# Graduate Education Beyond the Classroom ## expand\_more ## Graduate Education Innovation The department of History of Science has been at the forefront of expanding the content of what the field of history of science does by integrating historical, anthropological, and sociological approaches, and by exploring new teaching methods, from the preparation of Massive Open Online and hybrid (“flipped”) courses to filmmaking, interactive web design, material objects, and site-specific teaching. Our aim is to deepen and broaden this work so our faculty and students can rethink pressing historical problems with contemporary relevance. We extend the traditional aims of teaching and research, and through innovative, experimental, and collaborative ways, join them together. The department offers opportunities for research and learning beyond the seminar and lecture, among them field studies and faculty lead expeditions. This initiative is the Graduate Education Beyond the Classroom program. --- ## The Royall House and Slave Quarters ![History of Science graduate students at the slave quarters museum, discussing with a tour guide](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/2025-12/IMG_1544.jpg) Tian Feng, 2025Only a few miles north of Harvard, the historical site of a slave house—one of the few surviving ones in the North—lies tucked within a quiet residential neighborhood in Medford. The Royall House and Slave Quarters were once part of a 504-acre farm, purchased in 1737 by the Antiguan plantation owner Isaac Royall, Sr. Until the Royall’s son was forced to abandon the estate during the American Revolution, more than sixty enslaved people worked and lived on the premises over four decades, supporting the family’s lavish, aristocratic lifestyle. On October 18, 2025, graduate students in *Historiography of the History of Science* (HISTSCI 3003A) visited the Royall House and Slave Quarters, which is now a nonprofit museum and a National Historic Landmark. HISTSCI 3003A is one of the two introductory courses for graduate students in the department, co-taught in fall 2025 by Gabriela Soto Laveaga and Victor Seow. Guided by the museum’s staff member Hailey Robbins, the tour was joined by postdoctoral fellow Martin Meiske and Lisa Regazzoni, professor at Bielefeld University. [### Gabriela Soto Laveaga ](/people/gabriela-soto-laveaga) Professor of the History of Science Antonio Madero Professor for the Study of Mexico Areas of Research: Modern Latin America; intersection of science and culture; public health; scientific and medical exchange in the Global South Personal Website Gabriela Soto Laveaga is Professor of the History of Science and Antonio Madero Professor for... ![G_Soto_Laveaga](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/gsl.jpg?itok=ME3FJFKr) [### Victor Seow ](/people/victor-seow) 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... ![Victor Seow](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/hos/files/victor_seow.png?itok=HjpGlbTw) --- ## Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments Voyage into Boston Harbor ![A graduate student using a sextand atop the deck of a ship in boston harbor.](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/2025-12/matt_goerzen_47.JPG) Matt Goerzen, 2025A day before the 2025 Autumnal Equinox, ten History of Science graduate students, led by Professor Hannah Marcus and Matt Goerzen, went out into the Boston Harbor and beyond, deploying celestial navigation instruments in the wild with reference to a procession of historical charts. Alongside expertise from the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments’ executive director Josh Gorman, Harvard map librarian Molly Taylor-Poleskey, and celestial navigation expert Max Mulhern, students learned about the evolution of charting tools; the practical use of navigation instruments like sextants, octants, scaphe, pendulums, astrolabes, and ring compasses; and historical techniques to use the data gleaned from such instruments to determine fixed positions and even calculate the shape and size of the planet. Students got hands-on with a historical procession of instruments and charting tools designed to minimize inaccuracies in the process of celestial navigation, and importantly experienced first-hand what made navigation so difficult on sea, compared to the shore. As one participant noted, “The instruments came alive in ways not possible in the context of the classroom, as so much of their utility can only be gleaned through experiential learning.” [### Hannah Marcus ](/people/hannah-marcus) Professor of the History of Science Faculty Director of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments Areas of Research: Early Modern Science and Medicine Hannah Marcus is Professor of the History of Science in the Department of the History of Science and the Faculty Director of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments at Harvard University... ![Marcus](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/hos/files/hannah_marcus_author_photo.jpg?itok=IEEkdYhz) --- ## Witnessing the Anthropocene in Svalbard and Norway ![Graduate Students aboard a ship in