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Omar W. Nasim is a historian of science and technology. Trained in philosophy and physics, his work focuses on scientific practices and techniques relating to observation, such as drawing and note-taking; but also on the histories of technologies ranging from the everyday – such as pencil and paper – to the celebrated, such as photography. His interests extend to the relationship between science, philosophy and art. Over the years, Nasim has taught a wide range of courses, from the history of photography, the concept of the ‘savage’ and the ‘tools of empire’, right through to French philosophy of science, science and controversy, and scientific visualisation.
Nasim’s first book, *Bertrand Russell and the Edwardian Philosophers: Constructing the World* (2008), examined the emergence of early analytic philosophy in Britain, particularly through the lens of lesser-known figures and the history of psychology, logic and mathematics. It won the Bertrand Russell Society’s Book of the Year Award for 2009. His second book, *Observing by Hand: Sketching the Nebulae in the Nineteenth Century* (2013), is the result of detailed archival and historical research, used to reveal the rich and productive links between the acts of drawing, seeing and knowing. This book won the prestigious History of Science Society’s Pfizer Award for Outstanding Scholarly Book in 2016.
He is currently working on two book projects: one is a short book on the epistemic and moral economies of the astronomer’s observing chair; the other is a monograph on the history of photography in astronomy. Nasim is also engaged in a large-scale project on the role of the ornamental arts in the history of science.
Nasim has held fellowships at the Vossius Centre for the History of Humanities and Sciences in Amsterdam, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence, the Newton International Fellowship at the University of Oxford, the Chair for Science Studies at ETH Zurich, the NCCR’s ‘Iconic Criticism’ project at the University of Basel, and the DAAD postgraduate exchange fellowship at the University of Konstanz. In addition to being a lecturer in the history of modern science and technology at the University of Kent, he was also a visiting lecturer in the Department of Art History at the University of Basel.
As Professor of the History of Science at the University of Regensburg, Nasim is keen to supervise Master’s and PhD students, particularly those interested in areas such as: the history of the observational sciences (astronomy, natural history, etc.); the history and philosophy of science; the history of scientific photography; the history of scientific drawing practices; the history of note-taking; the histories of the relationship between science and philosophy; and the relationship between science and art.
Curriculum Vitae
Academic Posts and Fellowships
2016–present
University of Regensburg (Germany)
Professor of the History of Science
Institute of Philosophy
2017
University of Amsterdam
Senior Research Fellow
Vossius Centre for the History of Humanities and Sciences (Netherlands)
2017
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (Germany)
Visiting Scholar
Department II: Lorraine Daston
2014–2016
University of Kent (England)
Lecturer in the History of Modern Science and Technology
School of History
2014
University of Oxford (England)
Newton International Fellow (British Academy)
Faculty of History
2014
University of Basel (Switzerland)
Visiting Lecturer
Department of Art History
2011
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (Germany)
Visiting Scholar
Department II: Lorraine Daston
2009–2014
ETH Zurich (Switzerland)
Senior Lecturer and Research Fellow
Chair in Science Studies
2009–2013
University of Basel (Switzerland)
Research Fellow (SNF)
Iconic Criticism (Eikones)
2008–2009
Institute of Art History in Florence (Italy)
Postdoctoral Fellow on the ‘Knowledge in the Making’ project
Directorship of G. Wolf
2007–2008
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (Germany)
Postdoctoral Fellow on the ‘Knowledge in the Making’ project
Department III: Hans-Jörg Rheinberger
2005–2006
University of Konstanz (Germany)
DAAD Graduate Exchange Fellow
Department of Philosophy: Jürgen Mittelstraß
2000–2005
University of Toronto (Canada)
Lecturer, Tutor and Teaching Assistant
Department of Philosophy
Education
2012
ETH Zurich (Switzerland)
Habilitation
venia legendi: History of Science
2007
University of Toronto (Canada)
Doctorate in Philosophy
Supervisors: Ian Hacking and Alasdair Urquhart
2000
University of Manitoba (Canada)
Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy
Honours Programme
Foto: UR/Julia Dragan
Publications
Books
The Astronomer’s Chair: A Visual and Cultural History (MIT Press, 2021, in press)
The Emergence of Analytic Philosophy and a Controversy at the Aristotelian Society, 1900–1916; guest editor of a special issue of the *Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society*, Virtual Issue, No. 2, 2014
Observing by Hand: Sketching the Nebulae in the Nineteenth Century (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013)
Noting, Sketching: Writing and Drawing as Methods of Design, edited with Karin Krauthausen (Zurich/Berlin: Diaphanes, 2010)
Bertrand Russell and the Edwardian Philosophers: Constructing the World (Palgrave
MacMillan, 2008)
Journal Articles and Contributions to Books
“Hybrid Photography: Cases from Astronomy,” in *Hybrid Images*, eds. Stefanie Klamm, Sara Hillnhüter and Friedrich Tietjen, under review at Bloomsbury Press.
“Photography is not Alone,” in Practising Photography in the Sciences, eds. Kelley Wilder and Geoff Belknap, under review at the University of Chicago Press.
“Handling the Heavens: Things and the Photo-Objects of Astronomy,” in *Photo-Objects: Photographs as Research Objects*, for a special virtual edition at the KHI, forthcoming.
“James Nasmyth on the Moon; Or on Becoming a Lunar Being Without the Lunacy,” in a special issue of *Nuncius: Journal of the Material and Visual History of Science*, forthcoming.
“The Labour of Handwork in Astronomy: Between Drawing and Photography in Anton Pannekoek,” in Anton Pannekoek (1873–1960): Ways of Viewing Science and Society – Modernism in Science, Radical Politics and Art, eds. Jeroen van Dongen and Chaokang Tai (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2017), forthcoming.
