HISTSCI 101: Making the World: An Introduction to the History of Technology

Semester: Spring

Year offered: 2026

Link: Course Website

How do people use technologies to transform the world, and how are we transformed in the process? Who—or what—drives technological innovation? How does technology relate to nature, to art, to science? What might machines tell us about our humanity? In this course, we will explore these and other questions through a broad survey of the social life of technology across the globe from the past to the present. Our contention here is that by gaining a deeper understanding of technology in history, you will become a better user—and possibly maker—of technical things in this thoroughly technological world.

Mondays and Wednesdays - 9:00-10:15 AM with Professors Victor Seow and Eric Gurevitch

Victor Seow

seow@fas.harvard.edu

John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences

Areas of Research: History of Science and Technology in East Asia My name is Victor Seow (pronounced “meow” with an “s”), and I am a historian of science, technology, and industry, specializing in China and Japan in their global contexts and in histories...

Eric Moses Gurevitch

ericgurevitch@fas.harvard.edu

Assistant Professor of the History of Science

Areas of Research: History of Technology, South Asia, Indian Ocean, Medieval History, and Early Modern History, Global History of Science Biography Eric Moses Gurevitch is a historian of science, technology, and medicine in the medieval and early modern...