This week the History Department’s own Asif Siddiqi has been visiting Cambridge University in the UK, participating in a range of events culminating in the 29th annual Rausing Lecture at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science.
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Professor Asif Siddiqi’s new article, “Shaping the World: Soviet-African Technologies from the Sahel to the Cosmos,” was just released in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Vol. 41, Issue 1. Below is the article abstract:
This article explores the biography of a network of Soviet telescopic cameras stationed across the African Sahel during the Cold War. Through joint Soviet-African cooperative programs, scientists used these advanced cameras in Egypt, Somalia, Mali, the Sudan, and Chad to photograph satellites flying overhead to gather data to produce a new model of the Earth, one that Soviet scientists hoped would be an alternative to Western models. I argue that these technical artifacts in Africa, connected into a single global network, represented examples of “infrastructural irruptions” of Cold War technopolitics into African geography, wherein the superpowers placed networked technologies inside postcolonial spaces for the collection of data. Although these technologies were nominally Soviet in origin, the story could also be read as one of Africans who invested their geography with agency in the production of scientific knowledge. Like the socialist moment in Africa and indeed the Soviet Union itself, this camera network no longer exists, its data compromised and its material imprint disappeared. But this “failure” should not blind us to the immanent power of possibility embedded in this incomplete project. I argue that this combination of unbounded aspiration and incomplete materiality was a powerful manifestation of the African-Soviet Modern.
You can follow him on Twitter @historyasif.
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In this new series, “What is Global History at Fordham,” we will hear from members of Fordham’s Global History consortium on what global history means to them and how it shapes their work.
Today, we begin with Professor Asif Siddiqi.
“As a historian of science and technology, global history is neither world history nor is there one single version of it. Instead, my research is focused on highlighting the many globally connected histories of science and technology. Instead of looking at (for example), German science or a Japanese nuclear reactor or a Russian satellite, our approach would consider larger concepts such as mobility or waste or infrastructure and reconstruct their global manifestations and changes across time and space. Our teaching will give you the tools to investigate, research and write your own version of a globally connected history.”
You can follow Prof. Asif Siddiqi on Twitter @historyasif
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The History Department is proud to announce that in 2015-16, Dr. Durba Mitra will be the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral fellow at the Penn Humanities Forum and the University of Pennsylvania. The theme for the 2015-16 Penn Humanities Forum is “Sex.” Mitra will be working on her book manuscript, tentatively entitled “Sex and The New Science of Society in Colonial Eastern India.” In her book, she explores the significance of female sexuality to the making of social thought in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in eastern India. The book explores how colonial authorities and Bengali intellectuals invoked claims to “scientificity” about female sex in the constitution of new legal codes, modes of evidence, and social theories about Indian society. You can read more about her research plans here. Congratulations on this exciting fellowship, Dr. Mitra!
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This History Department is proud to announce that Dr. Asif Siddiqi was named a 2015 Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. This honor, one of the highest national awards for scholars, artists, and scientists in the United States, is also one of the most competitive. This year, Dr. Siddiqi was selected for the honor along with 174 other nominees. The announcement of the Fellowship was made on April 9, 2015 with a full-page announcement in the New York Times. For much more on Dr. Siddiqi’s research, read on.Comments Off on Asif Siddiqi Wins Guggenheim Fellowship
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We undertook a comprehensive study of the role of forensic medicine in the legal adjudication of rape cases in postcolonial India. We studied all publications on medical jurisprudence for India from the late nineteenth century until today in South Asia and analyzed the use of medical jurisprudence in rape cases reported in the high courts in India from 1952 until 2011. Rape has received significant attention in the last two years in international media, leading to the substantial reform of rape laws in India. We argue that for legal reforms to be effective, changes must be made to textbooks, medical protocol, and the use of medical evidence in rape cases. Our research resulted in the publication of our article, “Testing Chastity, Evidencing Rape:” in Economic and Political Weekly, a key peer-reviewed publication on India that brings together academics, researchers, and policy makers.
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Matt Tribbe addresses Fordham Phi Alpha Theta
Historian Matt Tribbe discussed his recent book, No Requiem for the Space Age (Oxford University Press, 2014), for the Phi Alpha Theta Lecture Series on Monday, November 10. Dr. Tribbe’s talk explained the links between space exploration and American culture in the 1960s, including fascinating connections between the Apollo moon landings and evangelical Christianity, New Age yogic practices, the modern environmental movement, and popular film and fiction.
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When we think about the future of spaceflight, the names that most often come to mind are those of the science fiction authors and film directors: Andrei Tarkowsky, Arthur C. Clarke, Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas, and most recently, Christopher Nolan. We certainly don’t think of historians. After all, historians are concerned with the past, not the future, right?Comments Off on A Fordham Historian Helps Write the Future of Spaceflight
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The second meeting of this semester’s faculty seminar on the History of Science, Technology, Environment, and Medicine on Tuesday March 11, 5:30PM at the Lowenstein Plaza View Room (12th floor) at the Lincoln Center Campus. HSTEM welcomes Kathryn Kueny of of the Theology Department to discuss here paper entitled: “I Know it When I See It: Dis/Similarity in Medieval Muslim Determinations of Paternity.“ The discussant will be Daisy Deomampo (Anthropology). Follow the link for more info, including the paper… Continue reading
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Congratulations to Grace Shen on the publication of her first book, Unearthing the Nation: Modern Geology and Nationalism in Republican China. Go check it out at the University of Chicago Press website. We asked Grace to tell us a bit about the book and how it relates to her teaching at Fordham and her new research… Continue reading
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