Prof Aileen Fyfe
Professor of Modern History
- Phone
- +44 (0)1334 46 2996
- akf@st-andrews.ac.uk
- Location
- St Katharine's Lodge
- Office hours
- Tuesday 3.30-4.30pm (MO3331)
Biography
I trained in the History & Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, but have worked in History departments for the last 25 years, first at the National University of Ireland, Galway (2000-2010) and at the University of ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø since 2011.
Research areas
My research focuses upon the histories of science and knowledge. I am interested in scholarly communities, learned institutions, and scientific publications. I trained in the history of science, but also work on the histories of technology, publishing, and universities. Nineteenth-century Britain has long been at the heart of my research career, but my interests range from the seventeenth century to the present day.
I have spent much of the last decade investigating the history of academic publishing; this includes the financial models underpinning scientific journals, as well as their editorial and reviewing processes. My book (2022, OA) was the result of , the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. The expertise gained from that project allows me to offer a historical perspective on contemporary debates about open access, peer review and the future of scholarly communications. Our briefing paper Untangling Academic Publishing: a history of the relationship between commercial interests, academic prestige and the circulation of research (2017) offers a short, non-technical introduction to the key themes.
I currently co-direct several projects examining the history of the University of ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø: one focuses on the experiences of over the course of the 20th century; another is investigating the arising from connections to enslavement and British colonialism in the 18th and 19th centuries.
I am also writing a history of information, statistics, and publishing in Victorian Britain.
Previous works include Steam-Powered Knowledge: William Chambers and the business of publishing, 1820-1860 (2012), which investigated the connections between technology and instructive publishing in the mid-19th-century; I wrote about railways, steamships and steam-powered printing machines in Britain and the USA. I also wrote Science and Salvation: evangelicals and popular science publishing in Victorian Britain (2004) and am co-editor of Science in the Marketplace: nineteenth-century sites and experiences (2007).
PhD supervision
- Sudarshana Banerjee
- Anqi Huang
- Greg Morgan
Selected publications
-
Open access
Fyfe, A., Moxham, N., McDougall-Waters, J. & Rostvik, C. M., 3 Oct 2022, London: UCL Press. 643 p.
Research output: Book/Report › Book
-
Open access
Fyfe, A., Coate, K., Curry, S., Lawson, S., Moxham, N. & Rostvik, C. M., 25 May 2017, ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø: University of ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø. 26 p.
Research output: Book/Report › Other report
-
Open access
Fyfe, A., 1 Feb 2024, In: Notes and Records: the Royal Society Journal of the History of Science. 78, 1, 28 p., 20220021.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Open access
Moxham, N. & Fyfe, A., Dec 2018, In: The Historical Journal. 61, 4, p. 863-889 863.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Fyfe, A. (Editor) & Gielas, A. M. (Editor), Feb 2020, In: Centaurus. 62, 1
Research output: Contribution to journal › Special issue › peer-review
-
Open access
Fyfe, A., McDougall-Waters, J. & Moxham, N., 1 Dec 2018, In: Victorian Periodicals Review. 51, 4, p. 597-615
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Fyfe, A. & Rostvik, C. M., 6 Mar 2018, In: Nature. 555, 7695, p. 159-161
Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate
-
Fyfe, A., 2012, University of Chicago Press. 313 p.
Research output: Book/Report › Book
-
Fyfe, A. (Editor) & Lightman, B. (Editor), 2007, University of Chicago Press.
Research output: Book/Report › Book
-
Fyfe, A., 2004, University of Chicago Press.
Research output: Book/Report › Book