Omar W. Nasim
I am the Professor for the History of Science at the University of Regensburg (Germany).
Was previously at the School of History at the University of Kent (UK) between 2014-2016 and before that at Oxford, where I was a Newton Fellow at the Department of History.
Obtained my Habilitation at the ETH-Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), where I was a Senior Lecturer 2009-2014 at the Chair for Science Studies, and a member of Eikones at the University of Basel, at the same time.
And did my Phd. at the University of Toronto, in the Department of Philosophy. Spent a year at the University of Konstanz (Germany), to finish up my thesis (2005-06). Afterwhich, I began with the project, _Knowledge in the Making_, for which I spent one year (2007-08) at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (Berlin), and then nearly two years at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence (Italy).
Supervisors: Ian Hacking and Alasdair Urquhart
Was previously at the School of History at the University of Kent (UK) between 2014-2016 and before that at Oxford, where I was a Newton Fellow at the Department of History.
Obtained my Habilitation at the ETH-Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), where I was a Senior Lecturer 2009-2014 at the Chair for Science Studies, and a member of Eikones at the University of Basel, at the same time.
And did my Phd. at the University of Toronto, in the Department of Philosophy. Spent a year at the University of Konstanz (Germany), to finish up my thesis (2005-06). Afterwhich, I began with the project, _Knowledge in the Making_, for which I spent one year (2007-08) at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (Berlin), and then nearly two years at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence (Italy).
Supervisors: Ian Hacking and Alasdair Urquhart
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Books by Omar W. Nasim
—David Kaiser, Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science, MIT
“This creatively illustrated study by an eminent historian uses a seemingly mundane theme, depictions of astronomers’ seating, to reveal with startling insight and expert craft the complex cultures of comfort, attention, and discipline that governed nineteenth-century stargazing.”
—Simon Schaffer, Professor of History of Science, University of Cambridge
“The Astronomer’s Chair takes us on an interdisciplinary journey through the history of science, design, imperialism, and material culture. With this book, Omar Nasim models thrilling new directions in intellectual inquiry.”
—Aviva Briefel, Edward Little Professor of the English Language and Literature and Cinema Studies, Bowdoin College
“A fascinating book that underscores how, in visual culture, it’s often pictures of those who explore science that best communicates the nature of their work.”
—Marvin Heiferman, curator and author of Seeing Science: How Photography Reveals the Universe
The astronomer's chair is a leitmotif in the history of astronomy, appearing in hundreds of drawings, prints, and photographs from a variety of sources. Nineteenth-century stargazers in particular seemed eager to display their observing chairs—task-specific, often mechanically adjustable observatory furniture designed for use in conjunction with telescopes. But what message did they mean to send with these images? In The Astronomer's Chair, Omar W. Nasim considers these specialized chairs as both image and object, offering an original framework for linking visual and material cultures. Observing chairs, Nasim ingeniously argues, showcased and embodied forms of scientific labor, personae, and bodily practice that appealed to bourgeois sensibilities.
Viewing image and object as connected parts of moral, epistemic, and visual economies of empire, Nasim shows that nineteenth-century science was represented in terms of comfort and energy, and that “manly” postures of Western astronomers at work in specialized chairs were contrasted pointedly with images of “effete” and cross-legged “Oriental” astronomers. Extending his historical analysis into the twentieth century, Nasim reexamines what he argues to be a famous descendant of the astronomer's chair: Freud's psychoanalytic couch, which directed observations not outward toward the stars but inward toward the stratified universe of the psyche. But whether in conjunction with the mind or the heavens, the observing chair was a point of entry designed for specialists that also portrayed widely held assumptions about who merited epistemic access to these realms in the first place.
With more than 100 illustrations, many in color; flexibound.
Die Beiträge untersuchen die konkreten Verfahren, die in Notizheften und Skizzenbüchern von Künstlern, Philosophen und Wissenschaftlern zu entdecken sind. Das Entwerfen zeigt sich hier in dem tentativen oder systematischen Durchspielen verschiedener Variationen eines epistemischen Objekts; es zeigt sich als bewusstes Herstellen von ›Unlesbarkeiten‹, um durch diese Störung zu innovativem Formmaterial zu gelangen; es zeigt sich aber auch in der Suche nach neuen operativen Schriften oder Figurationen. Zu beobachten ist in all diesen Fällen, dass das Geschehen auf Papier ein Eigenleben zeitigt, das weder durch die Intentionalität des Schreibenden/Zeichnenden gedeckt ist noch in der Entwicklung auf ein Ziel aufgeht. Die Publikation macht diese eigene – mediale, zuweilen formale, immer aber konditionierende – Qualität an einem Panorama verschiedener Entwurfstechniken sichtbar.
Mit Beiträgen von
Rüdiger Campe, Stephan Kammer, Karin Krauthausen, Omar W. Nasim und Ralph Ubl.
