Department of Science and Technology Studies

Research Interests

Professor Suman Seth works on the social, cultural, and intellectual history of modern science. Interests include the history of the physical sciences (particularly quantum theory), gender and science, & science, race, and colonialism. He is the author of Crafting the Quantum: Arnold Sommerfeld and the Practice of Theory, 1890-1926 (MIT, 2010) and the guest editor of a special issue of the journal Postcolonial Studies on “Science, Colonialism, Postcolonialism” (December, 2009). His current research is focused on the history of medicine, botany, zoology, anthropology, and colonialism. This year he is on Sabbatical leave, working on a monograph concerned with the theories and practices of human, animal, and plant acclimatization in England, France, and Germany, 1760-1914.

Recent Courses Taught

• Spring 2013 - (STS 6401) Science, Technology, Gender: Historical Issues
  T: 10:10-12:05, 4 Credits
  
  
• Spring 2013 - (BSOC/STS 2821) Science in Western Civilization: Newton to Darwin, Darwin to Einstein
  MW: 11:15-12:05 + Section, 4 Credits
  
  
• Fall 2012 - (BSOC/STS 2071) Introduction to the History of MedicineMW: 1:15-2:15 + Sec, 4 Credits

• Fall 2012 - (STS 4751) Science, Race, and Colonialism
  W: 10:10-12:05, 4 Credits
  

• Spring 2011 - (STS 6751) Science, Race, and Colonialism
  T: 10:10-12:05, 4 Credits
  
  
• Fall 2010 - (STS 1102) Histories of the Future
  MW: 11:15-2:40 + Mandatory Discussion, 3 Credits
  
  
• Fall 2010 - (STS 4122) Darwin and the Making of Histories
  W: 12:20-2:15, 4 Credits
  
  
• Spring 2010 - (STS 1102) Histories of the Future
  MWF: 9:05-9:55, 3 Credits
  
  
• Spring 2010 - (STS 2821) Science in Western Civilization: Newton to Darwin, Darwin to Einstein
  MW: 11:15-12:05 + Section, 4 Credits
  
  
• Spring 2010 - (STS 4751) Science, Race, and Colonialism
  W: 2:30-4:25, 4 Credits                  

Selected Publications

• Crafting the Quantum: Arnold Sommerfeld and the Practice of Theory, 1890-1926.  Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010.
  
  
• Science, Colonialism, Postcolonialism(ed), Special Issue of Postcolonial Studies 12(4) (December, 2009).
  
  
• "The History of Physics After the Cultural Turn," Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, (2011) 41(1): 112-122.
  
  
• "Putting Knowledge in its Place: Science, Colonialism, and the Postcolonial," Postcolonial Studies (2009) 12(4): 373-388.
  
  
• "Zweideutigkeit about 'Zweideutigkeit': Sommerfeld, Pauli, and the Methodological Origins of Quantum Mechanics," Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics (2009) 40(3): 303-315.
  
  
• "Crafting the Quantum: Arnold Sommerfeld and the Older Quantum Theory," Studies in History and Philosophy of Science (2008) 39: 335-348.
  
  
• "Mystik and Technik: Arnold Sommerfeld and Early-Weimar Quantum Theory," Berichte zue Wissenschaftsgeschichte (2008) (31): 331-352.
  
  
• "Crisis and the Construction of Modern Theoretical Physics," British Journal for the History of Science.  (2007) 40(1): pp. 25-51.
  
  
• "Allgemeine Physik? Max Planck und die Gemeinschaft der theoretischen Physik," in Michael Hagner and Manfred Laublichler (eds.), Der Hochsitz des Wissens: Das Allgemeine als wissenschaftlicher Wert.  Berlin: Diaphanes Verlag: (2006) 151-184.
  
  
• "Response to Shaul Katzir: On the Electromagnetic World-View," Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences.  (2005) 36(1): 193-196.