Dr. Alexei Kojevnikov

Alexei Kojevnikov (History) works on the history of science and society in the twentieth-century. His publications investigate the role of cultural metaphors in “hard” sciences; the impact of war, social crises, and revolutions on scientific development; Soviet and socialist science; Cold War mentality and the problems of nuclear technology; history of cosmology and quantum physics.

  • “The Cultural Spaces of the Soviet Cosmos,” in: Into the Cosmos: Space Exploration and Soviet Culture, edited by James Andrews and Asif Siddiqi (Pittsburgh, 2011), in press
  • “Philosophical Rhetoric in Early Quantum Mechanics 1925-27: High Principles, Cultural Values and Professional Anxieties,” in: Weimar Culture and Quantum Mechanics: Selected Papers by Paul Forman and Contemporary Perspectives on the Forman Thesis, edited by Cathryn Carson, Alexei Kojevnikov, and Helmuth Trischler (London & Singapore, 2011), 319-348.
  • “The Phenomenon of Soviet Science,” Osiris 23: 115-135 (2008)
  • “The Making of the Soviet Bomb and the Shaping of Cold War Science,” in: Reappraising Oppenheimer: Centennial Studies and Reflections (Berkeley, 2005), 129-145.
  • Stalin’s Great Science: The Times and Adventure of Soviet Physicists (London: Imperial College Press, 2004)
  • “Freedom, Collectivism, and Quasiparticles: Social Metaphors in Quantum Physics,” Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences (1999) 29: 295-331


Alexei Kojevnikov, Department of History
Associate Professor (M.S. Moscow State University, Ph.D. Institute for History of Science and Technology, Moscow)
Office: Buchanan Tower 1226
Telephone: (604) 827-3561
Email: anikov@mail.ubc.ca
Website: http://www.history.ubc.ca/people/alexei-kojevnikov