"The result is a fascinating reappraisal of Russell’s motivations and infuences that signifcantly advances our understanding of Russell’s philosophy...This book is a very original study that genuinely deepens our understanding of Russell by presenting new insight into his motivations and concerns at the time when he was engaged in some of the most important work of his career. What it shows is that contrary to popular myth, Russell’s philosophical development in the first decade of the twentieth century was not purely the product of a single-minded investigation into mathematical logic, conducted independently of the surrounding philosophical context of the period. Rather, Russell’s “Edwardian” philosophical contemporaries exerted a signifcant infuence on him. This is in itself is good reason for looking again at what they had to say. Nasim’s book is an excellent place to start looking." Graham Stevens _Russell_
Papers by Omar W. Nasim
of astronomical representation, focusing particularly on Anton Pannekoek’s
Milky Way drawings. Using a range of cases, it explores how
the acts of seeing, knowing, and drawing interacted to benefit observers,
especially as a form of scientific labour. This functions as background
for understanding the role of drawing and photography in Pannekoek’s
graphical work. This paper activates the notion of handwork in relation
to labour to make it historically relevant for astronomy’s representational
practices, but also to connect these to broader political and epistemological trends. It will be shown that Pannekoek’s emphasis on manual labour acted as a bridge between photography and drawings, and more generally, as an important cross-over point between Pannekoek-the-socialist and Pannekoek-the-astronomer.
—David Kaiser, Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science, MIT
“This creatively illustrated study by an eminent historian uses a seemingly mundane theme, depictions of astronomers’ seating, to reveal with startling insight and expert craft the complex cultures of comfort, attention, and discipline that governed nineteenth-century stargazing.”
—Simon Schaffer, Professor of History of Science, University of Cambridge
“The Astronomer’s Chair takes us on an interdisciplinary journey through the history of science, design, imperialism, and material culture. With this book, Omar Nasim models thrilling new directions in intellectual inquiry.”
—Aviva Briefel, Edward Little Professor of the English Language and Literature and Cinema Studies, Bowdoin College
“A fascinating book that underscores how, in visual culture, it’s often pictures of those who explore science that best communicates the nature of their work.”
—Marvin Heiferman, curator and author of Seeing Science: How Photography Reveals the Universe
The astronomer's chair is a leitmotif in the history of astronomy, appearing in hundreds of drawings, prints, and photographs from a variety of sources. Nineteenth-century stargazers in particular seemed eager to display their observing chairs—task-specific, often mechanically adjustable observatory furniture designed for use in conjunction with telescopes. But what message did they mean to send with these images? In The Astronomer's Chair, Omar W. Nasim considers these specialized chairs as both image and object, offering an original framework for linking visual and material cultures. Observing chairs, Nasim ingeniously argues, showcased and embodied forms of scientific labor, personae, and bodily practice that appealed to bourgeois sensibilities.
Viewing image and object as connected parts of moral, epistemic, and visual economies of empire, Nasim shows that nineteenth-century science was represented in terms of comfort and energy, and that “manly” postures of Western astronomers at work in specialized chairs were contrasted pointedly with images of “effete” and cross-legged “Oriental” astronomers. Extending his historical analysis into the twentieth century, Nasim reexamines what he argues to be a famous descendant of the astronomer's chair: Freud's psychoanalytic couch, which directed observations not outward toward the stars but inward toward the stratified universe of the psyche. But whether in conjunction with the mind or the heavens, the observing chair was a point of entry designed for specialists that also portrayed widely held assumptions about who merited epistemic access to these realms in the first place.
With more than 100 illustrations, many in color; flexibound.
Die Beiträge untersuchen die konkreten Verfahren, die in Notizheften und Skizzenbüchern von Künstlern, Philosophen und Wissenschaftlern zu entdecken sind. Das Entwerfen zeigt sich hier in dem tentativen oder systematischen Durchspielen verschiedener Variationen eines epistemischen Objekts; es zeigt sich als bewusstes Herstellen von ›Unlesbarkeiten‹, um durch diese Störung zu innovativem Formmaterial zu gelangen; es zeigt sich aber auch in der Suche nach neuen operativen Schriften oder Figurationen. Zu beobachten ist in all diesen Fällen, dass das Geschehen auf Papier ein Eigenleben zeitigt, das weder durch die Intentionalität des Schreibenden/Zeichnenden gedeckt ist noch in der Entwicklung auf ein Ziel aufgeht. Die Publikation macht diese eigene – mediale, zuweilen formale, immer aber konditionierende – Qualität an einem Panorama verschiedener Entwurfstechniken sichtbar.
Mit Beiträgen von
Rüdiger Campe, Stephan Kammer, Karin Krauthausen, Omar W. Nasim und Ralph Ubl.
"The result is a fascinating reappraisal of Russell’s motivations and infuences that signifcantly advances our understanding of Russell’s philosophy...This book is a very original study that genuinely deepens our understanding of Russell by presenting new insight into his motivations and concerns at the time when he was engaged in some of the most important work of his career. What it shows is that contrary to popular myth, Russell’s philosophical development in the first decade of the twentieth century was not purely the product of a single-minded investigation into mathematical logic, conducted independently of the surrounding philosophical context of the period. Rather, Russell’s “Edwardian” philosophical contemporaries exerted a signifcant infuence on him. This is in itself is good reason for looking again at what they had to say. Nasim’s book is an excellent place to start looking." Graham Stevens _Russell_
of astronomical representation, focusing particularly on Anton Pannekoek’s
Milky Way drawings. Using a range of cases, it explores how
the acts of seeing, knowing, and drawing interacted to benefit observers,
especially as a form of scientific labour. This functions as background
for understanding the role of drawing and photography in Pannekoek’s
graphical work. This paper activates the notion of handwork in relation
to labour to make it historically relevant for astronomy’s representational
practices, but also to connect these to broader political and epistemological trends. It will be shown that Pannekoek’s emphasis on manual labour acted as a bridge between photography and drawings, and more generally, as an important cross-over point between Pannekoek-the-socialist and Pannekoek-the-astronomer.
Edited by Erna Fiorentini, Berlin: LIT Verlag, Series "Culture, Research and Knowledge, (in press)