Edmund Todd, Ph.D.
Department of Human Sciences - History
College of Arts and Sciences
Education
Ph.D., History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania
M.A. History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania
M.A., Modern European History, University of Florida
B.A. History, University of Florida
Research
My research focuses on large technological systems, also known as infrastructure, mainly in Germany. Why and how were systems for water, transportation, energy, and communications built, and how were they operated? Building and operating infrastructures required careful attention to the knowledge and know-how needed to resolve problems at local, regional, national, and transnational levels of governance. Those problems involved economic, social, political, and environmental issues in the hidden -- and sometimes not so hidden -- technological integration of regions and nations. Since it may be clear if infrastructures work, they provide a basis for comparative history. Where do they work and why do they work? Part of Science and Technology Studies, this research area provides an interdisciplinary approach to the world in which we live.
At the University of New Haven, I teach several courses in Science and Technology Studies: the history of science, the history of technology, environmental history, and an interdisciplinary course combining the history, sociology, and philosophy of science. In addition, I teach German History, The Modern Western World, and Europe in the Twentieth Century. My most recent special topics course investigated the age of wars between 1914 and 1945.
Publications
"Coordinating the Local: Building Water Regimes in the Ruhr and Louisiana," ICON: Journal of the international Committee for the History of Technology 18 (2012), 1-34.
"Technology, Landscape, Culture, and Music in Bochum and Bayou: 1880-1930," in Technik zwischen Artes und Arts; Technology between Artes and Arts: Festschrift für Hans-Joachim Braun. Pp. 103-115. Edited by Reinhold Bauer, James Williams, and Wolfhard Weber. Münster: Waxmann, 2008.
"Landscaping the Ruhr as a Vacation Wonderland: Building the Twentieth Century out of the Seventeenth." ICON 10 (2004), 123-138.
"Engineering Politics, Technological Fundamentalism, and German Power Technology, 1900-1936." In Technologies of Power: Essays in Honor of Thomas Parke Hughes and Agatha Chipley Hughes. Pp. 145-174. Edited by Michael Thad Allen and Gabrielle Hecht. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001.
"Building a Hybrid Landscape to Purify the Ruhr Region, 1890-1935." History of Technology 22 (2000), 25-42.
"Von Essen zur regionalen Stromversorgung, 1890-1920. Das Rheinisch-Westfälische Elektrizitätswerk." In Elektrizitätswirtschaft zwischen Umwelt, Technik und Politik: Aspekte aus 100 Jahren RWE-Geschichte, 1898-1998. Pp. 17-49. Edited by Helmut Maier. Freiberg: TU Bergakademie Freiberg, 1999.
"Prussian Landräte and Modern Technology: Electricity as a Source of Power in the Ruhr, 1900-1915." ICON 2 (1996), 83-107.
"Building a Pumped Storage Station on the Ruhr, 1920-1930." IEEE Power Engineering Review 16 (April 1996), 39-41.
"Electric Ploughs in Wilhelmine Germany: Failure of an Agricultural System." Social Studies of Science 22 (1992), 263-281.
"Industry, State, and Electrical Technology in the Ruhr circa 1900." Osiris 5 (1989), 243-259.
"Industrial Structure, Progressives, and the Development of Chemical Engineering at Columbia, 1900-1915." In Technology and Technological Sciences in History: Proceedings of the ICOHTEC-Symposium Dresden, 25.-29. August 1986. Pp. 267-270. Edited by Rolf Sonnemann and Klaus Krug. Berlin: VEB Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1987.
"A Tale of Three Cities: Electrification and the Structure of Choice in the Ruhr, 1886-1900." Social Studies of Science 17 (1987), 387-412.
Reviews in Alemannia Studens, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Business History, Business History Review, Enterprise & Society, Environmental History, German Politics and Society, ISIS, The Journal of Economic History, Nature, Science, and Technology and Culture.
Honors, Fellowships and Grants
Wye Faculty Seminar, Summer 2004
Advisory Editor, Technology and Culture, 1996-2006
Robinson Prize Committee, Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), 1994-1996. Chair, 1996.
Advisory Council, SHOT, 1993-1996
DAAD Summer Seminar, "The Kaiserreich Recast: Culture, Politics, Modernity," University of Pennsylvania, 1990
University of New Haven Summer Research Grant, 1989
ACLS Grants-in-Aid, Summer 1986
Newcomen Society Prize, 1983
Mellon Graduate Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania, 1982-1983
Fulbright Scholar, Germany, 1979-1981
Teaching Fellow, University of Pennsylvania, 1976-1979
University of Florida-Tübingen Universität Exchange Fellowship, 1974-1975
Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, 1974
Graduate Council Fellowship, University of Florida, 1973-1974