Dr. Emily Kern

Biography

Emily Kern is a historian of science with a focus on intellectual and cultural history, particularly within the fields of anthropology, evolution, and life sciences. Her research and teaching revolve around the relationship between the production of scientific knowledge and global political power from the nineteenth to twentieth centuries. Currently, she is working on a book project titled 'Cradle of Humanity: Science Making African Origins', which examines how the African continent became recognized as the 'cradle of humankind' and its role in human evolutionary research in the 1950s. Kern's work also interrogates the historical narratives regarding human origins and the influence of geographic and racial ideas on scientific thought. She has recently edited a volume titled 'New Earth Histories: Geo-Cosmologies Making Modern World' that delves into the intersection of history, earth sciences, and modernity. Kern holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and obtained her PhD from Princeton University in 2018, where her dissertation won the 2019 DHST dissertation prize from the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology. Before her current position at the University of Chicago, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

Research Interests

Experience

Awards