Svalbard](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/2025-12/Emma_Broder1.jpeg) Emma Broder, 2024Under the History of Science department’s “Graduate Education Beyond the Classroom,” Professor Naomi Oreskes took seven graduate students on the program’s most ambitious and remote trip yet, to Norway and the Svalbard Archipelago from June 12-24, 2024. This trip was conceptualized as part of the graduate seminar, *Theorizing the Anthropocene*, taught in Fall term 2022 and designed in collaboration with graduate project assistant Jonathan Galka, which addressed the diverse ways in which scholars, activists, and citizens are observing, documenting, and responding to climate change, particularly in global hot spots like Svalbard and island nations. This course in turn emerged from the successful implementation of an undergraduate course in Harvard’s general education program called *Life and Death in the Anthropocene* in Fall 2021. Few places offer as much opportunity to engage with climate change’s immediate consequences as Svalbard & Jan Mayen, Norway. A 1920 treaty gave Norway sovereignty over the archipelago, though actors of all state signatories are permitted to do business and reside visa-free in the islands. By consequence, Soviet and Russian settlements persisted alongside Norwegian/International settlements, making Svalbard a fascinating case study of technical lands historically under patchworks of governance. The northernmost church in the world is located in Longyearbyen, and its pastor is well-known for climate consciousness and using his pulpit to advocate on behalf of the islands’ changing natural landscapes. At the same time as Svalbard becomes a laboratory for the transition away from coalmining and coal power, social dynamics on the island have shifted from multigenerational mining families toward a more nationally and ethnically diverse, higher-income base of environmental scientists working in short and isolated stints. Svalbard also provides a site for examination of another of the Anthropocene’s guiding themes: storage that anticipates a plurality of potential futures. Famously, Svalbard houses the Global Seed Vault, which has its roots in the Nordic Gene Bank projects of the 1980s. These environmental histories and their intersections, as conservation goals run up against the exigencies of geopolitics and energy security, were of primary interest to graduate researchers in the History of Science department as they embarked on this trip. [### Naomi Oreskes ](/people/naomi-oreskes) Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences ON LEAVE SPRING 2026 Primary Areas of Research: Agnotology; the Political Economy of Scientific Knowledge; History and Philosophy of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Science and Technology Studies (STS); the History of Climate Change Disinformation Secondary Areas of... ![Naomi Oreskes](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/hos/files/naomi_oreskes.jpg?itok=Wv6gFtmR) --- ## GenderSci Lab Retreat ![The word 'Health' written in green on a large paper, sticky notes with various learnings and reflections](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/2025-12/Higgins_GEBTC%20Volume%202.jpeg) Abigail Higgins, 2024The GenderSci Lab is an interdisciplinary research lab dedicated to generating concepts, methods, and theories for scientific research on sex and gender. Through research, teaching, and public outreach, the Lab aims to advance the intersectional study of gender in the biomedical and allied sciences, counter bias and hype in sex difference research, and enhance public discourse surrounding the sciences of sex and gender. The lab brings together historians of science, gender scholars, and biomedical scientists to produce high-impact research addressing transdisciplinary questions at the intersections of these fields. With generous support from the History of Science Department’s Aramont Foundation Graduate Education Innovation Fund, the GenderSci Lab and the history of science graduate students Abigail Higgins, Kelsey Ichikawa, Ben Maldonado, and Jaime Marsella, under the leadership of Professor Sarah S. Richardson, gathered 20 interdisciplinary scholars for its Annual Retreat at Professor Richardson’s home in Essex, CT from September 14-15, 2024. The Lab provides a space for graduate students in the History of Science Department to join a diverse interdisciplinary team of scholars, apply their expertise in the field to collaborative and innovative projects, and develop research and leadership skills. More broadly, the work of the lab challenges History of Science students to ask big questions driving the discipline: How do social factors shape science, and vice versa, how does science shape how we think about sex, gender, sexuality, amongst other social factors? How do scientists grapple with the gap between theory and evidence? In addition to an opportunity for professionalization, the Lab’s work as exemplified by the Retreat enhances students’ personal and professional development and provides perspectives that inform their individual graduate research programs. [### Sarah S. Richardson ](/people/sarah-s-richardson) Aramont Professor of the History of Science & Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Areas of Research: History of Biology, Philosophy of Science, Science & Race, Women & Gender Studies Sarah Richardson has taught at Harvard University since 2010, where her courses include gender and science, feminist science studies, interdisciplinary... ![sarah_richardson](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/hos/files/s_richardson_0.png?itok=akVCkpwt) --- ## The Submarince Force Library and Museum ![Graduate student reading archival documents](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/2025-12/IMG_7056.JPG) Genevieve Dally-Watkins, 2024On the morning of March 20, 2024, the sixteen members of the graduate seminar, an additional History of Science doctoral student, and the instructor departed from Cambridge and arrived at the Submarine Force Museum, meeting with experienced submariner and Museum Education Outreach Coordinator, U.S. Navy Petty Officer Austin German, EMN1(SS) (Electrician’s Mate-Nuclear Power, First Class, Submarine). The class then enjoyed an hour in the archives with Wendy S. Gulley, the Submarine Force Museum Archivist. There, students were provided given hands-on opportunities to analyse rare historical documents. Museum archivists guided the seminar through the ins and outs of archival analysis and the distinctive qualities of their institute’s holdings. After surveying the archives and artifacts such as the *Turtle* (1775), students toured the *Nautilus* itself. The seminar spent some time examining the *Nautilus’* exterior, learning about its history and life on submarines before moving onto the ship. Professor Hersch and staff docents walked the seminar through the Control Room, the Attack Center, the Crew’s Mess, the Officer’s Wardroom, the Torpedo Room, and various other spaces. This tour substantiated the social and technical challenges tied to submarine technologies for participants. After hearing about how morale is raised on submarines through traditions such as “pizza day,” students completed their time in Connecticut at Mystic Pizza, discussing the life of submariners and the nature of the *Nautilus* over an early dinner. [### Matthew Hersch ](/people/matthew-hersch) Associate Professor of the History of Science Areas of Research: History of Physical Sciences, Human Sciences, Material Culture, Media Studies, Science Policy, Museum Studies, Psychology and Theories of Mind, Science and Religion, STS, Technology and Society, Women and Gender Studies Matthew Hersch... ![Mathew Hersch](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/hos/files/mathew-hersch.gif?itok=OW2r0bKy) --- ## Graduate Student Masterclass and Workshop with Sarah Igo ![Photo of Sarah Igo with text advertising the Masterclass and Workshop](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/2025-12/IgoMasterClass.png) This Masterclass event that took place in September of 2022 gave our graduate students an opportunity to work closely with a leading scholar, Sarah Igo, on questions of both topical interest and scholarly craft. Igo is the Andrew Jackson Chair in American History at Vanderbilt University who serves simultaneously as Professor of Law, Political Science, and Sociology, as well as Dean of Strategic Initiatives in Vanderbilt’s College of Arts and Sciences. Igo’s award-winning books and articles address the histories of privacy, data, and the formation of human subjectivity in relation to the state. Her work is remarkably wide-ranging, combining interests in the human and social sciences with large areas of US legal, political, and cultural history. The goal of the event was twofold. The first was to guide students as they developed research and writing strategies for work on topics that cut across subfields — especially the histories of data and citizenship. The second was to guide students as they adapted their writing for public and non-academic audiences. In that vein, Igo shared her experiences with public writing in venues such as the Washington Post and The Atlantic magazine. She also provided individualized advice and guidance to students on their planned and ongoing projects. On the first day, Igo delivered a masterclass entitled “Data Publics & Data Politics.” Igo presented her recent research on the history of Social Security numbers, and discussion considered the subject of one’s ‘own’ data and of data privacy. On the second day day, Igo delivered a “Workshop on Public Writing,” including a discussion on writing for audiences beyond an academic readership. The day also included coffee and pastries in the morning, followed by a lunch. [### Janet Browne ](/people/janet-browne) Aramont Professor of the History of Science, Emeritus Areas of Research: History of Biology Janet Browne’s interests range widely over the history of the life and earth sciences and natural history. She came to Harvard in 2006 and teaches a variety of courses on evolutionary history and the history of... ![browne_1.