Will Deringer

Part of a great special issue on "History of Economics in the Extended Field" ed. Joel Isaac & Philippe Fontaine.

Alongside articles by @abenanav.bsky.social, @smacekura.bsky.social, @simontorracinta.bsky.social, Eli Cook, Erik Baker, and Jonny Bunning

read.dukeupress.edu/hope/advance...

The advance version of my article on "The 'Social Rate of Discount' and the Political Economy of the Future in Postwar America" is out in History of Political Economy!

read.dukeupress.edu/hope/article...

So happy to see KSJ in such good hands. And so happy to return to being a full-time writer, with yet another book about poison in the works.

We're so excited to have you joining us, Usha!

Usha Lee McFarling Named Director of the Knight Science Journalism Program - Knight Science Journalism @MIT McFarling, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and national science correspondent for STAT, was a 1992-93 Knight Science Journalism Fellow.

Some personal news. I'll be leaving STAT to take up what is a dream job for me, and a critical position in a time when science journalism is threatened on so many fronts. I look forward to supporting my colleagues, and the field itself, as much as I can. ksj.mit.edu/news/2025/05...

Usha Lee McFarling Named Director of the Knight Science Journalism Program - Knight Science Journalism @MIT McFarling, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and national science correspondent for STAT, was a 1992-93 Knight Science Journalism Fellow.

Thrilled that Usha Lee McFarling (@usha.bsky.social) join MIT as the next Director of the Knight Science Journalism Program!

Usha will succeed the inimitable Deborah Blum (@deborahb.bsky.social), who has elevated the KSJ in countless ways over the past decade.

ksj.mit.edu/news/2025/05...

Director, Knight Science Journalism Fellowship MIT - Director, Knight Science Journalism Fellowship - Cambridge MA 02139

Pleased to announce the search for the next Director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT!

Housed within MIT's STS Program, the KSJ seeks to advance science journalism in the public interest.

Job link: careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/cl...

Full ad: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qwvvn...

Beyond excited to share this article, ten years in the making. I think it’s the best work I’ve done.

“Mr. Aecroid’s Tables: Economic Calculations and Social Customs in the Early Modern Countryside,” Jnl of Modern History

Open Access!

www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

My excellent PhD student, Tola Ajao, was instrumental in putting this great resource together for @shothisttech.bsky.social
www.historyoftechnology.org/doing-histor...

Raven Used Book, Shelburne Falls, MA interior.

Calculated Values: Finance, Politics, and the Quantitative Age

Made the trip to Shelburne Falls, MA this weekend to visit the new Raven Used Books location--stunning! No better place to browse University Press titles. Especially thrilled to have found @calculatedvalues.bsky.social's book CALCULATED VALUES!

Come work at Durham University! #histmed #histsci #hps #sts

durham.taleo.net/careersectio...

I definitely enjoyed it but it really made me pine for another season of Goliath

Portrait photo in color of Will Deringer

Economist Irving Fisher 1927 b and w photo.

Congrats & Thanks to @calculatedvalues.bsky.social MIT's William Deringer who gave an amazingly insightful lecture for our U of Minnesota HSTM Colloquium yesterday on Irving Fisher & the wide & deep history of discounting from finance & psychology to understandings of the present & future. #histsci

Fall 2023 Colloquium

Excited to present Friday at Minnesota in the Hist & Phil of Sci / Tech / Med Colloquium!

I'll be talking discounting calculations, Irving Fisher, the economics of time, "New Thought," and the idealization of economics in the early 20c.

Equal parts wonky and woo-woo.

cse.umn.edu/hstm/fall-20...

Louis Gottschalk book prize for studies of the long 18th century: deadline is Dec. 1! Info here: asecs.org/resources/aw... Please share widely.

If you have power over a search committee (or are on it) and it still is asking for 3 letters of rec before making a long short list...c'mon. Be serious.

#BurnInHell

Abe Froman? The Sausage King of Chicago?

When and why did the standard epithet for someone who overindulges in gambling become “degenerate”? Are others who are overcome by different vices described as degens?

If you're a historian of technology & will be at the SHOT meeting, stop by the JHUP table and look for Asif Siddiqi, Kate mcDonald, or me. We have a book series with JHUP & are happy to discuss projects.

#Histsci #HistSTM 🗃️

(Running owl added because we all need more running owls in our lives)

Dutch Book arguments lose most of their power once you’ve seen how a four year old can both absolutely refuse to get into the bathtub and absolutely refuse to get out of the bathtub

"Applications must include a letter of application, CV, a writing sample of ca. 25 pages, evidence of contributions to DEI, and three letters of recommendation. Finalists will also be asked for teaching evaluations"

Rice University - shame. There's no need to ask for all this up front.

Wall of shame.

This is the kind of post I want to see more of on bluesky

The only good part of doing the dishes is finishing the last bites of salad with the big salad fork thing and pretending to be a giant

Media and the Mind Book Cover

My book has just been published!

press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

How We Know What We Know Lorraine Daston Why is there no epistemology of the humanities that is even remotely comparable to the epistemology of the sciences? Why is it that humanists can gesture to only a handful of seminal w...

"Why is there no epistemology of the humanities that is even remotely comparable to the epistemology of the sciences?... I’m not so sure we really know how we know what we know... The first step in justifying our ways of knowing to... doubters wld be to justify them to ourselves." - Lorraine Daston

To departments and institutions that explicitly do not accept generic recommendation letters or recs from a dossier service:

Why?

(More directly: this is a terrible practice and you should stop it.)

How poignant: on the very same day that there’s a conference in her honor at the University of Toronto, Evelyn Fox Keller passes away ihpst.utoronto.ca/news/full-pr...

2023 British Society for History of Science Hughes Prize for accessible book in #histsci is awarded to Keith Wailoo for 
Pushing Cool. Big Tobacco, Racial Marketing, & the Untold Story of the Menthol Cigarette.
Free online lecture on October 17, 10 am ET / 3 pm GMT
www.bshs.org.uk/hughes-prize...
🗃️

First post is to say:

If you or anyone you know is interested in a PhD program where they can explore the social, cultural, and historical dimensions of the technical worlds we inhabit, check out HASTS at MIT!

We host a virtual visit day October 13. More info here!

hasts.mit.edu/visiting/