CASPER ANDERSEN 

Born 02 July 1977

Married to Ulla Hjorth Andersen. Father to Loa (b. 2011) and Arthur (b. 2015). 

Home Address

Muslingevej 35 

DK-8250 Egaa Denmark 

Mobile: +45 26391325 

Email: ideca@cas.au.dk

Academic Positions 

2015-                      Associate Professor, Department for Philosophy and History of Ideas, Aarhus University

2013-                      Assistant Professor, Department for Culture and Society, Aarhus University (History of Ideas/Centre for Biocultural History).

2010-2011          Visiting Research Fellow, History Faculty, St Cross College, 

University of Oxford.

2010-2013          Assistant Professor, Department for Culture and Society, Aarhus University. (History of Ideas) 

2009-2010:         Research Assistant, History of Ideas, Aarhus University. 

2006-2009:         PhD-student, History of Ideas, Aarhus University. 

Degrees

2009:                       PhD Awarded: Thesis title: The Civilisers: British Engineers, Imperialism and Africa.

                                    Supervisor: Professor Peter C. Kjærgaard, Aarhus University.    

Committee: Dr. John Darwin, University of Oxford, Dr. Ben Marsden, University of Aberdeen, Professor Hans-Jørgen Schanz, Aarhus University.

2002-2005:         Master of Arts (Cand Mag), History of Ideas and Science Studies, Aarhus University. 

1999-2002:         Bachelor of Arts, History of Ideas, Aarhus University 

Fellowships  

2015:                       Visiting Scholar, University of Oxford 

2013:                       Visiting Scholar, UNESCO, Paris 

2011-2012:         Visiting Research Fellow, History Faculty, St Cross College, 

University of Oxford.

2008-2009:         Visiting Academic, St Cross College, University of Oxford. 

2006-2007          Visiting PhD-student, Department for History and 

Philosophy of Science, University of Leeds.

2005:                       Research Stay, Rhodes House Archive., Oxford 

Grants awarded

2015-:                   Grant Holder, Center for Biocultural History, Aarhus University Research Foundation (DKK: 4.500.000/EURO: 605.100)  

Centre for biocultural history (grant holder from 2015-2018 

NOW internationalism 

2015:                       Seed money: University of Cape Town and Aarhus University matchmaking: African Heritage Workshop (organized in collaboration with Professor Nick Shepard University of Cape Town (EUROS: 7.000).   

2014:                       Rethink Impact Seed Money, Aarhus University: Project title: Concrete Heritage Lab – rethinking the Port of Aarhus as Industrial and Post-Industrial Heritage(With Mads Daugbjerg and Tim Flohr Sørensen) (EUROS: 12.000)

2013:                       Cayx Legat: Research Stay, UNESCO Archives in Paris, Summer 2013 (EUROS: 2.000)

2012:                       Danish Research Council for Culture and Communication (FKK), Individual Post-Doctoral Research Grant (EUROS: 237.000): Project title: Modernization, Conservation and Sustainable Development. Engineering in UNESCO since 1945.

2010:                      Carlsberg Foundation Individual Post-Doctoral Research Grant. 

(EUROS: 116.000). Project title: Global interconnections – British engineering networks 1880-1930.

2008:                       PHIS PHD School: Research Stay, Leeds and Durham (EUROS:2.500)

2005:                       Oticon fonden: Research stay, Rhodes House, Oxford (EUROS: 750)

2005:                       Højgaardfonden: Research Stay, Rhodes House, Oxford (EUROS: 1.500)

Projects Management and research leadership 

2018-:                     WP Co-leader Heritage Diplomacy: Horizon 2020 project European colonial heritage modalities in colonial cities(ECHOES) (http://projectechoes.eu.)

2017-:                     Consortium member: Getting the big picture on small states. Towards a new research agenda for small state studies, 1815-present day (funded by the Dutch research council): http://ams.hi.is/en/research/getting-the-big-picture-on-small-states/     

2015-2018:        Member of Steering Committee, Center for Biocultural History, Aarhus University Research Foundation                       

2013-2018:        WP and Group leader: Natural and Cultural Heritage in the African Continent, Center for Biocultural History  

PhD- and postdoc supervision and assessment committees  

2018-:                     PhD Supervisor: Ludvig Goldsmith, Department for Philosophy and history of Ideas, Aarhus

2017-:                     PhD Co-supervisor: Mads Yding, Department for History and Classical Studies, Aarhus University 

2016-:                     PhD Supervisor MA Thomas Erslev, Department for Philosophy and history of Ideas, Aarhus 

2016-17:               Post-doctoral advisor, Jessica Hartel, Centre for Biocultural History

