their place in labor-management relations to their role in the production and reproduction of racial difference. Drawing on extensive archival research, he connects the history of robotics to the military-industrial-academic complex, the early development of artificial intelligence, and debates over unemployment and inequality.

Flexible Genetics: The Birth of Clinical Medical Genetics through the Lens of Connective Tissue Disorders, 1940-2000

Caroline Wechsler uses Consortium collections to trace the evolution of clinical medical genetics in the United States during the second half of the twentieth century, focusing on Marfan syndrome and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS). Through archival research, she examines the development of medical genetics as a clinical specialty and explores how its changing boundaries shape contemporary questions of diagnosis, clinical responsibility, and patient care.

The Afterlife of Alchemy in the British Enlightenment

Richard Barney asks how alchemy survived the Enlightenment to influence British literature, aesthetics, and political thought. Discover how Enlightenment writers and satirists like Joseph Addison, Edmund Burke, and Mary Wollstonecraft adapted alchemical techniques like sublimation and distillation—from Isaac Newton's laboratory experiments to James Gillray's political cartoons of Prime Minister William Pitt.

News and Notes

Fractious Knowledge: Earthquakes and Engineering between Italy and America

John Sullivan asks, how did eighteenth-century people understand earthquakes before modern seismology? “Fractious Knowledge” examines how disasters in Italy and Guatemala brought European experts into contact with local builders, artisans, and environmental knowledge. It also shows how global networks of empire pushed natural philosophers to imagine earthquakes on an increasingly planetary scale. Early modern earthquakes shook the foundations of classical science.

31st ed. Phunday

For over three decades, Phunday has been the event to meet fellow historians of science, exchange ideas, and receive valuable input in a collegial atmosphere.

Beyond Procreation: A New History of Reproductive Justice in the United States

Emma Day explores how reproductive expectations shaped women’s healthcare in the United States. Her research reveals how medicine often linked women’s health to reproduction, while also examining the growing recognition of women’s health beyond pregnancy.

Research Fellowships from the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center

Applications are due October 15.

Artefacts XXXI: Trust and Objects

The 31st annual Artefacts conference will be hosted at the Science History Institute Monday, October 19, 2026-Wednesday, October 21, 2026

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory offers the Sydney Brenner Research Fellowship

Applications must be received by October 15, 2026 to be considered for the upcoming Fall-Spring academic year.

The Science History Institute is Hiring Vice President and Arnold Thackray Director of the Donald F. and Mildred Topp Othmer Library of Chemical History

The Science History Institute is seeking an accomplished executive to serve as Vice President and Arnold Thackray Director of the Donald F. and Mildred Topp Othmer Library of Chemical History.

7th AIP Early-Career Conference for Historians of the Physical Sciences

The conference will take place June 21-25, 2027, at the University of Toronto, Canada. The submission deadline is November 15, 2026.

At the Limits of Clarity: Communicating Ocular Impairment in Transpacific Clinics, 1830–1930

Jingwen Li uses Consortium collections to explore how ocular impairment was observed, diagnosed, and communicated in transpacific clinics from 1830 to 1930, revealing the challenges of representing vision and visual disability across medical traditions and cultural contexts.