Adrian Johns
Curriculum
Vitae
Personal
Details
Full name Adrian Dominic Sinclair Johns
Date of birth 19 October 1965
Nationality British
Address Department of History
University of Chicago
1126 E. 59th Street
IL 60637
Telephone: 773 363 3324 (h); 773 834 7571 (o)
E-mail: johns@uchicago.edu
Present Appointment
Professor
Department of History
University of Chicago
Chair
Committee on Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science
Current projects
Piracy: Creativity, commerce and crime from the invention of print to the Internet. Manuscript submitted to U. Chicago Press in early summer 2007, and currently being read by referees.
Death of a pirate: murder and a media revolution. A book about a shooting in 1960s Britain that brought to a head the challenge of pirate stations to the public radio broadcasting monopoly. The book examines the politics of broadcasting and public authority that lay behind the incident. It outlines the role of pirate media in the emergence of neoliberalism, and traces connections to today’s digital piracy. The manuscript is roughly half complete.
Pharmacopoeias: print, authenticity, and modernity. A project now in its early stages on half a millennium of efforts to police the identity of substances (medicaments, foods, colors, etc.) by deploying the power of print. The hypothesis is that pharmacopoeias, the genre of works that sought to guarantee substances by fixing their formulae in print, pose a fundamental problem about modernity itself. They have never really worked, except through the mediation of powerful but inscrutable policing practices. Their history enables us to see both where the power of print really resides and how the stability of both texts and substances came to be taken for granted in modern society.
Mr Smith goes to Tokyo. A project, also in its early stages, on Erasmus Peshine Smith. Smith was an American political economist, lawyer, and (at one point) natural scientist who was recruited by the Meiji Emperor of Japan to become his advisor on trade and foreign affairs in the 1870s. Living in the imperial quarters at a time when other Westerners were largely restricted to Yokohama, Smith had unique access to the emperor’s household, and seems to have used it to advise policies in radical opposition to those preferred by Washington and London. The result was a scandal with repercussions that extended to the bases of colonialism, the slave trade, and economic liberalism. Smith’s private papers have survived unseen, and I hope to use them to tell this story for the first time.
Publications
Books
The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the Making.
Papers
and Journals
i. Published
“Coleman
Street.”
“Truth and malicious falsehood.” Nature 451 (February 28, 2008), 1058-60.
“The identity engine: printing and publishing at the
beginning of the knowledge economy.” In
L. Roberts, S. Schaffer and P. Dear (eds.), The
mindful hand: inquiry and invention from the late Renaissance to early industrialisation
(
“Coffeehouses and print shops.” The
Cambridge History of Science, III: Early Modern Science (ed. L. Daston and
K. Park.
“Intellectual property and the nature of science.” Cultural Studies 20 (2006), 145-64; online here.
Arts of Transmission. Special issue of Critical Inquiry, 31:1 (Autumn 2004), edited by J. Chandler, A. Davidson, and A. Johns.
“Foreword.”
In W.J. Ong, S.J., Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue: From the Art of
Discourse to the Art of Reason (
“
“Print and
Public Science.” The
“Science and the
Book.” The
“The Ambivalence
of Authorship in early Modern Natural Philosophy,” in M. Biagioli and P.
Galison (eds.), Scientific Authorship: Credit and Intellectual Property in
Science (
“How to acknowledge a revolution.” American Historical Review 107 (2002), 106-25 (part of an invited “Forum” with Elizabeth Eisenstein and Anthony Grafton).
“Pop music pirate hunters,” Daedalus 131:2 (Spring 2002), 67-77.
“Printing,
Publishing and Reading in London, 1660-1720.” P. O’Brien (ed.), Urban Achievement
in Early Modern
“The Past,
Present, and Future of the Scientific Book.” N. Jardine and M.
Frasca-Spada (eds.), Books and the Sciences in History (
“The Physiology
of Reading.” N. Jardine and M. Frasca-Spada (eds.), Books and the
Sciences in History (
“Miscellaneous
Methods: Authors, Societies and Journals in Early Modern
“Identity, Practice, and Trust in Early Modern Natural Philosophy.” Historical Journal 42 (1999), 1125-45.
“Science and the Book in Modern Cultural Historiography.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 29 (1998), 167-94.
