Asif A. Siddiqi
Assistant Professor
Dept. of History
Fordham University
(NOTE: A more detailed bio is here. This is the short version).
INTERESTS
• modern Russian history
• history of science and technology
• postcolonial science
• popular music
His current research focuses on the relationship between technology and nationalism, particularly the ways in which discourses of science and technology are deployed in support of national and nationalist claims. In such claims, the nebulous boundaries between 'indigenous' and 'appropriated' knowledge are replaced by 'harder' boundaries that simplify very complex flows of expertise across communities, cultures, nations, and time.
He is also interested in the relationship between science & technology and 'repression.' Using the Soviet case as a starting point, he is interested in exploring the historical role of repression (coercion, arrest, incarceration, execution) in the practice of science and engineering in the twentieth century.
COURSES TAUGHT
• The West: From the Enlightenment to the Present
• Technology and Society in the Modern World
• Technology and Empire (graduate-level)
• Honors Contemporary History (Modern Europe)
• The Cold War Space Race
• Teaching Modern Europe (graduate-level)
• Freshman Honors (Modern Europe)
PUBLICATIONS
Dr. Siddiqi is currently finishing a book on the social, cultural, and technological roots of Soviet 'cosmonautics.' The book is entitled The Red Rockets' Glare: Soviet Imaginations and the Birth of Sputnik (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming). Based on extensive archival research in Russia, the book is the first academic work on the historical factors that led to the launch of Sputnik in 1957.
He is also the author of the two-volume
• Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge and The Soviet Space Race with Apollo
both published simultaneously by the University Press of Florida in 2003. These volumes, dealing primarily with events during the Cold War, were the first histories of the Soviet space program based on Russian sources available after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Originally published as a single volume:
• Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945-1974
the book has received numerous national awards. In their December 30, 2006 issue, the Wall Street Journal named it one of the five best books ever published on space exploration.
Dr. Siddiqi is also serving as Series Editor of the four-volume English language memoirs of a Russian rocket scientist, Boris Chertok. These volumes are being published under the general title
• Rockets and People.
So far, two volumes have been published, Vol. 1 (NASA History Division, 2005) and Vol. 2: Creating a Rocket Industry (NASA History Division, 2006).
He has also published widely on the history of technology and modern Russian history, including in the following journals:
• Technology and Culture
• Osiris
• History and Technology
• Europe-Asia Studies
• Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki
• Journal of the British Interplanetary Society
• Spaceflight
• Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly
His website full of arcane information on Russian space exploration is here.
FUTURE PROJECTS
• a history of science and engineering in the Stalinist Gulag
• a history of the Indian space program
• a history of the role of technology in rock'n'roll music
OTHER
Dr. Siddiqi is also writing an autobiographical work on the history of punk, post-punk, and indie pop music. His favorite album of all time is Fun House by the Stooges.
His pop culture site (infrequently updated) is here.
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