2016-18:               Post-doctoral advisor, Trine Keldberg Nielsen, Centre for Biocultural History 

2018-:                      Post-doctoral advisor, DR Itay Lotem Marie Curie fellowship application (currently under review)

2017:                       Chairman PhD Assessment committee, University of Aarhus: Thomas Palmelund Johansen. Dissertation title: Diffusing useful knowledge. Science, economy and print in the 1830s England   

2017:                       External Member PhD Assessment Committee, University of Copenhagen: Christian Damm Pedersen. Dissertation title: African decolonisation and the fate of Britishness, 1959-1965

2017:                       External member of assessment committee: University of Southern Denmark Assistant Professsorship in Modern British History

PHD courses organized  

2017:                       PhD Course: Historians of ideas and the question of modernity with Lynn Thomas (Seattle)            

2017:                       PhD Course: Waste Time and Materiality with William Viney (Durham) (co-organized with PhD Student Thomas Erslev)

2016:                       Young Academy: Academic Career Seminar:  From PhD to postdoc – career planning, strategies or coincidences?

2010:                       ‘‘Research Communication: Three lessons’, at Research Communication Course for PhD-Students, Faculty of Science Aarhus University (11.10.2010) 

2009:                       PhD Workshop Ideas in Context with Christine Macleod (Bristol)  

2007:                       PhD Workshop and Seminar organizer: Imperialism, Technology, Modernity, Ideas in Context with Jan-Georg Deutsch (Oxford) and Ben Marsden (Aberdeen)

Offices and awards:

2018-                      Member External Examiner Board, Centre for African Studies, University of Copenhagen  

2018-                      Chairperson of Interdisciplinary Board in the Danish Young Academy, Royal Danish Academy for Sciences and Letters, Copenhagen: http://www.youngacademy.dk  

2017-                      Board member Danish Society for the history of technologyhttp://teknologihistorie.dk/diverse-gamle-sider/about-the-danish-society-for-the-history-of-technology/

2015-                      Member of the Young Academy [Det Unge Akademi], Royal Danish Academy for Sciences and Letters, Copenhagen 

2014-                      Member of the Masai Mara Research Network at Aarhus University

2013-17:              Affiliated member: The Global History of UNESCO Project (University of Aalborg)

2012-13:              Member:  AU Horizon 2020 Expert Group for Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy

2012-14:              Member, Working Group for MA-programme Sustainable Heritage Management

2012-16:              Member, Research Group: Transnational Modernities, Aarhus University 

2012-:                    Member, International Committee for Railway Studies, University of York/University of Exeter.

2011-2013:        Editor–in-Chief: The Government and Administration of Africa, Pickering & Chatto’s Britain and Africa Series. With Dr. Andrew Cohen, University of the Free State, S.A.  

2008-                      Peer Reviewer for leading journals including Notes and Records of the Royal Society, British journal for the history of Science, Annals of Science,Configurations, Technology & Culture, Journal of British Studies, Journal of African Studies, History of Concepts and others

2006-2009:         Editorial Board, Slagmark - Tidsskrift for Idehistorie

2004                        Winner of Essay competition (Japanese ministry of foreign affairs)  

2002- 2004:        Editor-in-Chief, Semikolon – Tidsskrift for Idehistorie, Semiotik, Filosofi

Publications

See separate publication list below

Teaching

See separate teaching portfolio below

Organized seminar series, conferences and panel sessions

2016-:                    Main organizer of the Research Unit and Seminar Series on History and Philosophy of Science and Technologyhttp://cas.au.dk/en/about-the-school/departments/philosophy-and-history-of-ideas/the-research-programme-at-the-department-of-philosophy-and-the-history-of-ideas/research-groups/research-unit-for-the-history-and-philosophy-of-science-and-technology/ 

2018:                      Philosophy, Materiality and Techno-Science. A seminar in honour of Henning Høgh Laursen 21.06.18

2017                        Panel session: Urban technologies and technologies of urbanization. European conference on African studies, Basel (with Nanna Scheidermann (29.06.17)

2017                        Thinking Through Modernity (keynotes Lynn Thomas, Henrik Arnstadt and Helge Jordheim). 04.10.17

2017                        Idéhistorie i Aarhus – 50 års jubilæumskonference   04-05.10.17 

2016                        Byens teknologi og idéhistorie, Inspirationsseminar for undervisere i HTX (24.10.2016) 

2015:                       Seminar co-organizer: Small States under the pressures of Empires, Internationalism and Transnationalism, Aarhus, 03.06.2015 

2015:                       Seminar co-organizer: Small States under the pressures of Empires, Internationalism and Transnationalism, Aarhus, 03.06.2015 

2015:                       Seminar co-organizer: Modernity and Modernization in Global Context. TEMP Journal Special Issue Seminar(with James C. Scott). Aarhus. 09.04. 2015     

2014:                       Conference co-organizer: Concrete Heritage: Industry, Inclusion, Invention, Aarhus, 13-14.11.2014. 