“Prudence and Pedantry in Early Modern Cosmology: The Trade of Al Ross.” History of Science 35 (1997), 23-59.
“Flamsteed’s Optics and the Identity of the Astronomical Observer.” In F. Willmoth (ed.), Flamsteed’s Stars (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 1997), 77-106.
“Natural History
as Print Culture.” In
“The Physiology
of Reading and the Anatomy of Enthusiasm.” In A. Cunningham, O. Grell
(eds.), Religio Medici: Religion and Medicine in Seventeenth Century
“The Physiology
of Reading in Restoration England.” In J. Raven, H. Small, N. Tadmor
(eds.), The Practice and Representation of
“The Ideal of Scientific Collaboration: The ‘Man of Science’ and the Diffusion of Knowledge.” In H. Bots, F. Waquet (eds.), Commercium Litterarium: La Communication dans la République des Lettres, 1600-1750 (Amsterdam: APA-Holland University Press, 1994), 3-22.
“History of Science and the History of the Book.” In S.
Cavaciocchi (ed.), Produzione e Commercio della Carta e
“History, Science and the History of the Book: the Making of Natural Philosophy
in Early Modern
ii. In press and forthcoming
“Changes in the World of Publishing.” The New Cambridge History of English Literature: The Romantic Period, ed. J. Chandler (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). In press.
“The property police.” In M. Biagioli, P. Jaszi, and M. Woodmansee (eds.), Contexts of invention. Forthcoming.
“Ink.” In E. Spary (ed.), Materials and material knowledge (MIT Press). Forthcoming.
“Intellectual property.” In N. Thrift, A. Tickell, and S. Woolgar (eds.), Globalization in practice (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Forthcoming.
“Piracy as a business force: modern media and the ideology of anti-monopolism,” Culture machine, in press.
“The piratical enlightenment.” In W. Warner and C. Siskin (eds.), Mediating Enlightenment (Chicago: University of Chicago Press). Forthcoming.
iii. Short pieces
“Printing as a Medium.” International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences (26 vols. New York: Elsevier, 2001), 12050-12055.
“The Birth of Scientific Reading.” Nature 409:6818 (January 2001), 287.
“Printing:
Invention of, Europe.” D. Jones (ed.), Censorship (4 vols.
“Print, Piracy, and the History of Reading.” Inside Borders magazine, October 1998.
Book reviews for Annals of Science, British Journal for the
History of Science, German History, History,
Contributor to the Dictionary of National Biography, New Dictionary of National Biography, Encyclopaedia of the Scientific Revolution (Routledge, 2000), and Reader’s Guide to the History of Science (Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001).
Multimedia
2000 Software installation demonstrating the use Peter Apian’s Astronomicum Caesareum (1540) for the Huntington Library’s Star Struck exhibition on the history of astronomy.
1998-2003 Project design and pilot modules for “The Universal Laboratory,” a multimedia initiative in the history and sociology of the sciences (funded by NEH as Microcosmos).
Previous Appointments
2000-01 Associate Professor
Division of Humanities and Social Sciences
Caltech
Pasadena CA 91125
1998-2000 Professor (formerly Assistant Professor) of Sociology
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093.
1996-8 Senior Research Fellow in History
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena
CA 91125.
1994-6 Lecturer [»Assistant Professor] in History of Science
Centre for History & Cultural Studies of Science
School of History
University of Kent
Canterbury, UK.
1991-4 Research Fellow
Downing College
Cambridge, UK.
1990-1 Munby Fellow
University Library
Cambridge, UK.
Teaching
2001-8 University of Chicago
“Early modern Britain.”
“Historiography.”
“Introduction to science studies” (with J. Evans).
“Natural Philosophy 1200-1800.”
“Piracy and intellectual property.”
“Science, Culture, and Society.”
“The book in early modern Europe.”
“Favorite readings in the history of science” (with R.J. Richards, A. Winter).
2000- Caltech “Early Modern Europe.”
2001 “Intellectual Property and Piracy from Gutenberg to Gates.”
“Science and Society.”
1999- UCSD “Introduction to Science Studies” (Graduate: co-taught with Prof. G. Doppelt).
2000 “Science and Society” (Introductory course to new minor in science and society).
“Sociology of Technology.”
“Humanities 2: Rome, Christianity, and the Middle Ages.”