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/hos/files/browne_1.jpg?itok=JMJU5iMI) [### Elizabeth Lunbeck ](/elizabeth-lunbeck) Professor of the History of Science in Residence Elizabeth Lunbeck is a historian of the human sciences, specializing in the history of psychoanalysis, psychiatry, and psychology. Throughout her career, she has been interested in the conceptual foundations of these disciplines as well as in the social... ![Elizabeth Lunbeck speaking at microphone during symposium](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-11/After-Latour-9-22-23-24%20%281%29.jpg?h=ed7fb780&itok=VL1zlZys) [### Benjamin Wilson ](/people/benjamin-wilson) Associate Professor of History of Science Areas of Research: History of Physical Sciences Benjamin Wilson is Associate Professor of History of Science at Harvard University. His research focuses on the history of modern physics, the relationship between science and national security during the... ![Benjamin Wilson in dark blue shirt smiling in front of wooded background](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2026-03/Benjamin%20Wilson.jpg?h=0797adcf&itok=HnI4I2KX) --- ## Writing Retreat ![History of Science graduate students hiking into an open pasture](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/2025-12/TinaWritingRetreat.jpeg) Tina Wei, 2022In the spring of 2022, in the wake of 18 months of COVID restrictions that had severely frayed the sense of community among graduate students in the department, Professor Anne Harrington organized a week-long writing retreat for 11 of these graduate students over spring break. They gathered at a bucolic lodge called Rolling Ridge in Andover, Massachusetts, on the shores of Lake Cochichewick. The goal of this program was two-fold: to enable our students to make substantial progress on their individual scholarly work in a supportive and beautiful setting; and to build a sense of common purpose, friendship and community within this cohort. By all accounts, the retreat was hugely beneficial for all involved. Not only for the way it helped students see through parts of projects on which they had felt stuck, but also for the powerful opportunity to live, eat, work and re-create together in a peaceful settings. [### Anne Harrington ](/people/anne-harrington) Franklin L. Ford Professor of the History of Science Director of Undergraduate Studies Areas of Research: History of Medicine, Human Sciences, Medical Humanities, Psychiatry and Mental Health, Mind-Body Medicine, Neuroscience, Consciousness Studies Anne Harrington is the Franklin L. Ford Professor of the History of Science, specializing in... ![Portrait of Anne Harrington sitting in a classroom](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-12/230110_1358679.jpg.1500x999_q95_crop-smart_upscale.jpg?h=86c3a961&itok=kPVxH3-8) --- ## Science New Wave Film Festivals ![A blue hand holding up the moon](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/2025-12/hand-moon-shadow_-p.jpg) Still from "Dream of a Shadow," short film, Peter GalisonThe Graduate Education Beyond the Classroom program funded a trio of science-based film festivals in the Department of the History of Science here at Harvard over the past few years. Led by professor Peter Galison, these events were dubbed *Science New Wave*, in affiliation with the New York based *Science New Wave Film Festivals*. These festivals were presented by the History of Science Department as well as both Labocine and Imagine Science, and were an incredible opportunity for the graduate students in the History of Science department to both showcase their own films as well as discuss and present science films that were impactful to them – inviting and discussing the media with the directors of the films themselves. Three *Science New Wave* film screening and conversation events were held in total: in November of 2021, March of 2022, and November of 2022. The first festival focused on feature-length films which focused on visualizing and presenting science, and the success of this event spurred the idea to follow it up a few months later with a short-film version. Later that year followed a second short-film festival of experimental, documentary, and animated films. As described by Alexis Gambis, filmmaker, biologist, and co-organizer with Professor Galison on this event, "Our objective was to give equal weight to the film program and the conversations that occurred before and after. The program also embraced the necessity to embrace experimentation in form and style both in content and ways of seeing. Science New Wave at Harvard celebrated how the boundaries between data, cinema and the imaginary are slowly dissolving. Similar to developing organisms, science films are emerging with new traits and new forms." [### Peter L. Galison ](/people/peter-galison)Joseph Pellegrino University Professor ![professional headshot of Peter Galison](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-10/Galison%2C%20Peter.jpg?h=c809502e&itok=1CHEf2Jz) --- ## Archive Weeks ![graduate student viewing archival materials](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/2025-12/5666C0BF-6DF4-40C3-81C0-E0FF3FBE804E_1_105_c%281%29.jpeg) Molly Walker, 2021In light of travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Professor Hannah Marcus proposed