Jacob Ward (J.W.A.P.)
Dr Ward is a historian of science, technology, and neoliberalism, particularly focussing on the United Kingdom. He is currently Assistant Professor (tenured) in the History Department and Science, Technology, and Society Studies Research Programme at Maastricht University's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
For 2022-2026, Dr Ward is the principal investigator for an NWO (Dutch Research Council) VENI Grant, 'The Prediction Machine: Futurology, Technology, and Neoliberalism in British Government'.
Dr Ward is also publishing a book based on his previous project, which looked at the intersection of digitalisation and privatisation in British telecommunications infrastructure. The book, tentatively titled Digital Nation: Privatising British Telecommunications, is under contract with MIT Press.
Dr Ward has also won the 2018 Duncan Tanner Essay Prize from Twentieth Century British History for an article from this project, 'Financing the Information Age: London TeleCity, The Legacy of IT-82, and the Selling of British Telecom'. You can read the article for free here.
He teaches in the FASoS BA Arts and Culture and BA Digital Society. He also supervises theses in the MA European Studies in Science and Technology and co-supervises a PhD project on the history of solar energy and the oil industry (Jelena Stankovic) on Prof. Cyrus Mody's NWO VICI Project, 'Managing Scarcity and Sustainability: The Oil Industry, Environmentalism, and Alternative Energy in the Age of Scarcity'.
Dr. Ward's broad expertise is in the history of modern science and technology, political history, modern British history, and science and technology studies.
He specifically focusses on: information and communication technology; neoliberalism and privatisation; infrastructure and technological systems; government bureaucracy, cryptography and surveillance; futurology and forecasting; the financial sector; environmental history.
From 2018-19, Dr. Ward worked at the University of Oxford as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the History of Computing. He joined Oxford from the Science Museum, London, where he was a Researcher and Content Developer for the exhibition, 'Top Secret: From Ciphers to Cybersecurity'.
From 2017-18, he held the Byrne-Bussey Marconi Fellowship at the University of Oxford's Bodleian Libraries. From 2016-17, he was a Fellow at the Lemelson Center for Invention and Innovation, the National Museum of American History, supported by the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council's (AHRC) International Placement Scheme.
He completed his PhD in 2018 at University College London's Department of Science and Technology Studies, where he was funded by an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award. He undertook this PhD in collaboration with the Science Museum, London's Research and Public History Department.
He holds an MSc in Science, Medicine, Technology, and Society from Imperial College London and a BSc in Medical Ethics and Law with Medical Sciences from King's College London.
