Asif Siddiqi
@historyasif.bsky.social
New Yorker. Historian of Science and Technology. Space. Music. Soviet History. Comics
In my comics class today, I talked about Billy Graham (1935-1997), artist for Black Panther in the early '70s (and the first African-American artist to work for Marvel) who brought some incredible style to the idiom of comic art. #comics #comicshistory
November 11, 2025 at 2:52 AM
In my comics class today, I talked about Billy Graham (1935-1997), artist for Black Panther in the early '70s (and the first African-American artist to work for Marvel) who brought some incredible style to the idiom of comic art. #comics #comicshistory
Tenure-track opening at my institution in the urban history of modern Europe, with a preference for an interest in migration, the environment, and/or cultural diversity in the history of towns and cities in any area of Europe: networks.h-net.org/jobs/69160/f...
Fordham University - Tenure-Track Assistant Professor, Modern Europe: Urban History | H-Net
networks.h-net.org
November 10, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Tenure-track opening at my institution in the urban history of modern Europe, with a preference for an interest in migration, the environment, and/or cultural diversity in the history of towns and cities in any area of Europe: networks.h-net.org/jobs/69160/f...
This is really great, about the NY Times, but about the media in general.
My old pal Pete Coviello — one of the best writers and thinkers I've ever known — wrote the piece of the moment
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani
It’s remarkable, the people you’ll hear from. Teach for even a little while at an expensive institution—the term they tend to prefer is “elite”—and odds are that eventually someone who was a studen…
lithub.com
November 9, 2025 at 4:58 AM
This is really great, about the NY Times, but about the media in general.
Reposted by Asif Siddiqi
Finally got my copy of @historyasif.bsky.social book, Cosmic Fragments. Now time to ruin it with notes and highlights!
November 6, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Finally got my copy of @historyasif.bsky.social book, Cosmic Fragments. Now time to ruin it with notes and highlights!
68 years ago today the dog Laika was launched into orbit, the first living being to break the bonds of gravity. Unfortunately she died soon after. I found the previously classified document on her fate in a Russian archive. Here's what it said about her fate #laika (1/n)
November 4, 2025 at 4:53 AM
68 years ago today the dog Laika was launched into orbit, the first living being to break the bonds of gravity. Unfortunately she died soon after. I found the previously classified document on her fate in a Russian archive. Here's what it said about her fate #laika (1/n)
Reposted by Asif Siddiqi
Gonna talk in entomology class today about how Jewish scientists forced to work in Nazi concentration camps secretly sent fake vaccines to the eastern front and managed to kill 4,000 Nazis with typhus.
Vaccine subterfuge: How vaccine-makers fooled the Nazis from inside a concentration camp lab
Confined first at Auschwitz then Buchenwald, a Jewish microbiologist conspired with a ragtag team of scientists and rebels to send dud typhus vaccines to the German soldiers on the eastern front.
www.gavi.org
October 28, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Gonna talk in entomology class today about how Jewish scientists forced to work in Nazi concentration camps secretly sent fake vaccines to the eastern front and managed to kill 4,000 Nazis with typhus.
Reposted by Asif Siddiqi
Interview: Historian of science Michael Gordin tells us why he and Diana Buchwald felt there was room for another book on Einstein, why fascination with Einstein remains high, and new areas of Einstein research. popsciencebooks.blogspot.com/2025/10/mich... #interview #einstein #historyofscience
Michael Gordin - Five Way Interview
Michael D. Gordin is Rosengarten Professor of Modern and Contemporary History and Dean of the College at Princeton University. A specialist ...
popsciencebooks.blogspot.com
October 28, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Interview: Historian of science Michael Gordin tells us why he and Diana Buchwald felt there was room for another book on Einstein, why fascination with Einstein remains high, and new areas of Einstein research. popsciencebooks.blogspot.com/2025/10/mich... #interview #einstein #historyofscience
No.
Should humans colonise space? We asked five experts – four of whom said no. It’s not just a question of whether humans try to live in space, but also about how we do it. Here are their detailed answers.
via @aunz.theconversation.com 🧪 🔭
via @aunz.theconversation.com 🧪 🔭
Should humans colonise space? We asked 5 experts
Earth is the only home humans have ever known. But that might not be the case for much longer.
theconversation.com
October 26, 2025 at 4:01 AM
No.