an opportunity for graduate students to have a remote “archive trip,” back in January of 2021. The Graduate Education Beyond the Classroom program made available up to $1000 per student to request digitization of archival materials directly related to their dissertation projects. Due to the success of this project, Professor Marcus has held two more digital “archive trips” since the first Aramont book was published in 2021. In each of these weeks, students committed to working through the archival materials—every day all students met on Zoom with the faculty lead for a lunch discussion. During these lunches, they discussed strategies for working in archives, note taking in archives, and balancing writing and archival research. On the first day the students introduced their topics and shared images of the documents they had scanned. They talked about how to take notes on archival materials, note management systems, photo management systems. On the subsequent days, students told the group about what they’d learned from their sources (and about their own project) in the 24 hours since they last met. This provided accountability for working through sources. They then discussed working with archivists, pacing research and writing, publishing on archival work, and balancing in-person archive work with working from digital facsimiles. [### Hannah Marcus ](/people/hannah-marcus) Professor of the History of Science Faculty Director of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments Areas of Research: Early Modern Science and Medicine Hannah Marcus is Professor of the History of Science in the Department of the History of Science and the Faculty Director of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments at Harvard University... ![Marcus](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/hos/files/hannah_marcus_author_photo.jpg?itok=IEEkdYhz) --- ## Mexico and Panama ![Students in Panama walking along a waterway](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/2025-12/Screenshot%202025-12-12%20at%202.14.39%E2%80%AFPM.png) Coleen Lanier, 2019In January 2019, Professor Gabriela Soto-Laveaga took a group of nine History of Science graduate students to Mexico and Panama. Over the course of ten days, the group visited sites of hydraulic engineering in Latin America that spanned more than 2,000 years. Their goal was to understand the various meanings and manifestations of water engineering in times of empire (both Native American and European), conquest, nation-building, neo-liberal reforms, and climate change. The group started the trip in the archaeological sites of Mesoamerican empires who altered the course of rivers, built a city on a lake, and farmed on so-called floating gardens, before the rivers that fed into, and the construction of, the Panama Canal and its museum with a Smithsonian hydrologist. They visited the Afro-Antillean museum to learn about the role of race in the building of the canal, looking for the missing story of labor, race, and nature when talking about technology. [### Gabriela Soto Laveaga ](/people/gabriela-soto-laveaga) Professor of the History of Science Antonio Madero Professor for the Study of Mexico Areas of Research: Modern Latin America; intersection of science and culture; public health; scientific and medical exchange in the Global South Personal Website Gabriela Soto Laveaga is Professor of the History of Science and Antonio Madero Professor for... ![G_Soto_Laveaga](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/gsl.jpg?itok=ME3FJFKr) --- ## Energy in Ladakh, India ![Large group of locals of the Lugnak Valley and Harvard students around a banner announcing the trip](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/2025-12/IMG_8269.JPG) Naomi Oreskes, 2018In July of 2018, Professor Naomi Oreskes took five History of Science graduate students and the director and founder of Utah Clean Energy into the Lugnak valley of northern India, traveling by plane, car, foot, and horseback for two weeks. Far beyond a traditional scholarly experience, the group not only engaged in an adventure and wonderful exchange of culture, stories, and knowledge with their local guides and hosts, but also brought solar-powered electricity to the remote village of Thangso and its residents by working with Global Himalayan Expedition (GHE). Around the world, more than 1 billion people lack access to electricity. This “energy poverty” is frequently used by the fossil fuel industry and those who are skeptical of climate change to argue that “progress” requires the continued use of oil and gas, particularly insofar as these people “deserve” the same access to energy that the rest of us have. But do these people need fossil fuels? Are there affordable, practical alternatives? GHE provides innovative solutions to energy poverty through a model of ‘impact tourism,’ wherein volunteers from around the world come together to travel to remote villages, transport equipment, and install the micro grids. The tourism aspect of the model serves a purpose beyond the additional funds and helping hands it provides: It brings tourism to the area, which generates revenue for the locals