David Sepkoski

Research Scholar

Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of North Carolina, Wilmington

Residence: September 1, 2012 - August 31, 2015

Profile

I am a historian of science specializing in the history of the modern natural sciences. Most of my recent work has centered on the conceptual and institutional history of 'paleobiology,' which is a movement in 20th century paleontology that emphasizes theoretical, quantitative approaches to evolutionary study of the fossil record. 

I have published three books: a major study of the history of paleobiology, titled Rereading the Fossil Record: The Growth of Paleobiology as an Evolutionary Discipline (University of Chicago Press, 2012), an edited volume collecting original essays on the history and philosophy of paleobiology, The Paleobiological Revolution: Essays on the Growth of Modern Paleontology (University of Chicago Press, 2009), and a monograph on 17th century mathematics and theories of representation, Nominalism and Constructivism in Seventeenth-Century Mathematical Philosophy (Routledge, 2007). 

One of my current projects is a study of the development of data practices and databases in paleontology, which is an attempt to think through some of the issues surrounding the emergence of the "data-driven" sciences in the 20th century. I am also beginning a book project which will be an intellectual and cultural history of extinction that situates the history of paleontological and biological ideas about extinction within the science and politics of biodiversity and endangerment. This project will examine the history and cultural impact of ideas about extinction from the early 19th to the late 20th centuries. While grounded in the history of biology, it will help contextualize the modern fascination with extinction, endangerment, and diversity across disciplines and in public political discourse.

Before coming to the MPIWG I have held faculty positions at Oberlin College and the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where I was most recently an Associate Professor of History.