Stefan Bernhardt-Radu
- Email: prsbr@leeds.ac.uk
- Thesis title: From the laboratory into the field: A cultural history of ecological genetics, Britain 1928-1969.
- Supervisor: Professor Gregory Radick
Profile
I am a PhD student at the Centre for History and Philosophy of Science, broadly interested in the meaning and success of scientific concepts and instruments, and the identities which form together, and around, them. Before coming to Leeds in 2021, I have studied, amongst others, environmental history at Coventry, and history of medicine at Warwick.
My dissertation explores and examines the historically dynamic meanings of the ‘gene’ concept with a focus on Julian Huxley. From his perspective, I am interested in the intellectual development which underpinned the concept at a specific place and time, including the educational background, the personal interactions and context. In doing so, I am likewise analysing the wider contextual factors, including debates about overpopulation, a troubled British Empire, and anxieties about the colonies. Focusing on the meaning of a concept for one person, we come to understand, in more detail, the complex intellectual, personal, and political processes whereby the meanings of a concept come about, change, and, relative to audience/time/place, disappear – in a complex intertwinement of both diachronic and synchronic elements.
Qualifications
- MA History of Medicine (Warwick)
- BA History (Coventry)