through homestays. The student group engaged with a list of texts and films on a wide range of subjects that would help them prepare intellectually for the expedition, including examinations of recent anthropologies and infrastructure, critiques of renewable energy sources and ideas of sustainability and resilience, the political history of the Ladakh region and the partition of India (the border of Jammu and Kashmir is still contested with Pakistan), and social and cultural history of the region and rural southeast Asia more broadly. [### Naomi Oreskes ](/people/naomi-oreskes) Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences ON LEAVE SPRING 2026 Primary Areas of Research: Agnotology; the Political Economy of Scientific Knowledge; History and Philosophy of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Science and Technology Studies (STS); the History of Climate Change Disinformation Secondary Areas of... ![Naomi Oreskes](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/hos/files/naomi_oreskes.jpg?itok=Wv6gFtmR) --- ## Conservation, Empire And Darwin in Ecuador and Galapagos ![Student crouching to look at a sea bird](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/2025-12/new_img_0946.jpeg) Janet Browne, 2017Taking place in May of 2017, this was the second Graduate Education Beyond the Classroom trip for the graduate students of the department. The trip was led by Professor Janet Browne, and Harvard University Center for the Environment Fellow Laura Martin. Their primary goals for this trip were to engage with the circumstances and historical context of the travels of Charles Darwin and Alexander von Humboldt in Ecuador, and to explore conservation management and the consequences of ecotourism in fragile and historically significant areas. A deeper aim was to explore ways of using landscape as a form of ‘text,’ or living historical ‘document’ to illuminate their research as historians of science. Students visited Quito, where they learned about the pre-colonial history of Ecuador and climbed Mount Cotopaxi in Alexander von Humboldt’s footsteps. They then took a 4-day boat expedition in the Galapagos Islands, where they grappled with the scientific mythologies and commercial tourism focused on Charles Darwin’s visit in 1836, while also coming to understand the intense management procedures to facilitate visitor expectations. The group learned about conservation techniques on site, and the trip ended with a tour of an upland breeding reserve for giant tortoises. Throughout, while engaging with texts and films to prepare them for the expedition, they were encouraged to question what might be ‘natural’ in the context of the trip. [### Janet Browne ](/people/janet-browne) Aramont Professor of the History of Science, Emeritus Areas of Research: History of Biology Janet Browne’s interests range widely over the history of the life and earth sciences and natural history. She came to Harvard in 2006 and teaches a variety of courses on evolutionary history and the history of... ![browne_1.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/hos/files/browne_1.jpg?itok=JMJU5iMI) --- ## Technical Lands ![A group of students walking between concrete tubes in a field.](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/2025-12/IMG_1064.jpg) Matthew Hersch, 2016The first ever Graduate Education Beyond the Classroom expedition in August 2016, led by Professor Peter Galison, was a trip to the American Southwest. The trip was an intense week of work—exploring the variety of ways that the landscape itself has become a technical object across art, industry, and the military. The project was supplemented and deepened by a graduate seminar of the same name, held in the fall of 2016. Over the last century, we have produced a new kind of landscape—one put to scientific, high-tech industrial, artistic and military uses. From massive arrays of radio telescope to miles-long accelerators, thermonuclear weapons, and missile testing areas, the land itself has taken on a new complexion–altering its physical fabric and impacting the region’s economic and even metaphysical status. Their program was ambitious: they began in Salt Lake City, circumnavigated much of the Great Salt Lake, headed towards Last Vegas, east to Albuquerque, south to southern New Mexico, north to Los Alamos and Santa Fe, and finally landed again in Albuquerque–a path of over 2,000 miles. The group visited the Spiral Jetty, the Sun Tunnels, the Center for Land Use Interpretation, the Hoover Dam, the Navajo Nation Tribal Council Chambers, the Trinity Site, Launch Complex 33, the Karl H. Jansky Very Large Radio Astronomy Observatory, Bandelier National Park, and the Los Alamos National Park. All alongside various art installations. Only in person can one experience the cast scale of these technical lands, their impacts across humanity. [### Peter L. Galison ](/people/peter-galison)Joseph Pellegrino University Professor ![professional headshot of Peter Galison](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-10/Galison%2C%20Peter.jpg?h=c809502e&itok=1CHEf2Jz) [### Matthew Hersch ](/people/matthew-hersch) Associate Professor of the