People

Jimena Canales

Associate Professor of the History of Science

Jimena is a historian of science focusing on the modern physical sciences. She works on visual, film and media studies, epistemology, and theories of modernity and post-modernity. Recent courses include Science and Art; The Matter of Fact (evaluated 4.8 from 5); Whither History of Science; Science, Modernity and Discontent (evaluated 4.8 from 5); and The Clockwork Universe, among others (see teaching statement).

Jimena is the author of A Tenth of a Second: A History (hardcover 2010; kindle 2011; paperback 2012), which has been widely reviewed and praised in academic and journalistic forums (read reviews here). Her second book project is Einstein's Original Sin—And the Philosophers Who Never Forgave Him (currently in preparation) focusing on a debate between the physicist Albert Einstein and the philosopher Henri Bergson. She received the “Prize for Young Scholars” International Union of History and Philosophy of Science, Division of History of Science and Technology and was recently awarded the Charles A. Ryskamp research fellowship award from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). Jimena has been a visitor at various universities and research centers including Max Planck Institute, IKKM, Princeton University and MIT. She has lectured widely nationally and internationally, including the Musée Pompidou, Fundación Juan March, the BBC and others.

Publications:

For the final version of the following articles, please refer to the originals in print. The copyright for these texts is with the publisher. Please contact the publisher for any use other than private reading.

Book:

A Tenth of a Second: A History (Chicago: Chicago University Press, October 2009).

Speaking about "A Tenth of a Second" on “The Forum” BBC World Service, 29/08/2010

Articles & Book Chapters:

“The Media of Relativity: Einstein and Telecommunication Technologies” (in progress)
“Cleopatra’s Nose—and the Development of World History,” In Uncomfortable Objects, edited by Mariana Castillo Deball (Berlin: Bom Dia, 2012).
“Little Helpers. About Demons, Angels and Other Servants,” Interdisciplinary Science Reviews 37 (2012). (With Markus Krajewski).
"Never and Nowhere," in Above and Below, ed. Sharon Harper (Radius Books, Santa Fe: 2012)
"Flash Force: A Visual History of Might, Right and Light," Seeing With Eyes Closed, ed. Elena Agudio and Ivana Franke (Fibo Druck und Design, Munich: 2011), pp. 34-41.
“Of Twins and Time,” In Neutrality in Twentieth-Century Europe: Intersections of Science, Culture and Politics after the First World War, Lettevall, Somsen, Widmalm eds. (Routledge Press: forthcoming 2011).
“A Science of Signals: Einstein, Inertia, and the Postal System,” Thresholds 39 (March 2011), pp. 12-25

“Desired Machines: Cinema and the World in its Own Image,” Science in Context 24 (2011), pp. 329-359.
“‘A Number of Scenes in a Badly Cut Film’: Observation in the Age of Strobe.” In Histories of Scientific Observation, ed. Lorraine Daston and Elizabeth Lunbeck (University of Chicago Press, 2011).
“Presentación de La Guerra del Tiempo: Einstein, Bergson y Poincaré: Un Debate Científico y Filosófico,” Revista de Occidente (October 2010), pp. 71 - 90.

“El Duelo del Tiempo,” ABCD: Las Artes y las Letras, Page 1, Page 2, 16 January 2010, No. 932, p.18-19.
“Putting Facts in their Proper Place,” In The Matter of Fact 2.0 (Exhibition Catalog, Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, 2009).
“Die Geschwindigkeit des Empfindens: Philosophie im Zeitalter der Bewegungstechnologien.” In Parasiten und Sirenen, ed. By Bernhard J. Dotzler and Henning Schmidgen (Transcript: Bielefeld, 2008), pp. 83-106.
“Pieles Criminales,” ABCD: Las Artes y las Letras (13-19 September 2008), pp. 6-7.
“Introduction.” In The Matter of Fact (Exhibition Catalog Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, 2008), pp. 2-3.
“Einstein, Bergson, and the Experiment that Failed: Intellectual Cooperation at the League of Nations,” Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science, ed. by Michal Kokowski (The Press of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2007), 723-724
“Sensational Differences: The Case of the Transit of Venus,” Cahiers François Viète 11-12 (2007): 15-40.
“Contacto Celestial: Un Instante en la Ciencia,” In Variedad Sin Límites: Las Representaciones en la Ciencia, edited by Edna Suárez Díaz, (México: UNAM and Limusa, forthcoming).
“Movement before Cinematography: The High-Speed Qualities of Sentiment,” Journal of Visual Culture 5 (2006): 275-294.
“Einstein, Bergson, and the Experiment that Failed: Intellectual Cooperation at the League of Nations,” Modern Language Notes 120 (2005): 1168-1191.
“Criminal Skins: Tattoos and Modern Architecture in the work of Adolf Loos,” Architectural History: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 48 (2005): 235-256.
“Cultures of Astronomy,” In Time, Life and Matter (Exhibition Catalog Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, 2007, p. 7.
“Photogenic Venus: The 'Cinematographic Turn' in Science and its Alternatives,” Isis 93 (2002): 585-613.
“Ornamento y Crimen: Tatuajes, Antropología Criminal, y Arquitectura Moderna,” Celeste (2001): 30-32.
“Exit the Frog, Enter the Human: Astronomy, Physiology and Experimental Psychology in the Nineteenth Century,” British Journal for the History of Science 34 (2001): 173-197.
“The Single Eye: Reevaluating Ancien Régime Science,” History of Science 39 (2001): 71-94.