2014:                       Panel session co-organizer: The Global History of UNESCO, Forth European Congress on World and Global History, Paris 07.09.2014    

2012:                       Panel session organizer: Spaces and Geographies of Expertise in Engineering, Society for the History of Technology, Annual Meeting, Copenhagen, 05.10.2012. 

2012                    Panel session co-organizer: Decolonisation, professionals and the geographies of expertise, RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, Edinburgh, 03.07.2012.     

2012:                       Panel session co-organizer: Technology as an agent of Social and Economic Change in Africa: Connecting historical and contemporary debates, CAS50, Centre for African Studies, Edinburgh, 07.06.2012.

2011:                      Workshop co-organizer: Global perspectives in Intellectual History, Oxford, 08-09.12.2011.

2011:                       Seminar co-organizer: Trust in People and Knowledge, STM Network, Aarhus, 11.02.2011.

2010:                      Seminar co-organizer: Literary Engineering: Cultures of reading and writing in the engineering professions, Aberdeen, 17.03.2010. 

2009:                      Conference co-organizer: Evolution today: World leading Experts debating evolution today, Aarhus, 12.11.2009.

2007:                      Conference co-organizer: Telling the past now: Historiographies for the twenty-first century, Aarhus 22-24.11.2007. 

Selected research presentations

-       ‘Use perspectives in the history of technology and the study of African urbanization’, European Conference on African Studies (ECAS) Basel (29.06.2017) 

-       ‘Should I stay or should I Go? RMF in OXFORD’. Seminar Critical Heritage, Urban Activism and the Decolonial, Aarhus (12.05 2017) 

-       ‘Three Vignettes in honour of Jan-Georg Deutsch’. Commemoration Seminar for Jan-Georg Deutsch, Faculty of History, Oxford University (28.04. 2017)

-       ‘Across the decolonization divide: UNESCO's science sector in Africa 1947-1974’, Annual Meeting of American Historical Association, Denver, US (08.01.2017)

-       ‘Internationalism, decolonization and engineering in UNESCO 1945-75.’ Seminar: History of technology as political history, university of Southern Denmark (12.10.2016)

-        ‘Imperial Heritage: Editing the Government and Admnistration of Africa 1880-1940 Collection’, University of Bloemfontain, S.A. 15.04.2015   

-       ‘Heritage, Expertise and UNESCO’, African Heritage Workshop, University of Cape Town, S.A. 13.04.2015

-       ‘Explorer engineers and Professionals: The literary culture of British imperial engineering 1850-1914’, The Global 19th century: Contiguities, Connections, Detachments, University of California (Riverside), 27.02 2015 

-       ‘Empire and internationalism: the case of engineering in UNESCO’, Forth European Congress on World and Global History, Paris, 07.09.2014

-       ‘Capacity building, scientific independence, and the establishment of UNESCO’s science and technology agenda for Africa’, Making Scientific Capacity in Africa: An Interdisciplinary Conversation, Cambridge 14.07.2014

-       ‘Historicizing the road to modernity: Heritage Politics in the context of Decolonization’, Collecting and Recollecting the Past, Aarhus, 29.11.2012  

-       ‘Geographies of decolonization: Britain, India and South Africa in the Commonwealth Engineering Council 1946-70’, Work-in-progress article session, Seminar with Research Group: Transnational Modernities, Ebeltoft, 11.09.2012   

-       ‘British Engineers and Africa: imperial consultants and their critics c. 1875-1920’, Global & Imperial History seminar series, Oxford, 09.02.2012.

-       ‘ICE under the Sun: The imperial archive of the Institution of Civil Engineers’, RGS-IGB Annual International Conference, London, 01.09.2011

-       ‘The Aswan Dam and the English Garden’, Before and After Toynbee: conceiving the industrial revolution in the long nineteenth century, Cambridge Victorian Studies Group, Cambridge 23.09.2010.

-        ‘The Civilisers – Self-representations of British Consulting Engineers in Africa 1885-1920’, University of Leeds, 24.10.2006.  

-       ‘Popular Science in Three Danish Newspapers’, Science and Technology in the European Periphery Annual Meeting,Menorca, 04.06.2006.

My research communication and outreach activities include more than 75 public lectures as well as numerous appearances in national television, radio and written media. 

Media training courses 

-       1-day Media Training Course with Lars Trudsø, Aarhus University/Danmarks Radio (2010).  

