Victor Seow
@eastasiascitech.bsky.social
3.5K followers 2.1K following 290 posts
Historian of technology, science, and industry @ Harvard. Author of CARBON TECHNOCRACY. Currently writing a history of industrial psychology in China. More about my work here: https://scholar.harvard.edu/seow
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eastasiascitech.bsky.social
CARBON TECHNOCRACY explores the origins and challenges of our unfolding climate crisis by focusing on how modern states became embroiled in projects of intensive energy extraction. It does this through the history of the Fushun colliery in southern Manchuria, ...

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Map of major mines and railway lines in East Asia, ca. 1935. Fushun is marked out in red on the map itself and on the inset.
Reposted by Victor Seow
yangyangcheng.bsky.social
Who becomes a scientist, what kind of work does she do, and why? Generations of women in China have explored these questions. For @madeinchinajournal.com, I trace their stories and the different answers their struggles and achievements reveal—on the purpose of science and the meaning of womanhood.
Beyond Representation: On Being a Woman in Science in China | Made in China Journal
In the autumn of 1995, Ye Shuhua made a speech. During the NGO Forum at the United Nation’s Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, the 68-year-old astronomer took to the microphone and cal...
madeinchinajournal.com
eastasiascitech.bsky.social
How might rethinking AI as an “emotional technology” transform our understanding of control, resistance, and the politics of feeling? 🤖 ❤️

Come join the Harvard S&T in Asia series for this talk by the remarkable Silvia Lindtner @yunnia.bsky.social!

seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia

#histstm #sts
Reposted by Victor Seow
robinsonmeyer.bsky.social
We have a fantastic new essay on China’s new climate pledge by @jeremywallace.bsky.social at @heatmap.news this morning. He argues the country’s indecision about its green future is more than just an environmental disappointment — it is a serious governing mistake.

heatmap.news/ideas/china-...
China Can’t Decide if It Wants to Be the World’s First “Electrostate”
The country’s underwhelming new climate pledge is more than just bad news for the world — it reveals a serious governing mistake.
heatmap.news
Reposted by Victor Seow
eastasiascitech.bsky.social
How did Korean firms like Hanjin carry containerization from Vietnam’s Cam Ranh & Qui Nhon to Busan, transforming ports & unsettling U.S. contractors like Lusteveco? 🚢

John DiMoia @ Harvard #STinAsia, Tue Oct 14, 10:30 ET

Zoom registration: seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia

#histstm #histtech 🧪
Reposted by Victor Seow
dfeds.bsky.social
So much gold to be mined from the diary of Harada Ryōji 原田良次, a maintenance tech in a Chiba-based aerial interception unit tasked with defending Tokyo's skies

His entries are scribbled in the margins of a book 👇 - in part due to paper shortages, in part to keep record on the sly

A few stand-outs:
Reposted by Victor Seow
yangyangcheng.bsky.social
For @npr.org, I review Lou Ye's acclaimed Covid movie "An Unfinished Film," its courage in venturing into the forbidden, and limitations in what it seems unable or unwilling to confront. The Chinese people deserve better, more honest stories. The work remains unfinished.
www.npr.org/2025/10/04/g...
eastasiascitech.bsky.social
How did Korean firms like Hanjin carry containerization from Vietnam’s Cam Ranh & Qui Nhon to Busan, transforming ports & unsettling U.S. contractors like Lusteveco? 🚢

John DiMoia @ Harvard #STinAsia, Tue Oct 14, 10:30 ET

Zoom registration: seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia

#histstm #histtech 🧪
eastasiascitech.bsky.social
From wartime packaging to microbial foodways, Aya Kimura's Harvard S&T in Asia talk on tsukemono earlier this week was a delight. Don't miss her forthcoming book, "Fermenting for the Future" (UC Press, spring 2026)!

seow.scholar.harvard.edu/STinAsia

#histstm #sts #envhum 🧪
eastasiascitech.bsky.social
How might Japanese pickles help us critically reflect on modern antibiotic relations?

Please join the Harvard S&T in Asia online seminar series for this talk by Aya Kimura!

📅 Tue, Sep 30
🕥 10:30–11:45 am EST

Registration: seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia

#histstm #sts #histsci #envhum 🧪
A promotional slide for the Science and Technology in Asia Fall 2025 online seminar series at Harvard University. It announces Aya H. Kimura’s talk, “Tsukemono and the Anthropocene in Your Gut: Emplacement, Awai, and the Apertures of Micropolitical Analysis,” scheduled for Tuesday, September 30, 10:30–11:45 ET. The slide includes the Harvard Department of the History of Science and Asia Center logos, with text noting the seminar convenor Victor Seow and a registration link (https://seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia).
eastasiascitech.bsky.social
Kicked off our fall 2025 Harvard #STinAsia online seminar series yesterday w/ Jiraporn Laochaoroenwong. Learned lots about the ways that animal value is reworked at the Myanmar–Thailand border. 🐄 Thanks, Jiraporn!

seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia

#histstm #sts #envhum #envhist
Reposted by Victor Seow
scarcerc.bsky.social
🚨Don't miss our workshop "Political Economies of Mining in the Early Modern World" @univie.ac.at organised by @eclaaire.bsky.social and @gbba.bsky.social.
📅 25–26 September 2025
!Please register!
📃 Program & info: bit.ly/4pslQfs
#Scarce #histsci #histeco #mining
Political Economies of Mining in the Early Modern World
Workshop Organizers: Claire Sabel and Gabriele Marcon University of Vienna September 25-26, 2025
bit.ly
eastasiascitech.bsky.social
Reminder 📢

Please join the Harvard S&T in Asia online seminar series in a few hours (10:30 am ET) for Jiraporn Laochaoroenwong's talk on making "square oxen" across the Myanmar–Thailand border.

