James recently published a new book, Horizons: The Global Origins of Modern Science. Horizons recasts the history of science, uncovering the vital contributions that scientists in Africa, America, Asia, and the Pacific have made to this global story.
James Poskett
Ph.D. CandidateDepartment of History and Philosophy of ScienceUniversity of Cambridge
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Research Fellow
Printing skulls: the transatlantic publication and reception of Crania Americana (1839)
Abstract: My project will explore how transatlantic connections shaped both the publication and the reception of Samuel George Morton’s Crania Americana (1839). In this book, Morton divides man into four races before linking these races to skull configuration. Morton’s work was extremely influential across the USA and Europe in the nineteenth century. As a central text in the history of scientific racism, it also remains controversial today. However, there have been no histories which consider the relevance of Morton’s extensive correspondence with physicians and phrenologists in Britain. Furthermore, there have been no studies which consider how Morton managed the reception of Crania Americana across the Atlantic Ocean, in Britain and Continental Europe. By consulting sources at the American Philosophical Society, the University of Pennsylvania, the Academy of Natural Sciences and the College of Physicians, I will be able to balance the picture I have produced from my research in British archives. Read James' report on his PACHS-sponsored research here.
Updates
James Poskett
James Poskett
James published Materials of the Mind: Phrenology, Race, and the Global History of Science, 1815-1920 with University of Chicago Press.
James Poskett
Congratulations to James Poskett, who has been appointed Assistant Professor in the History of Science and Technology at the University of Warwick, starting September 2017.
James Poskett
Poskett has won the Adrian Research Fellowship in "Darwin and the Humanities" at Darwin College, UK, starting in October 2015. Poskett's article on the transatlantic publication and reception of "Crania Americana" (1839) was recently accepted for publication with History of Science.
James Poskett
Poskett has won the Adrian Research Fellowship in "Darwin and the Humanities" at Darwin College, UK, starting in October 2015. Poskett's article on the transatlantic publication and reception of "Crania Americana" (1839) was recently accepted for publication with History of Science.