Matthew James Crawford, Ph.D.
Department of History
305 Bowman Hall
Kent State University
Kent, OH 44242
Office: (330) 672-8913
Mobile: (619) 228-3800
mcrawf11@kent.edu
EDUCATION
June 2009
University of California, San Diego
Ph.D. in History (Science Studies)
La Jolla, CA
June 2005
M.A. in History
La Jolla, CA
University of California, San Diego
May 2000
Tufts University
B.A. summa cum laude in History and Biology; Phi Beta Kappa; Highest Thesis Honors
Medford, MA
EMPLOYMENT
August 2009 – Present
Assistant Professor
Department of History, Kent State University
August 2008 – June 2009
Lecturer
Department of History, UCSD
Kent, OH
La Jolla, CA
HONORS AND FELLOWSHIPS
2012
2011-2012
2010-2011
2010
2008
2007-2008
2006-2007
2006
2005-2006
2005
2005
2004
2004
2001, 2003
2001
2000
2000
Barbara S. Mosbacher Fellowship, John Carter Brown Library (Providence, RI)
NEH Fellowship, John Carter Brown Library (Providence, RI; declined)
Herdegen Fellowship, Chemical Heritage Foundation (Philadelphia, PA)
Summer Research Fellowship, Kent State University
Science Studies Summer Fellowship, UCSD
Graduate Writing Fellowship, Department of History, UCSD
Science Studies Dissertation Fellowship, UCSD
Graduate Fellowship, Institute for International, Comparative, and Area Studies, UCSD
J. William Fulbright Fellowship (Spain)
Dissertation Fellowship, Center for Humanities, UCSD
Dissertation Field Grant, Center for Iberian/Latin American Studies, UCSD
Pre-Dissertation Research Grant, All UC Group in Economic History, UC Davis
Pre-Dissertation Field Grant, Center for Iberian/Latin American Studies, UCSD
Graduate Fellowship Honorable Mention, National Science Foundation
First-Year Fellowship, Department of History and Science Studies Program, UCSD
Vida Allen Prize for Best Senior Thesis, History Department, Tufts University
Phi Beta Kappa, Tufts University
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PUBLICATIONS
Articles and Essays
Crawford, Matthew James. “Science as Statecraft: Imperial Ideology, Botany, and Monopoly in the Spanish
Atlantic World (1742-1790).” In Global Economies, Cultural Currencies in the Eighteenth Century. Edited by
Michael Rotenberg-Schwartz and Tara Czechowski. New York: Abrahams Magazine Service (AMS)
Press, forthcoming.
Crawford, Matthew James. "A 'Reasoned Proposal' against 'Vain Science:' Creole Negotiations of an Atlantic
Medicament in the Audiencia of Quito (1776-1792)." Atlantic Studies 7, no. 4 (2010): 397-419.
Aranda, Marcelo et. al. “The History of Atlantic Science: Collective Reflections on the 2009 Harvard Seminar
on Atlantic History.” Edited by Matthew James Crawford and Kelly Wisecup. Atlantic Studies 7, no. 4
(2010): 493-509.
Crawford, Matthew James. “Para Desterrar las Dudas y Adulteraciones: Scientific Expertise and the Attempts to
Make a Better Bark for the Royal Monopoly of Quina (1751-1790),” Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies 8, no.
2 (2007): 193-212.
Campbell, D. R., Crawford M., Brody A.K. and T.A. Forbis. "Resistance to pre-dispersal seed predators in a
natural hybrid zone." Oecologia 131, no. 3 (May 2002): 436-443.
Book Reviews and Encyclopedia Entries
Crawford, Matthew James. “Quinine” and “Cocaine.” In: Discovery and Invention: A Historical Encyclopedia of
Science, Technology, and Society. M.E. Sharpe, Inc., forthcoming.
Crawford, Matthew James. Review of Science and Empire in the Atlantic World. Edited by James Delbourgo and
Nicholas Dew. H-LATAM (forthcoming)
Crawford, Mathew James. Review of Enlightenment, Governance and Reform in Spain and its Empire, 1759-1808, by
Gabriel B. Paquette. European History Quarterly (forthcoming).
