Colonial History and Postcolonial Science Studies

TLDR

Historically, colonial science and medicine histories frequently employed postcolonial theory, but recent trends show a decline in such work despite the field’s growing popularity, possibly because postcolonial approaches were seen as less applicable to colonial and precolonial contexts. The essay aims to explain why postcolonial science studies have narrowed focus and argues for re‑integrating colonial history to enhance contemporary postcolonial research. The author surveys postcolonial science and medicine approaches from the mid‑1980s to the late twentieth century and then analyzes the shift around 2000 toward contemporary and near‑past studies of postcolonial technoscience. The essay concludes that incorporating colonial history will inform and improve contemporary studies of postcoloniality.

Abstract

It was once not uncommon for histories of colonial science and medicine to draw on postcolonial theory. Today one finds many fewer such histories, despite the growing popularity of postcolonial science studies. This essay seeks to understand why and to make the case for expanding postcolonial science studies to once again include the colonial within its remit. It offers a history of postcolonial approaches to science and medicine from the mid-1980s to the end of the twentieth century. It then examines the turn, around 2000, toward studies of the present and near past in works on postcolonial technoscience. Perhaps arguably, the very suitedness of postcolonial approaches to our “globalized” present may have seemed to limit their applicability to the colonial and precolonial past. Finally, the essay looks to the future and argues that attention to colonial history would inform and improve contemporary studies of postcoloniality.