Elena Aronova Assoc. Prof.

Biography

I am a historian of science working on the history of science in Russia and the Soviet Union, history of science during the Cold War, transnational history, the history and politics of environmental data collection, the history of evolutionary biology, and other topics. My most recent book, Scientific History: Experiments in History and Politics from the Bolshevik Revolution to the End of the Cold War (University of Chicago Press, 2021), tells an intriguing story of attempts to integrate scientific knowledge and new technologies — from plant genetics to computers — into historical research. Using the history of Russia and the Soviet Union as the anchoring point, this book reconnects the disciplinary histories of the sciences and those of the humanities to reveal a landscape of socialist political imaginaries where one would least expect it: in the debates about scientific history.