“Making Invisible: The Other Side of Scientific Visualisation,” in Re-Thinking Visualisation: a multidisciplinary attempt at the concept, eds. by Erna Fiorentini and James Elkins (Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2017), forthcoming.
“Observatory,” in Handbook of the History of Science, eds. M. Sommer, C. Reinhardt, and S. Müller-Wille (Stuttgart: Metzler Lexikon-Verlag, 2017), pp. 180–92.
“Astrophotography and John Herschel’s ‘Skeletons’” in Showing and/or Proving?: Photography as a Cultural Technique and Medium of Knowledge, ed. Herta Wolf (Berlin: Akademie Verlag’s Series: Studies in Theory and History of Photography, 2016) pp. 157–78.
“Introduction: Emergence of Analytic Philosophy and a Controversy at the Aristotelian Society, 1900–1916,” in *Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society*, ed. Omar W. Nasim, virtual issue, No. 2, 2014, pp. 10–30.
“What is Historical Epistemology?” in *Nach Feierabend*, eds. M. Hagner and C. Hirschi, (Zurich/Berlin: Diaphanes, 2013) pp. 123–144.
“Extending the Gaze: The Temporality of Astronomical Paperwork,” in *Science in Context*, 2013, 26: 247–277.
“On Scribbles in Space,” in *Über Kritzeln: Graphismen zwischen Schrift, Bild, Text und Zeichen*, eds. Christian Driesen et al. (Zurich/Berlin: Diaphanes, 2012), pp. 71–90.
“Observing by Hand,” in Rheinsprung 11: “On the Manual Nature of Drawing,” eds. Hana Gründler, Toni Hildebrandt, Omar Nasim, and Wolfram Pichler, Virtual Issue, 2012, 66–74.
“The Spaces of Knowledge: Bertrand Russell, Logical Construction, and the Classification of the Sciences,” in *British Journal for the History of Philosophy*, 2012, 20: 1163–1182.
“Nebulae,” in A Natural History for the 21st Century, eds. Azzouni, Brandt, Gausemeier, et al. (Berlin: Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, 2011), pp. 165–66.
“The ‘Landmark’ and ‘Groundwork’ of Stars: John Herschel, Photography and the Drawing of Nebulae,” in Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, 2011, 42: 67–84.
“Drawing as a Means of ‘Familiarisation’ for the Exploration of Nebulae in the Lord Rosse Project,” in Noting, Sketching. Writing and Drawing as Methods of Design, eds. Karin Krauthausen and Omar Nasim (Zurich/Berlin: Diaphanes, 2010), pp. 159–88.
“Paper Techniques in the Laboratory. Interview with Hans-Jörg Rheinberger,” in Noting, Sketching. Writing and Drawing as Methods of Design, eds. Karin Krauthausen and Omar Nasim (Zurich/Berlin: Diaphanes, 2010) pp. 139–58.
“Observation, Working-Images, and Procedure: the ‘Great Spiral’ in Lord Rosse’s Astronomical Record Books and Beyond,” in British Journal for the History of Science, 2010, 43: 353–389.
“Explaining G.F. Stout’s Reaction to Russell’s ‘On Denoting’,” in *Russell vs. Meinong: the Legacy of “On Denoting”*, eds. Nicholas Griffin and Dale Jacquette (London: Routledge Press, 2009), pp. 101–112.
“On Seeing an Image of a Spiral Nebula: From Whewell to Flammarion,” in *Nuncius: Journal of the History of Science*, 2009, 24: 393–414.
“Bertrand Russell’s July 1915 Letter on Sense-Data,” in *Bertrand Russell Society Quarterly*, May–November 2009, 142–144:35–38.
“Observations by Hand: Astronomical Nebula Sketches in the 19th Century,” in Preserving Data: Writing and Drawing as Methods of Record-Keeping, ed. Christoph Hoffmann (Zurich/Berlin: Diaphanes Verlag, 2008) pp. 21–46.
“Observations, Descriptions, and Drawings of Nebulae: A Sketch,” in Max Planck Institute for the History of Science Pre-Print Series, No. 345, Berlin: 2008.
Reviews, Reports and Review Essays
Review of: *Artificial Darkness: An Obscure History of Modern Art and Media* by Noam M. Elcott, University of Chicago Press, 2016, in the *British Journal for the History of Science*, in preparation.
Review of: *Science from Sight to Insight: How Scientists Illustrate Meaning*, by Alan G. Gross and Joseph E. Harmon, University of Chicago Press, 2014, in *HOPOS: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science* 6:1 2016, pp. 168–71.
Review of: G. F. Stout and the Psychological Origins of Analytic Philosophy,
M. van der Schaar, Macmillan 2013, in *Dialectica* 49:1 2015.
Essay review of: *Discovery and Classification in Astronomy: Controversy and Consensus* by Steven J. Dick, Cambridge University Press, 2013, in *Metascience* 23:3, 2014.
Review of: An Introduction to Russell’s The Problems of Philosophy by David Mills Daniel and Megan Daniel, in Russell: The Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies 30:2, 2011.
Review of: *Mulla Sadra and Metaphysics: Modulation of Being* by Sajjad H. Rizvi, in *Journal for Islamic Philosophy* (Special Issue) 6, 2010.
Review of: *Surrealism, Art and Modern Science* by Gavin Parkinson, in: *Nuncius* 24 (2009), pp. 244–46.
Report on: “What (Good) is Historical Epistemology?” Reprinted in the Association of Historical Research Institutions in the Federal Republic of Germany. No. 187, 2008.
Report on: The International Conference “What (Good) is Historical Epistemology?” 24–26 July 2008, in *The Reasoner*, 2:9, September 2008.