Dr James Poskett

Contact

Email: j dot poskett at warwick dot ac dot uk
Website:
Office: 3.50, Third Floor, Faculty of Arts Building
Term-Time Office Hours: by appointment, please email me.

On Research Leave 2025/2026

Academic Profile

2024 onwards: Reader in the History of Science and Technology, 91福利
2021–2024: Associate Professor in the History of Science and Technology, 91福利
2017–2021: Assistant Professor in the History of Science and Technology, 91福利
2015–2017: Adrian Research Fellow, Darwin College, University of Cambridge
2012–2015: PhD, Trinity College, University of Cambridge
2011–2012: MPhil, King's College, University of Cambridge
2007–2010: BA, King's College, University of Cambridge

Centres and Networks

Research

My research engages broadly with the global history of science and technology from the early modern period to the present day.

Before joining 91福利, I completed my PhD at the University of Cambridge and held the Adrian Research Fellowship at Darwin College, Cambridge. I have also held research fellowships at the University of Sydney, Harvard University, and the Philadelphia Area Center for the History of Science. I am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

My most recent book, (Penguin, 2022), provides a major reassessment of the rise of modern science. Beginning in the fifteenth century and moving right through to the present, Horizons pushes the history of science beyond Europe, exploring the ways in which Africa, America, Asia and the Pacific fit into the story. It presents familiar characters, like Newton and Einstein, in a new light, whilst also uncovering the contributions of lesser-known scientists from around the world. From Chinese astronomers and Mexican geneticists to Japanese physicists and Indian chemists, this is the story of the scientists who have been written out of history. Horizons was awarded the 2023 by the American Historical Association. Horizons was also shortlisted for the 2022 the 2023 and the . It has been translated into French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, Greek, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

My first book, (University of Chicago Press, 2019), follows the making of the most popular mental science of the Victorian age. Skulls were collected in China and Africa, societies cross-circulated journals between Edinburgh and Calcutta, and translations of French phrenological works were imported into Melbourne and Boston. Bringing together museum and archival collections from across the world, Materials of the Mind presents the history of nineteenth-century science as part of global history. It shows how the circulation of skulls, plaster casts, letters and photographs underpinned the emergence of a new materialist philosophy of the mind. Materials of the Mind was awarded the 2020 by the Social Science History Association.

I am currently working on a new project titled The Scientific Revolution as Global History, 1200–1800. This project is supported by a .

Publications

Books

(Penguin, 2022), 446pp., 38 B&W illustrations, 16pp. colour plates
- Translated into , , , , , , , , , , and
- Winner of the Jerry Bentley Prize in World History, American Historical Association.
- Shortlisted for the British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding
- Shortlisted for the British Society for the History of Science Hughes Prize.
- Shortlisted for the Cosmos Book Prize.
(University of Chicago Press, 2019), 373pp., 47 B&W illustrations
- Winner of the President's Book Award, Social Science History Association

Edited Books

eds., (Cambridge University Press, 2020), (with Johannes Knolle), 184pp.

Articles

The British Journal for the History of Science: Themes 9 (2024), pp. 1–15.
, The British Journal for the History of Science: Themes 9 (2024), (with Andrew Barry, J.R.R. Christie, Andrew Cunningham, Ludmilla Jordanova, James A. Secord, and Perry Williams)
Global Intellectual History 6 (2021), pp. 142–57
The Historical Journal 62 (2020), pp. 209–42
The Historical Journal 60 (2017), pp. 409–42
History of Science 53 (2015), pp. 264–95
The British Journal for the History of Science 48 (2015), pp. 213–32
Medical History 59 (2015), pp. 241–54

Book Chapters

in Debating Contemporary Approaches to the History of Science, ed. Lukas Verburgt (Bloomsbury, 2024), (with Gianamar Giovannetti-Singh)
in The Routledge Handbook of Science and Empire, ed. Andrew Goss (Routledge, 2021)

Book Reviews

Itinerario 40 (2016), pp. 334–5
The British Journal for the History of Science 48 (2015), pp. 689–90
Reviews in History, review no. 1655 (2014)
The British Journal for the History of Science 47 (2014), pp. 567–9