Crawford, Matthew James. Review of Measuring the New World: Enlightenment Science and South America, by Neil
Safier. Annals of Science (forthcoming).
Crawford, Matthew James. Review of Spain, Europe and the Wider World, by J. H. Elliott. Journal of World History
22, no. 4 (2011): 846-849
Crawford, Matthew James. “Early Modern Iberian Science: Ignored But Not For Much Longer.” Review of
Nature, Empire, and Nation: Explorations of the History of Science in the Iberian World, by Jorge CañizaresEsguerra. A Contracorriente: Journal of Social History and Literature in Latin America 5, no. 1 (2007): 345-356.
Crawford, Matthew James. Review of The Promise of the Foreign: Nationalism and the Technics of Translation in the
Spanish Philippines, by Vicente L. Rafael. Itinerario 31, no. 1 (2007): 209-211.
Matthew James Crawford - 3
PRESENTATIONS
"The Making of Scientific Object: An American Wonder Drug in Enlightenment Europe." Department of
Biology, Kent State University. Kent, OH. September 23, 2011.
"Science as a Bookish Enterprise? Text and Image in the History of Science (1500-1900)." Special Collections
Library, Kent State University. Kent, OH. April 4, 2011.
"A Cure for Empire." Research Colloquium. Department of History, Kent State University. Kent, OH.
October 15, 2010
“Contraband, Commerce, and the Court: The Economies of Quina in the Late Eighteenth-Century Spanish
Atlantic.” Journée d’Etude: (Trans) colonial, (trans) imperial and Atlantic Trade in the 18th Century: New Questions,
Approaches and Methods. École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. Paris, France. March 11, 2010.
“When Knowledge was not Power: The Precarious Conceptions of a Medicament in the Spanish Atlantic
World (1751-1790).” Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Colloquium. Kent State University. Kent,
OH. February 25, 2010.
“The Co-Production of Nature and Empire: Botanical Debate and the “Two Paths” for Exploiting Quina in
the Spanish Atlantic (1792-1801).” American Historical Association Annual Meeting. San Diego, CA.
January 7-10, 2010.
“The Order of Nature and Empire at Stake: A Botanical Debate in the Spanish Atlantic (1792-1801).”
History of Science Society Annual Meeting. Phoenix, AZ. November 19-22, 2009.
“European Science as ‘Vain Science’: The Contentious Culture of Knowledge Production in the Spanish
Atlantic circa 1779.” International Seminar on the History of the Atlantic World, 1500-1825. Harvard
University. Cambridge, MA. August 3-11, 2009.
“‘As Useful to the Monarchy as Spices are to the Republic of Holland’: Botany, Political Economy, and
Monopoly in the Eighteenth-Century Spanish Atlantic World.” American Society for EighteenthCentury Studies Annual Meeting. Richmond, VA. March 26-29, 2009.
“From Forest to Pharmacy and Back Again: Traveling Tree Bark and the Failed Circulation of Knowledge in
the Spanish Atlantic World (1751-1773).” Places of Knowledge Conference. Cornell University. Ithaca,
NY. October 3-5, 2008.
“Colonial Science in Action: Cooperation and Contention in Spain’s Royal Monopoly of Quina (1751-1773).”
Science Studies Program. University of California, San Diego. La Jolla, CA. February 25, 2008.
“Making a Better Bark: Pharmaceutical Expertise and Spain’s Royal Monopoly of Cinchona Bark in the
Eighteenth Century.” History of Science Society Annual Meeting. Washington, D.C. November 1-4,
2007.
“From Missionary Encounters to Scientific Expeditions: The Case of Cinchona Bark in the Spanish Atlantic
World, 1630-1800.” Graduate Research Symposium. University of California, San Diego. La Jolla, CA.
January 26, 2007.
“The Case of Quina: Trans-Atlantic Institutions and Natural History in the Spanish Colonial Empire, 17371792.” History of Science Society Annual Meeting. Vancouver, Canada. November 2-5, 2006.
