Asif A. Siddiqi
Assistant Professor
Dept. of History
Fordham University
NOTE: Dr. Siddiqi is on leave in 2008-2009 as a Visiting Scholar at MIT's Program in Science, Technology, and Society
(NOTE: This is the short version. There's a more detailed version available. Please click here)
INTERESTS
• history of science and technology
• modern Russian history
• 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. He is particularly interested in the social and cultural evolution of constructed categories such as "indigenous," "homegrown," "borrowed," "stolen," etc., and how these categories are deployed by invested actors to 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 has been studying the reciprocal relationship between repression (coercion, arrest, incarceration, execution) and the practice of science and engineering since the late 19th century. He is particularly interested in shifting the conversation on Soviet (or as some call it, "Stalinist") science from one about "ideologization" of science to focused study of the varieties of social and institutional phenomena underpinning Soviet science. He hopes to situate (and understand) the practice of science in the Soviet context not as an exception but rather as an outcome of broad social, cultural, and intellectual phenomena prevalent across Europe, and the West in general.
COURSES TAUGHT
Undergraduate
• The West: From the Enlightenment to the Present
• Technology and Society in the Modern World
• Honors Contemporary History (Modern Europe)
• Freshman Honors (Modern Europe)
• The Cold War Space Race
Graduate
• Technology and Empire
• Teaching Modern Europe
• Science and Power in Modern Europe
NEW BOOK
Dr. Siddiqi's new book focuses on the social, cultural, and technological roots of Soviet 'cosmonautics.' The book is entitled The Red Rockets' Glare: Spaceflight and the Soviet Imagination, 1857-1957 (Cambridge University Press, 2010). Based on extensive archival research in Russia, the book is the first academic study that links popular enthusiasm for cosmic ideas with state-sponsored technocratic impulses in the Russian and Soviet context. The book traces the social and cultural roots of Soviet (and Russian) fascination with the cosmos to the 19th century, and argues that ground-up populist social phenomena were as critical as large-scale state-sponsored activity in the creation of Sputnik, one of most well-known success stories of Soviet science.
EARLIER BOOKS
His earlier works included the two-volume
• Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge [link] and The Soviet Space Race with Apollo [link]
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 [link]
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 [link]
So far, three volumes have been published:
Vol. 1 (NASA History Division, 2005)
Vol. 2: Creating a Rocket Industry (NASA History Division, 2006)
Vol. 3: Hot Days of the Cold War (NASA History Division, 2009).
JOURNAL ARTICLES
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 repression under Stalinism (particularly, the sharashka system)
• a history of the origins of the Indian space program
• a study of the reciprocal relationship between authenticity and technology in the history of rock'n'roll
OTHER
Dr. Siddiqi is also writing an autobiographical work on the history of punk, post-punk, and indie pop music.
Depending on his mood, his favorite album of all time is either Fun House by the Stooges or Loveless by My Bloody Valentine.
His pop culture site (infrequently updated) is here.
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