Zoom registration here: seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia

#histstm #sts #envhum #envhist #histsci
Reposted by Victor Seow
eastasiascitech.bsky.social
How might border bureaucracies, animal care, and chemical interventions transform worn-out drought cattle into export-ready "square oxen"?

Find out at this upcoming Harvard S&T in Asia online seminar series talk

📅 Tue, Sep 23
🕥 10:30–11:45 EST
📌 Zoom

seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia

#histstm 🧪
Poster for talk by Jiaporn Laochaoroenwong in the Harvard Science and Technology in Asia online seminar series on Tuesday, September 23, 10:30 am Eastern Time
Reposted by Victor Seow
justcode.bsky.social
Talk tomorrow on history, power, & ironies & paradoxes of rhetorical & infrastructural appropriations of AI. #histsci
Flyer of talk w headshot
eastasiascitech.bsky.social
How might border bureaucracies, animal care, and chemical interventions transform worn-out drought cattle into export-ready "square oxen"?

Find out at this upcoming Harvard S&T in Asia online seminar series talk

📅 Tue, Sep 23
🕥 10:30–11:45 EST
📌 Zoom

seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia

#histstm 🧪
Poster for talk by Jiaporn Laochaoroenwong in the Harvard Science and Technology in Asia online seminar series on Tuesday, September 23, 10:30 am Eastern Time
Reposted by Victor Seow
bhgross144.bsky.social
Exciting news from my colleagues @sciencehistory.org! This archive documents the early history of #MolecularBiology & efforts to determine the structure of #DNA.

@matthewcobb.bsky.social provides an overview of its contents & significance in the thread below.

#histSTM #histsci #histbio #Molbio 🗃️📜🧬
matthewcobb.bsky.social
News in the history of molecular biology. The Science History Institute in Philadelphia has acquired a huge archive of correspondence and other scientific material from the pioneers of molecular biology (Franklin, Klug, Perutz, Delbrück etc, with items from Crick and Watson, too). 1/n
History of Molecular Biology Collection
This unparalleled collection includes Rosalind Franklin's historic 'Photo 51,' which revealed the double-helix structure of DNA.
www.sciencehistory.org
Reposted by Victor Seow
historyecon.bsky.social
There is a new essay on the 1800 Histories website: Mariia Koskina’s micro-history of Novotroitsk, a Soviet steel town in the Urals. A ‘monotown’ where fixation on heavy industry & outdated tech left the region polluted and residents facing uncertain futures.
histecon.fas.harvard.edu/1800_histori...
1800 Histories
NOVOTROITSK: THE ACHING BACKBONE OF RUSSIA by Mariia Koskina
histecon.fas.harvard.edu
Reposted by Victor Seow
bhgross144.bsky.social
Welcome to Bluesky, @ishpssb.bsky.social!

(Boosting the signal for #histSTM friends, especially those interested in the history & philosophy of #biology...)

#histbio #histmed
#philsci #philbio 🗃️🧬
ishpssb.bsky.social
We’re excited to launch the official BlueSky profile of ISHPSSB! Founded in 1998, we connect researchers in philosophy, history, and social studies of biology and medicine worldwide. Follow us for updates and events! #PhilosophyOfBiology, #HistoryOfScience, #STS, #Biology, #Medicine
eastasiascitech.bsky.social
The Harvard S&T in Asia online seminar series is back!

This fall features talks from affect and control in Chinese AI to American forestry in Cold War Taiwan.

We meet on Zoom on the Tuesdays listed, 10:30–11:45 am ET.

Registration: seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia

#histstm #envhist #sts 🧪
Reposted by Victor Seow
rhiggitt.bsky.social
With a great outline of her work on women scientists in America #histSTM
Reposted by Victor Seow
justcode.bsky.social
Just Code, just published!!! Open Access of full book is now freely available, see link below, made possible by @sloanfoundation.bsky.social grant to CBI! Am so honored to partner w Con & work alongside 19 stellar, fellow interdisciplinary authors on this book! #histtech

cse.umn.edu/cbi/just-cod...
Front cover of Just Code: Power, Inequality and the Political Economy of IT. Black lettering in bold with trailing pastel colors.
Reposted by Victor Seow
yangyangcheng.bsky.social
So grateful to do this Q&A with @williamthomas.bsky.social @aip.bsky.social on being a Chinese scientist in the US and the importance of history to my work, esp. in this moment.
Read the full interview, also ft. @mcnees.bsky.social, in AIP's History Newsletter:
aip.brightspotcdn.com/89/11/30815e...
Reposted by Victor Seow
monicamedhist.bsky.social
A new #OpenAccess resource for teaching world/global history is almost ready. The module "The Black Death: The Medieval Plague Pandemic through the Eyes of Ibn Battuta," is in final editing & should be "live" by the beginning of September. A preview here: www.arc-humanities.org/blog/2025/07...
The opening of a blogpost announcing the imminent release of an open-access teaching module, "The Black Death: The Medieval Plague Pandemic through the Eyes of Ibn Battuta."
Reposted by Victor Seow
manchstm.bsky.social
Hot off the press: new #OpenAccess book, co-edited by our colleague Dr Amelia Bonea: #Women, #science, #engineering and #medicine in the twentieth century.
doi.org/10.7765/9781...
#HistSTM #HistSci
Book cover