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Dr G.J. Somsen

 

Geert Somsen is a historian of science and international relations in the History Department and the Science and Technology Studies research program (MUSTS). He is Director of Studies of the MA ESST and President-elect of the European Inter-University Association on Society, Science & Technology. He was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Journal for the History of Knowledge.

 

A complete CV is available below under Files.

Expertises

 

History of Science / History of Knowledge

 

History of International Relations / Global History

 

Science and Technology Studies

 

Focus on: universalism, conferences, imperial legacies

Career history

 

Geert Somsen was taught at the University of California, San Diego, and Utrecht University (PhD History of Science). He holds an MSc in chemistry from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

 

Before and during his time at Maastricht, Somsen has held several visiting positions. He was at the Center for International History of Columbia University (2014-2016), at Oxford University’s History Department (2024 Michaelmas Term), the Max Planck Institute for History of Science, Berlin (Fall 2016), and the Institute for the History of Science and Ideas at Uppsala University (Spring 2012). Besides, he had shorter stints at the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome and at Harvard University. After his PhD, Somsen was Othmer postdoctoral fellow at the Science History Institute (then called Chemical Heritage Foundation) in Philadelphia, where he returned in the Fall of 2022 as the Röhm and Haas fellow.

 

Since September 2020, Somsen has a split appointment with the Athena Institute, VU Amsterdam.

 

Somsen is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Journal for the History of Knowledge. He also started the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences (UM) and was PhD training coordinator at the national Graduate School for Science and Technology Studies (WTMC).

Files