Amy Fisher

Associate Professor, Science, Technology, Health, and Society

Amy Fisher’s research focuses on the history and philosophy of the physical sciences. She is currently working on two projects: The first is an unconventional love story about the nature of chemical affinity, i.e., how and why two (or more) substances combine to form a compound. The second project is part of a three-year grant from the Mellon Humanities for All Times program. Working with colleagues in Puget Sound’s Crime, Law, and Justice program, she is developing a new course on the history of criminal law and forensic science in Washington State and learning more about the history of toxicology. Her research is inspired by her teaching in the Science, Technology, Health and Society Program, where her courses include: Ghost Stories, History of Modern Science, Science and Politics, and Murder and Mayhem under the Microscope.

Selected publications:

  • Amy Fisher, “Robert Hare’s Theory of Galvanism: A Study of Heat and Electricity in Early 19th-Century American Chemistry,” Ambix: The Journal for the Society of Alchemy and Chemistry 65, no. 2 (2018): 169-189, https://doi.org/10.1080/00026980.2018.1452359
  • Amy A. Fisher, “Inductive Reasoning in the Context of Discovery: Analogy as an Experimental Stratagem in the History and Philosophy of Science,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 69 (2018): 23-33, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2018.01.008
  • Amy Fisher and Katie Henningsen, “Women in Science through an Archival Lens,” Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy 27, no. 2 (2017): 158-179, https://doi.org/10.1353/tnf.2017.0015
Education
BS Mount Allison University 1999
MS The University of Calgary 2002
PhD University of Minnesota 2010
Classes
Elements STHS 199-A Spring 2025
History of Modern Science STHS 200-A Spring 2025
Science and Politics STHS 375-A Spring 2025

Contact Information

Wyatt 153