Selected Television and Radio communication 

-       Stephen Hawking i Danmark, TV2 NEWS (24.08. 2016)

-       Hawking tro og viden: DR P1: religionsrapporten (29.08.16)

-       Liv i rummet DR P1 Eksistens (27.06.16)

-       Liv i Rummet, DRK P4 Live X (24.10.15)

-       Truslen mod Darwin [Julian Huxley and Natural Heritage in Africa], IQ, TV2 Eastern Jutland/OJ (15.07.2014) 

-       ’Hvorfor kreationisme og intelligent design ikke er videnskab’, Danskernes Akademi. Danish National Television/DR2,(02.01.2012).

-       ’Videnskabens verden: om videnskabeligt snyd og uredelighed’, Radio DR P1, (26.01.2011).

-       `Tro og viden del 1-4’  Radio DR P1,(04-07-01.2011). 

-       ’Imperiets ingeniørhelte`, Danskernes Akademi. Danish National Television/DR2,(20.10.2010).

-       `’Darwin, Grey, Gud’, Danskernes Akademi. Danish National Television/DR2,(06.04.2010).

-       ’Retssagen mod Galileo’, Danskernes Akademi. Danish National Television/DR2,(06.04.2010).

-       ’Robert Mugabe – 30 år ved magten’,TV2 News, (04.03.2010). 31.12.15

Selected print media interviews 

-       ’Guds vrede var et vulkanudbrud, Kristeligt dagblad (21.07.17)

-       ’Nærkontakten kræver millioner af års stabilitet’ Jyllandsposten (31.12.16)

-       ’De studerende tør ikke flygte af frygt for Boko Haram’, Omnibus (04.02.2015)

-       ’Afrika: Hvem styrer den teknologiske udvikling’, Interview: University Extention Programme (15.08.2014)

-       `Fra populær frihedshelt til paria`, Kristeligt Dagblad, (06.03.2010) 

-       `30 året for Mugabes Magtovertagelse. Hvad så?`, HUM Magasinet, (17.05.2010)

Exhibitions

-       Udstilling: Havneforestillinger: mellem nostalgi og utopi (DOKK1) 2016. With Mads Daubjerg

-       Exhibition Stand: Aarhus University’s Climate research in Arctic, Arctic Venue: COP15 (December 2009)

Selected public lectures and lecture series(for a full list see http://pure.au.dk/portal/da/persons/casper-andersen(a2c79be1-89b1-422a-965d-16c8395839a2)/activities.html)

-       ’Stater og teknologi i idéhistorisk perspektiv – en præsentation af James C. Scotts analysemodel’, HTX fagdidaktik Nyborg (08. 02. 2018)

-       Afrika i kolonitiden og i dag (HTX Randers) (22.01 2018)

-       Seminarseries: Afrikas historie, Danish Open university (lectures on A) Africa before 1800 and B) Africa during colonial rule (September 2017)

-       Cecil Rhodes, Expansion og race, Open university 27.01 2017

-       Danmark blev moderne: biler, fly computer  Open university  knowledge festival (March 2016 

-       Teknologi: Frelse, forbandelse, Faktum, Silkeborg, (04.04.2015) 

-       Afrika: Hvem styrer den teknologiske udvikling?, Café Hack, Aarhus (25.11.2014) 

-       ’Idé- og brugsperspektiver i teknologihistorien’, Fagdidaktisk årsmøde teknologi-  og idehistorie HTX, Vejle, 24.11.2014.  

-       ’Kolonierne i Afrika’, Foredragsserie: Rule Britainnia, University Extension, Aarhus (15.09.2014) 

-       ’Østafrika’, Børkop Skole (6.-10. klasse) (15.03.2014)    

-       ‘Din videnskabelige verden’, Foredragsserie: Modernitetens verden, University Extention (Folkeuniversitetet) Aarhus (16.04.2013). 

-       ’Hvad enhver dansker bør vide om: Teknologi’, University Extension (Folkeuniversitetet), Aarhus, Copenhagen & Herning, (2013 and 2014). 

-       ’Det Britiske Imperium 1800-2012’, Full-Day Lecture, University Extention (Folkeuniversitetet) Aarhus (21.04.2012). 

-       ’Syv Teknologier der forandrede verden’, Organisation of Lecture Series, University Extention (Folkeuniversitetet), Empdrup (17.04.2012-05.06.2012). 

-       ’Climate Change – Perspectives from the Developing World’, Roskilde Festival (10.06.2009).  

-        ‘Inspiration til undervisere: Ingeniøren i Afrika som AT-forløb’, Langkær Gymnasium 07.10.2007.