1998-9 UCSD “Media and Society from the Book to the Internet.”
“Introduction to Science Studies” (Graduate: co-taught with Prof. Naomi Oreskes).
“Sociology of Technology.”
1997-8 California Institute of Technology:
“British History 1500-1700” (Advanced level course; part one of a new three-course
sequence in British history).
“The Scientific Revolution” (Advanced level course; with Dr. K. Knox).
“Scientific Communication” (Advanced level course).
“Early Modern Europe” (Freshman level course).
Tutor in TIDE (a pedagogic initiative in multimedia).
1996-7 California Institute of Technology:
“The History of the Book” (Advanced level course).
“The Scientific Revolution” (Advanced level course).
“Early Modern Europe” (Freshman level course).
1995-6 University of Kent:
Convenor, new MA program: “Writing the History of Science.”
Convenor, new Part II course: “The Making of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe.”
Convenor, Part I course: “Development of the Social Sciences.”
Lecturer, new Part I course: “The History of the Book.”
Seminar Leader, Part I course: “Introduction to Literature and Science.”
Tutorial Co-ordinator, School of History (with responsibility for progress of all students in years 2 and 3 of a 3-year degree program).
University of Cambridge:
Part II course: “Magic in Renaissance and Early Modern Europe.” (Invited lectures.)
1994-5 University of Kent:
Lecturer and seminar leader, Part I course: “Development of the Social Sciences.”
Seminar leader, Part I course: “Introduction to Literature and Science.”
University of Cambridge:
Part II course: “Magic in Renaissance and Early Modern Europe.” (Invited lectures.)
1993-4 University of Cambridge:
M.Phil. in History and Philosophy of Science: supervision and assessment.
Part II course: “Natural Philosophy in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, c.500-1600.”
Part II course: “Natural Philosophy and the History of the Book, c.1450-1850.”
Part II course (Faculty of Modern History): “Social and Natural Order in Early Modern England.”
Acting Director
of Studies in History,
1992-3 University of Cambridge:
M.Phil. in History and Philosophy of Science: supervision and assessment.
Part II course: “Natural Magic in Early Modern Europe.”
1989-90 University of Cambridge, Department of Extra-Mural Studies:
“British Science, 1650-1980” (with others).
1987-94 University of Cambridge:
Supervision:
Scientific Ideas and Practice from Antiquity to the Renaissance.
The Scientific Revolution: Renaissance to Enlightenment.
History of Science since the Enlightenment.
Awards
2005 National Science Foundation sabbatical award.
2001 American Philosophical Society sabbatical award.
1999 Leo Gershoy Award, American Historical Association.
1999 John Ben Snow Prize, North American Conference on British Studies.
1999 Louis Gottschalk Prize, American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.
SHARP Prize (for best book on the history of authorship, reading, and publishing).
1999 Research grant, Commmittee on Research, University of California.
1996-7 Various research and travel funds from Caltech.
1987-93 Various research grants from
Downing and
1987-90 British Academy Major Studentship, Cambridge University.
1988
1987 Bronowski Prize for best dissertation in the history of science, Cambridge University.
1987 Bacon Prize, Corpus Christi College,
1985
1985 Bacon Prize, Corpus Christi College,
Service
Within UC
Chair, Fellowships and placement committee, Department of History (2007- )
Chair, CHSS (2001- )
Chair of the Board of University Publications, University of
Chair, Search committee in British History (2006-07)
Divisional dissertation prize committee (2008)
Member, University Committee on Intellectual Property (July 1, 2007- )
Member, committee to appraise the undergraduate program in
Member, Fellowships Committee, Department of History (2003-6)
Member, Search committee in Latin American history (2004-05)
Organizer (with Richard Epstein, UC Law School): Cultural Policy Workshop series, 2004, on Intellectual Property
Beyond UC (selected)
Program chair for History of Science Society annual meeting, 2004 (with
Angela Creager,
Advisory board member, Isis (2003-06)
Referee for submissions to Historical Journal, Canadian Journal of History, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Huntington Quarterly, University of Chicago Press, Harvard University Press, Yale University Press, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Ashgate Press
Referee for proposals submitted to National Science Foundation
Referee for Macarthur Foundation
Referee for CNRS, Paris
Tenure referee for several institutions (not listed here as the process involves anonymity)
Board member, Society for Critical Exchange
PhD. Examiner, University of Sydney, Australia
Committee, ASECS Gottschalk Prize: member, 1999-2000; chair, 2000-01
Education
1987-92 Corpus Christi College, Ph.D. 1992
Cambridge
University,
M.A. (Cantab.) 1990
1984-7 Corpus Christi College, B.A. (Hons.), Natural Sciences 1987
Cambridge
University,
Science): Class I
Conferences and Presentations (2001- )
2007-08 "The authenticity engine." Society for Scholarly Publishing, Boston, MA.
