Dr Chris Manias

I am a specialist in the history and the cultural role of the deep-time, human and environmental sciences, with particular focuses on Britain, France, German-speaking Europe and the USA from the late eighteenth to early-twentieth century.

I studied for my undergraduate degree in History at King’s, and then took my MA in Social and Cultural History at Birkbeck, University of London. I stayed on at Birkbeck for my PhD, which was awarded in 2008. After this, I held a variety of teaching and research positions at the German Historical Institute London and the universities of Bristol and Exeter, and was a Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Manchester (2012-2015). I joined the history department at King's in September 2015.

At King’s, I am a core member of the Centre for the History of Science, Technology & Medicine, and co-lead of the Environmental Humanities Network. As well as this, I run the Popularizing Palaeontology: Current & Historical Perspectives network, an interdisciplinary and international grouping aiming to understand the cultural position of palaeontology within public debate.

Research interests and PhD supervision

My work has followed two primary strands. The first is in the history of nineteenth-century archaeology, anthropology and philology, and their connections with changing concepts of nation, race and civilization. The second is in the history of the deep-time sciences, and especially palaeontology, thinking about the formation of these fields, and how they became some of the most resonant sciences in the modern era. I am especially interested in how scholarly, scientific and intellectual approaches develop across national boundaries and between different disciplinary fields, and in understandings of development and change, whether this be historical, evolutionary or cultural.

This leads me into a number of different interests, including:

• The history and cultural role of the deep-time, human and environmental sciences (especially palaeontology, archaeology and anthropology)
• Environmental history
• The history of ideas of race, culture and nationality
• Understandings of evolution and development
• The history and role of museums and heritage organizations

I would be pleased to hear from prospective postgraduate students interested in the modern history of science, or more generally in the cultural and intellectual history of Britain, France, German-speaking Europe and the USA in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. I would be particularly interested in projects engaging with the following areas:

• The human, deep-time and biological sciences
• Comparative and transnational approaches to history
• Internationalism and nationalism, particularly in scholarship and science. o Environmental History
• The history of understandings of race and culture, and of progress, evolution and degeneration
• The history of museums and collections

Teaching

I teach a variety of courses, ranging from broad surveys of nineteenth-century history, to more specialized courses in: the history of race and nationalism; environmental history; the history of science, technology and medicine; and histories of museums and cultural institutions. I am particularly keen to introduce students to different academic fields in an interdisciplinary way, and think about the relevance of historical processes to current cultural and political debates.

Expertise and public engagement

I regularly speak at and organise public events (especially around the public role of palaeontology), and am involved in a number of collaborations with artists and cultural organizations.

I am happy to be contacted on queries to do with: the history of nineteenth and early-twentieth century science; the history of museums and other public scientific institutions; the history of ideas of race and European engagement with the wider world in the modern period; and the history and wider cultural implications of palaeontology, human evolution, archaeology and prehistory.

Selected publications

• The Age of Mammals: Nature, Development and Paleontology in the Long Nineteenth Century (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2023).
• ‘Reconstructing an Incomparable Organism: The Chalicothere in nineteenth and early-twentieth century palaeontology,’ History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 40, 1 (2018), 1-21.
• ‘Contemporaries of the Cave Bear and the Woolly Rhinoceros: Historicizing Prehistoric Humans and Extinct Beasts, 1850-1914,’ in Efram Sera-Shriar (ed.), Historicising Humans in nineteenth-century British Sciences (Pittsburgh University Press, 2018), 14-43.
• ‘Progress in Life’s History: Linking Darwinism and Palaeontology in Britain, 1860-1914,’ Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 66 (2017), Special Issue on ‘Darwinism and Paleontology,’ 18-26.
• Race, Science and the Nation: Reconstructing the Ancient Past in Britain, France and Germany, 1800-1914 (Routledge, 2013).

BlueSky: @chrismanias.bsky.social

Mastodon: @ChrisManias@sauropods.win