Reposted by Asif Siddiqi
Should humans colonise space? We asked five experts – four of whom said no. It’s not just a question of whether humans try to live in space, but also about how we do it. Here are their detailed answers.
via @aunz.theconversation.com 🧪 🔭
via @aunz.theconversation.com 🧪 🔭
Should humans colonise space? We asked 5 experts
Earth is the only home humans have ever known. But that might not be the case for much longer.
theconversation.com
October 25, 2025 at 2:09 AM
Should humans colonise space? We asked five experts – four of whom said no. It’s not just a question of whether humans try to live in space, but also about how we do it. Here are their detailed answers.
via @aunz.theconversation.com 🧪 🔭
via @aunz.theconversation.com 🧪 🔭
Reposted by Asif Siddiqi
October 25, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Reposted by Asif Siddiqi
It is impossible to imagine people allowing this to go on (or even participating in it within the government) if he was ordering the murder without any process of French citizens or Brits or Australians on boats no matter what they were alleged to be doing.
Trump: "I don't think we're necessarily going to ask for a declaration of war, I think we're just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. We're going to kill them. They're going to be, like dead."
October 23, 2025 at 9:49 PM
It is impossible to imagine people allowing this to go on (or even participating in it within the government) if he was ordering the murder without any process of French citizens or Brits or Australians on boats no matter what they were alleged to be doing.
Reposted by Asif Siddiqi
Ilyas Chattha's *Citizens to Traitors: Bengali Internment in Pakistan, 1971-1974* (Cambridge UP, 2025) is one the most important books for contemporary subcontinental history in the last 15 years.
October 23, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Ilyas Chattha's *Citizens to Traitors: Bengali Internment in Pakistan, 1971-1974* (Cambridge UP, 2025) is one the most important books for contemporary subcontinental history in the last 15 years.
Reposted by Asif Siddiqi
India's denial of entry to Prof Francesca Orsini is another marker in the grave threats to academic freedom globally.
Globally Renowned Scholar of Hindi Deported from Delhi Airport Despite Valid Visa
Francesa Orsini is perhaps the fourth foreign scholar with a valid visa to be denied entry in recent years.
thewire.in
October 21, 2025 at 1:00 AM
India's denial of entry to Prof Francesca Orsini is another marker in the grave threats to academic freedom globally.
This is absolutely the way to go. I used to have a no laptops policy but relented this semester. Total mistake. Never again. I also stopped using Blackboard/Canvas years ago. And with AI, have moved most fully to hand-written in-class testing which has been surprisingly refreshing.
Fellow academics, I'm doing it. Going all in. Pulling the plug, literally.
This is on my syllabus for Spring 2026: "This is an analog class. No Canvas; this syllabus is your guide."
All readings are printed books; hand-written exams; no laptops. #academicbluesky #Highered #academia #Rutgers
This is on my syllabus for Spring 2026: "This is an analog class. No Canvas; this syllabus is your guide."
All readings are printed books; hand-written exams; no laptops. #academicbluesky #Highered #academia #Rutgers
October 21, 2025 at 10:33 PM
This is absolutely the way to go. I used to have a no laptops policy but relented this semester. Total mistake. Never again. I also stopped using Blackboard/Canvas years ago. And with AI, have moved most fully to hand-written in-class testing which has been surprisingly refreshing.
Reposted by Asif Siddiqi
This week we welcome Prof. Steven Shapin to the pod!🎙️
We explore his journey through interdisciplinary spaces, revisit Leviathan and the Air-Pump 40 years on, and explore how credibility, trust and expertise are shaped by the fragmentation of expertise and (recent) political & cultural challenges
We explore his journey through interdisciplinary spaces, revisit Leviathan and the Air-Pump 40 years on, and explore how credibility, trust and expertise are shaped by the fragmentation of expertise and (recent) political & cultural challenges
S5 E11 - Steven Shapin on the Social Life of Scientific Knowledge
Podcast Episode · The HPS Podcast - Conversations from History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science · 19/10/2025 · 50m
podcasts.apple.com
October 19, 2025 at 10:25 AM
This week we welcome Prof. Steven Shapin to the pod!🎙️
We explore his journey through interdisciplinary spaces, revisit Leviathan and the Air-Pump 40 years on, and explore how credibility, trust and expertise are shaped by the fragmentation of expertise and (recent) political & cultural challenges
We explore his journey through interdisciplinary spaces, revisit Leviathan and the Air-Pump 40 years on, and explore how credibility, trust and expertise are shaped by the fragmentation of expertise and (recent) political & cultural challenges
Discussing 'Days of Future Past' (1981) in class tomorrow. Grim stuff about a genocide and a valiant battle to restore a different timeline (although the ending is a bit patchy). Looking forward to talking about Chris Claremont and John Byrne's flawed masterpiece. #x-men #daysoffuturepast
October 20, 2025 at 3:27 AM
Discussing 'Days of Future Past' (1981) in class tomorrow. Grim stuff about a genocide and a valiant battle to restore a different timeline (although the ending is a bit patchy). Looking forward to talking about Chris Claremont and John Byrne's flawed masterpiece. #x-men #daysoffuturepast
Definitely a lot of let's-critique-the-string-quartet-on-the-sinking-Titanic vibes on bluesky these days.