Matthew James Crawford - 4
“Spain in the History of Science and the History of Science in Spain.” Fulbright Mid-Year Seminar. Toledo,
Spain. March 29-31, 2006.
“Botany, Economic Policy, and Spanish Colonial Governance: The Case of the Cinchona Tree, 1630-1820.”
Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies Graduate Research Symposium. University of California,
San Diego. La Jolla, CA. April 21, 2005.
“‘Ponerlos en Policía:’ Knowing and Governing New Spain through the Relaciones Geográficas (1577-1582).”
Science Studies Program Colloquium. University of California, San Diego. La Jolla, CA. October 18,
2004.
“‘Ponerlos en Policía:’ Knowing and Governing New Spain through the Relaciones Geográficas (1577-1582)”
Society for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies Annual Meeting. Los Angeles, CA. April 1-4,
2004.
ADDITIONAL PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Chair, "Cures and Drugs in the 17th Century." History of Science Society Annual Meeting. Montreal,
Canada. November 4-7, 2010.
Panel Organizer, "Discourse and Discovery: Colonial and Atlantic Encounters and the Ideology of Modern
Science." History of Science Society Annual Meeting. Montreal, Canada. November 4-7, 2010.
Panel Organizer, “Science as Empire? Natural Knowledge, Political Economy, and Imperial Governance in
the Early Modern Atlantic World.” History of Science Society Annual Meeting. Phoenix, AZ.
November 19-22, 2009.
Representative-at-large. Graduate Student History Guild. Department of History, UCSD, 2008-2009.
Co-organizer, “Science and Technology at the Movies.” Science Studies Program, UCSD. La Jolla, CA.
Quarterly Film Series, 2007-2008.
Panel Organizer, “The Uses of New World Nature: Materia medica and the Circulation of Knowledge in the
Early Modern Spanish Atlantic World.” History of Science Society Annual Meeting. Washington D.C.
November 1-4, 2007.
Panel Organizer, “Science and Exploration.” Graduate Research Symposium. University of California, San
Diego. La Jolla, CA. January 26, 2007.
Co-organizer, “Understanding Other Natures: Colonial Natural History in Spanish Peru, French Egypt and
British India (1737-1947).” History of Science Society Annual Meeting. Vancouver, Canada. November
2-5, 2006.
Attendee, 10th International Summer School for the History of Science. The Two Cultures in the Republic of
Letters: Intellectual History in the 17th and 18th Centuries. Uppsala, Sweden. June 11-17, 2006.
Attendee, 8th International Summer School for the History of Science. Rethinking Scientific Knowledge in the 16th
and 17th Centuries. Centre Alexandre Koyré. Paris, France. September 16-20, 2002.
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
•
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History of Science Society
American Historical Association
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UNIVERSITY AND DEPARTMENT SERVICE
Faculty Advisory Committee (2011-Present)
Aims and Development Committee (2011-Present)
World Civilization Committee (2009-Present)
Undergraduate Program Committee (2009-2010)
Library Committee (2009-2011)
Communications Committee (2009-2011)
TEACHING ACTIVITIES
Undergraduate Courses
HIST 11050: World History to 1500
HIST 11051: World History since 1500
HIST 38095: Science and Exploration from Columbus to the Mars Rover
HIST 38095: Revolutions in Science: An Introduction to the History of Science
HIST 49195: A History of Drugs in the Modern World
Graduate Courses
HIST 5/79195: The Enlightenment: An Historiographical Inquiry (Spring 2011)
Graduate Student Advising
Mathew Brundage, Ph.D. Student, Kent State University (Transnational Minor Field; Co-advisor with Dr.
Tim Scarnecchia)
Steven Kwaczak, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Akron (Dissertation Committee)
Ilya Braverman, M.A. Student, Kent State University (Committee Member)
Teaching Presentations
“How to Give a Lecture.” PFHF Colloquium. Department of History, Kent State University. April 30,
2010.