Esther Simon

My research examines the links between natural philosophy, particularly chemistry, and radical political movements in Britain in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries. I am interested the themes of knowledge-power production, the contentious and often precarious relationship between science, the public, and the state, and British political reformers’ interest in and impact on the empire beyond the British Isles. Much has rightly been made of the role of British natural philosophy and science in establishing and maintaining control over its colonies and other subalterns, but what I am interested in is how natural philosophy and science could be and was used to push back against the state.

I received my B.A. from Mount Holyoke College in 2019, where I double-majored in art history and film studies and wrote my undergraduate thesis on the overlapping worlds of art and science in late 18^th century Britain. I am currently a co-organizer of the History of Science reading group here at UIUC and the Graduate Representative for the Forum for the Chemical Sciences.