I am a historian of science, capitalism, and museums. With a technical background in molecular evolution and ecology, my research explores how large-scale social institutions like capitalism and imperialism shape what is known about Earth and its many inhabitants.
My current research centers on the deep history of Lakotan treaty lands. If you would like to learn more about that project, please check out this article I co-authored with Craig Howe in Nature or this write-up at News from Brown.
My book -- Assembling the Dinosaur: Fossil Hunters, Tycoons, and the Making of a Spectacle -- uses the history of dinosaurs to examine how the ideals, norms, and practices of modern capitalism shaped popular science during America's Long Gilded Age. If you are interested, check out this short animation based on that project produced by TED-ed. In addition, I also co-edited the 2018 issue of Osiris (with Eugenia Lean & William Deringer) on the theme of "Science & Capitalism: Entangled Histories."
I am also working on a number of other projects. These range from the political history of dragon bones to the organization of a capitalist marketplace. My work also engages with debates about the repatriation of fossils, how the concept of organization traveled between biology and economics, and the imperial project to make Earth, itself, into an object of scientific knowledge. To learn more, please visit my pesonal website: https://sites.google.com/view/lukasrieppel/