“Pirate principles: information, monopolies, and media in the modern age.” Yale University.
“Pharmaceuticals and the origins of modernity: adulteration, piracy, and credit in the early Enlightenment.” University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
“Babbage and the book: information, modernity, and media at the origin of the knowledge economy.” University of Chicago.
“Death of a Pirate: Murder and Media in the 1960s.” University of Michigan.
“Pirate Listeners and the Political Economy of Broadcasting, 1920-1950.” History of Science Society, Washington, DC.
“Babbage and the Book: Printing in the Creation of an Information Society.” Breslauer Lecture, UCLA.
2006-07 “The open source campaign in Victorian
England.” Mossman Lecture,
“The future of the history of
science.”
“The printing counter-revolution.” Conference on “mediating Enlightenment,” NYU.
“The identity engine: printing and publishing in the development of the knowledge economy.” UC Irvine.
“The identity engine: printing
and publishing in the creation of the knowledge economy.” SHARP conference keynote,
“Inventors,
Schemers, and Men of Science: Intellectual Property and its Enemies in
Victorian England.”
“The politics of patenting and
the nature of science.” HPSS Workshop,
Round table on “Intellectual Property, policy, and public culture.” Society of Fellows, Chicago.
“When All Intellectual Property
was Theft: The Nineteenth-Century Assault on Patenting and Copyright.”
“Science, industry, and empire
in the invention of intellectual property.”
2005 “The Invention of Intellectual Piracy.” NYU.
“Coleman Street.” Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
“Print, medicine, and the culture
of credit in early modern
“Medicine
and the crisis of credit in early modern
“Microcosmos.”
“The great oscillation war: early
broadcasting and the politics of popular experiment.”
“Reading, Discovering, and Knowing.” Keynote address, “Transliteracies” project conference, UCSB.
“Intellectual Property and the nature of science at the onset of the information
age.” ICHS,
2004.
“The land without property.”
"Grub Street Pirates and the Plausibility of Print."
“Piracy, patenting, and progress: Intellectual property and the nature of
science.”
“The last Samurai and the last book.” University of Chicago, Workshop on Science, Technology, Society and the State.
“The end of the history of the book.” Conference on “The survival of Scholarship,” U. of Chicago.
“The nature of Intellectual property in the mid-twentieth century.” Cultural policy workshop, University of Chicago.
-- Organizer, with R. Epstein (Law School), workshop series of the Cultural Policy Workshop, Spring 04.
-- Organizer, with J. Chandler and A. Davidson, “Arts of Transmission,” a large international conference at the Franke Institute, May 04.
“The last Samurai and the last book.” Southern California Center for the Book. UCLA, March 04.
“Irish pirates and the English Market.”
2003. “Death of a pirate.” Northwestern University.
Commentator, plenary session for History of Science Society annual conference, Boston.
“The invention of scientific reading: objectivity and the passions in early modern natural philosophy.” Gipson Lecture, Lehigh University.
“Pirates, experimenters and amateurs.” HPS Workshop, University of Chicago.
Moderator, Society for Critical Exchange annual meeting, Downtown Chicago.
2002.
“The thermodynamics of civilization: print, piracy and the invention of social
science in nineteenth-century
“The times of the signs: History, agency and the nature of print in the early
nineteenth century.”
“The invention of piracy.” University of Chicago/Northwestern University workshop on early modern Britain.
“On the deep history of software piracy.” Franke Institute for the Humanities, University of Chicago.
2001.
“
“Music piracy in Edwardian London.”
“The Birth of Scientific
Reading.”
Plenary lecture, University of Iowa Center for the Book.
Invited session organized, “The social space of publication,” Folger Library.
Invited co-teacher (with Peter Dear), NEH Summer Institute, Folger Library, on experience in early modern Europe.