October 16, 2025 at 2:38 AM
Definitely a lot of let's-critique-the-string-quartet-on-the-sinking-Titanic vibes on bluesky these days.
Cool exhibit upcoming at Cooper Hewitt here in NYC (from December 12) on 'Art of Noise', tracing the intersection between music technology and design.
www.cooperhewitt.org/2025/09/10/a...
www.cooperhewitt.org/2025/09/10/a...
“Art of Noise” Exhibition Tracing History of Music and Design to Open at Cooper Hewitt | Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
This December, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum will present “Art of Noise,” an exhibition celebrating the groundbreaking designs that have shaped how people experience music over the past cen...
www.cooperhewitt.org
October 12, 2025 at 4:18 AM
Cool exhibit upcoming at Cooper Hewitt here in NYC (from December 12) on 'Art of Noise', tracing the intersection between music technology and design.
www.cooperhewitt.org/2025/09/10/a...
www.cooperhewitt.org/2025/09/10/a...
Reposted by Asif Siddiqi
“F**k ICE forever.”
— Chappell Roan at her show in Pasadena
— Chappell Roan at her show in Pasadena
October 11, 2025 at 8:42 PM
“F**k ICE forever.”
— Chappell Roan at her show in Pasadena
— Chappell Roan at her show in Pasadena
Reposted by Asif Siddiqi
For more on the creation of Sputnik, see this collection of declassified and translated Russian documents:
Sputnik was 66 years ago today. I curated a set of about a dozen original Soviet archival sources (translated!) on the origins of the world's first satellite, hosted by The Wilson Center in Washington, DC: www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/ne... #histsci #histtech
New Sources on Sputnik
Documents added to DigitalArchive.org provide a look at the origins of Sputnik, the first Soviet satellite.
www.wilsoncenter.org
October 4, 2025 at 2:51 PM
For more on the creation of Sputnik, see this collection of declassified and translated Russian documents:
Reposted by Asif Siddiqi
job alert:
My department is now running a search to fill a newly inaugurated endowed chair in the History of Technology. Please consider applying/share widely. I'm not on the committee, but happy to answer questions or connect you with those who are.
Details here: recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09897
My department is now running a search to fill a newly inaugurated endowed chair in the History of Technology. Please consider applying/share widely. I'm not on the committee, but happy to answer questions or connect you with those who are.
Details here: recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09897
September 26, 2025 at 7:01 PM
job alert:
My department is now running a search to fill a newly inaugurated endowed chair in the History of Technology. Please consider applying/share widely. I'm not on the committee, but happy to answer questions or connect you with those who are.
Details here: recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09897
My department is now running a search to fill a newly inaugurated endowed chair in the History of Technology. Please consider applying/share widely. I'm not on the committee, but happy to answer questions or connect you with those who are.
Details here: recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09897
This is an absolute travesty. @durba.bsky.social is an absolutely brilliant scholar, writer, teacher, academic. Harvard is lucky that they can claim any connection to her work. In doing this, Harvard is making itself a fucking joke.
Everyone in academia should read this piece about our dear, brilliant colleague @durba.bsky.social
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
A Surprise Tenure Denial in Harvard’s Gender Studies Program Leaves Some Faculty Shaken | News | The Harvard Crimson
Durba Mitra’s colleagues thought she was a near-perfect tenure candidate. When her bid was shot down in June, they were left questioning the process.
www.thecrimson.com
September 23, 2025 at 3:34 AM
This is an absolute travesty. @durba.bsky.social is an absolutely brilliant scholar, writer, teacher, academic. Harvard is lucky that they can claim any connection to her work. In doing this, Harvard is making itself a fucking joke.
Reposted by Asif Siddiqi
Me leaving any party
"I just want to say, go birds, fuck ICE and free Palestine," "Hacks" star Hannah Einbinder at the #Emmys
September 15, 2025 at 2:27 AM
Me leaving any party