Other Writings

, Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), 18 December 2023 (with Sarah Evans, Arjan Gosal, David Lambert, Thomas Simpson, and Catriona Sharples)
鈥樷€� Science, Innovation, and Technology Committee, UK Parliament, 12 October 2023.
, Toplumsal Tarih 346 (2022), pp. 2–4 (translated by Atilla Polat)
Nature 609 (2022), pp. 243–4 (with Claire Shaw)
in Materials for the History of Science, eds. Joshua Nall, James Hyslop, and Boris Jardine (Whipple Museum, 2022)
'Science's global revolution,' BBC History Magazine, October 2022.
New Scientist, 23 March 2022
Science and Technology Committee, UK Parliament, 14 January 2022
'The phrenological bust,' Modern History Review, November 2019
Nature, 18 October 2017
'Ten global milestones in the history of science and technology,' BBC History: The Story of Science and Technology, September 2017
BBC History Magazine, December 2015
University of Cambridge: Research News, 19 February 2014
The Guardian, 5 February 2013
Nature, 23 January 2013
Nature 486 (2012), p. 321.
The Guardian, 19 October 2012
The Guardian, 20 January 2012
Physics World, 30 September 2011
The Guardian, 25 July 2011
The Guardian, 6 July 2011

Public Engagement

I aim to bring the history of science to as wide an audience as possible. I write for newspapers, websites and magazines including The Guardian, New Scientist, and Nature. I also appear on broadcast media, including for , , , , and

I work closely with museums, curating displays and acting as a consultant for major exhibitions. In the past, I've worked with the Science Museum, the National Maritime Museum, the Royal Geographical Society, Historic Royal Palaces, the Whipple Museum, and Cambridge University Library.

I've spoken at major literary festivals, including the , the , the , the , the , , and the .

I sit on the Advisory Board for a project on the collections of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

I develop teaching resources for GCSE and A-Level science subjects in order to present a more diverse curriculum, recently collaborating with the and (with ). I am also a member of the OCR Exams Science Forum.

You can find a collection of my teaching resources available on the as well as archived on the CERN repository .

I also provide policy recommendations and have submitted to the Science and Technology Committee of the UK Parliament.

In 2022, I was appointed as a Fellow of the 91福利 Institute of Engagement. In 2013 I was shortlisted for the BBC New Generation Thinker Award and in 2012 I was awarded the Best Newcomer Prize by the Association of British Science Writers.

Teaching

Undergraduate

(first-year core module)
HI2H5 Race and Science: Histories and Legacies (second-year option module)
HI3S6 Science, Technology, and Global Politics, 1900 to Present (final-year option module)
IL023 Genetics and Society (interdisciplinary option module in the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning)

Postgraduate

Teaching Resources

I developed the following open-access teaching resources for the history of science and STEM subjects:

Teaching Awards

In 2023 I was "Highly Commended" in the 91福利 Awards for Teaching Excellence (WATE).

PhD Supervision

I am very happy to supervise a wide range of PhD topics related to the history of science, technology or medicine, broadly construed. I am particularly interested in supervising topics which address the history of science and technology in global and colonial contexts. Please email me in the first instance.

Current PhD Students

Rosie Charles, "Steeped in Soil: Soil Fertility, Colonial Agronomists, and the Making of the Imperial Plantation, 1875–1940" (co-supervised with Dr Tom Simpson)
Shreya Khaund, "Mapping Fossil Colonialism in Asia, c. 1810-1914," (co-supervised with Dr Tom Simpson)
Ana茂s Walsdorf, "Metallic Empire: Science, Energy, and Industrial Imperialism in the John Percy Collection, 1817–89" (co-supervised with Dr Katayoun Shafiee)
Catriona Sharples, "Colonial Science and Military Service: The West India Regiments and Circum-Atlantic Networks of Knowledge, 1815–1900" (co-supervised with Professor David Lambert)

Completed PhD Students

Chen Qing, "The British Empire鈥檚 Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, 1915–1941" (co-supervised with Dr Song-Chuan Chen)
Nilakshi Das, "Becoming a Scientist: South Asian Students in British Universities and the Making of Postcolonial Scientific Lives, 1950–2000" (co-supervised with Dr Sally Horrocks)
Jack Bowman, "Pan-African Print: Politics in Action—A Book History of the Pan-African Movement, 1935–1955" (co-supervised with Professor Daniel Branch)

James Poskett