History of Science Areas of Research: History of Physical Sciences, Human Sciences, Material Culture, Media Studies, Science Policy, Museum Studies, Psychology and Theories of Mind, Science and Religion, STS, Technology and Society, Women and Gender Studies Matthew Hersch... ![Mathew Hersch](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/hos/files/mathew-hersch.gif?itok=OW2r0bKy) --- 2021 ### First Report on the Aramont Foundation Graduate Education Innovation Fund The faculty members and students who proposed, planned, and undertook these myriad projects each completed their excursions with a written report. Alongside stunning photos from each of these projects, the reports detail a description of the project as a whole, how the format helped students better engage with that content, how it augmented the regular process, their goals and whether they were met, and their biggest takeaways from the projects. Every few years, these reports are compiled into a book, for the students, faculty, and staff of the History of Science department to look back on their work. The first book details the projects from the inception of the program in 2016, to 2021. [ Read Volume 1 Here arrow\_circle\_right ](https://histsci.fas.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/2025-12/History%20Beyond%20the%20Classroom%20-%202021%20Report-1.pdf) ![Sepia tone southwestern landscape](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_1_1__480x480/public/2025-12/Pages%20from%20Aramont_Full_Book_2021.png?h=4efdd21b&itok=JG4fhiLM) 2024 ### Second Report on the Aramont Foundation Graduate Education Innovation Fund The second of these reports details projects from 2021 through 2024, from creative pandemic projects attended virtually to the more recent excursion to the most remote place the Graduate Education Beyond the Classroom program has yet seen: the Svalbard Archipelago. [ Read Volume 2 here arrow\_circle\_right ](https://histsci.fas.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/2025-12/GEBTC%20Volume%202_Compressed.pdf) ![An iceberg next to the title of the book, 'graduate education beyond the classroom'](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_1_1__480x480/public/2025-12/Pages%20from%20History%20Beyond%20the%20Classroom%20-%202024%20Report-2.jpg?h=eff557db&itok=18fKosTs) --- [**Graduate Education Beyond the Classroom**](/file_url/1853) Report on the Aramont Foundation Graduate Education Innovation Fund, 2021 \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ **“Power to the People”: Technology and Culture in Ladakh, India** June 9-23, 2018 Around the world, more than 1 billion people lack access to electricity. This “energy poverty” is frequently used by the fossil fuel industry and those who are skeptical of climate change to argue that “progress” requires the continued use of oil and gas, particularly insofar as these people “deserve” the same access to energy that the rest of us have. But do these people need fossil fuels? Are there affordable, practical alternatives? ![Power to the People 2018](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/hos/files/power_to_people2.png) This trip took us to remote villages in the Ladakh region of Indian, in collaboration with Jaideep Bansal, Energy Access Leader, Global Himalayan Expedition (GHE). GHE has been working to electrify the remote mountain communities using Solar Micro Grids. Relying primarily on volunteers, GHE has brought energy access to over 20,000 people in 60 villages in the Himalayas who previously lacked any access to electricity. The project also involves the training of women villagers as solar engineers, who are able to run and maintain the systems after the volunteers have left, and the creation of village banks to ensure that financing is available for repairs, battery replacement, and future upgrades. We visited several villages in the project, including one where electricity is being installed for the first time and one that has now had electricity for a few years. We talked with villagers in order to understand how they feel about the changes that have ensued, to better understand what happens to remote villages when they get electricity for the first time, and to learn what is most important to them about electricity. Participants also helped with a solar installation and had the opportunity to speak with villagers about their experiences (translators will be provided). Those interested in history of medicine had the opportunity to speak with villagers and healers about traditional medical practices in this region. ![Power to the People](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/hos/files/power_to_people1.png?itok=td5RNKoY) \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ **History Beyond the Classroom**. In early summer 2017, an enterprising group of graduate students, Prof. Janet Browne, and HU Center for the Environment Fellow Laura Martin organized a field excursion to the Galapagos Islands. View video footage from the trip below, read [the online blog](https://historybeyondtheclassroomblog.wordpress.com/) or download [a field summary](/file_url/1131) about this life-changing adventure.