History of Science, Technology, and Medicine

John N. Alekna (雷震)

John Alekna is Assistant Professor of the History of Science at Peking University. His research focuses on information, technology, and the emergence of modernity in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Asia. Wider interests include the global history of science, Chinese intellectual history, and the history of empire. His first book Seeking News, Making China was published by Stanford University Press in 2024. He is currently working on a biography of a Qing period scientist-turned-explorer who led an 1879 expedition across the Himalayas into India. He welcomes students interested in related aspects of Chinese and global history.

EDUCATION

 

Ph.D.       PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, Princeton, New Jersey                             June 2020

• Department of History

 

M.Phil.    UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, Oxford, United Kingdom                        July 2014

• Master of Philosophy in Modern Chinese Studies (with Distinction)

 

A.B.        DARTMOUTH COLLEGE, Hanover, New Hampshire                          June 2010

• Bachelor of Arts in Chinese Studies and Government (Double Major)

BOOK PROJECTS

 

Seeking News, Making China: Information, Technology, and the Emergence of Mass Society. (Stanford University Press, March 2024)

What is it like to live through a news revolution? What is the relationship between technological and political development? How can we theorize these interrelated phenomena? Tackling large questions through an analysis of the everyday experience of news in social and material context, the book traces changes in the ‘newsscape’ over the long-durée, revealing a complex technopolitical process outside of established developmental narratives.

 

Bird Paths: Science and Exploration in China’s Great Game 1842-1885. (in process)

A global history of science, exploration, and empire centered on the life and travels of one late-Qing mathematician -scientist, this project pays close attention to how people mobilized knowledge in the race for empire. A three-year grant from Peking University under the title China and the Global Struggle for Science in the 19th Century《中国与 19 世 纪的全球科学之争》has supported the research and initial writing of this manuscript.

 

Historical Logic, Illustrated: An Introduction to Thinking and Speaking about the World in a Western Classroom (in process)

What does it mean to think historically? What are the logics and premises of the way we think about human societies in fields a varied as economics, history, anthropology, or sociology? Based on my experience teaching ab initio humanities students, this illustrated bilingual handbook aims to outline the principles of critical thinking.

 

The Spirit of Science: The Global History of a Concept Shaping Modern China (research stage)

The spirit of science is an objective, ahistorical, and apolitical force, a source of redemption for the nation. This spirit drives political, technological, and economic development; only its absence can hold the country back. Such is the message of a vast body of Chinese propaganda. Where did this idea come from? How did a Hegelian and Positivist philosophy from the nineteenth century come to dominate the twenty-first? What are its implications?

 

       PUBLICATIONS

 

“Neither Nation nor Empire: Situating Shanghai Radio in the Global Technological Moment, 1922-1925.” Technology and Culture. (October 2022)

 

“Notes from Enlightenment Studio: The Circulation of Scientific Knowledge in Nineteenth-Century China,” under review at the journal East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine as of Spring 2024.

 

“Ernest George Hayward Osborn (1891-1957): Radio Pioneer in East Asia.” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK. (2018)

 

 

Courses Taught

 

PEKING UNIVERSITY: Instructor of Record

 

·         The History and Philosophy of Science  

·         The History of Chinese Science, Technology, and Medicine in the Western Tradition

·         Historical Research Methods

·         Communications as Material, Theory, and Practice  

 

MAJOR FELLOWSHIPS & AWARDS

 

FALL 2023   RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, CLARE HALL,  CAMBRIDGE U., Cambridge, UK

 

FALL 2023      LI FAMILY FELLOW, NEEDHAM RESEARCH INSTITUTE, Cambridge, UK

 

2021-2023       PKU ACADEMIC RESEARCH PROJECT GRANT, Beijing, China

 

2017-2018       FULBRIGHT RESEARCH FELLOW, Beijing, China

 

2017-2018       CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, VISITING SCHOLAR, Beijing, China

 

2016-2017       BLAKEMORE-FREEMAN FELLOW, Taipei, Republic of China

 

2014-2016       UNIVERSITY FELLOWSHIP, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey