Bio


Gabrielle Hecht is Professor of History, Professor (by courtesy) of Anthropology, and Senior Fellow at FSI. She is President of the Society for the History of Technology.

Hecht's research explores the inside-out Earth and its wastes in order to reveal the hidden costs of the so-called "energy transition," with research sites in the Arctic, the Andes, southern Africa, and west Africa. Her new book, Residual Governance: How South African Foretells Planetary Futures (Duke, 2023), received the 2024 PROSE Award in Government and Politics from the Association of American Publishers.

Hecht's graduate courses include colloquia on "Power in the Anthropocene," "Infrastructure and Power in the Global South," "Technopolitics," and "Materiality and Power." She supervises dissertations in science and technology studies (STS), transnational history, and African studies. Her undergraduate course in "Racial Justice in the Nuclear Age" was built in partnership with the Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates (BVHPCA).

Hecht’s 2012 book Being Nuclear: Africans and the Global Uranium Trade offers new perspectives on the global nuclear order by focusing on African uranium mines and miners. It received awards from the Society for the Social Studies of Science, the American Historical Association, the American Sociological Association, and the Suzanne M. Glasscock Humanities Institute, as well as an honorable mention from the African Studies Association. An abridged version appeared in French as Uranium Africain, une histoire globale (Le Seuil 2016), and a Japanese translation is due out in 2021. Her first book, The Radiance of France: Nuclear Power and National Identity (1998/ 2nd ed 2009), explores how the French embedded nuclear policy in reactor technology, and nuclear culture in reactor operations. It received awards from the American Historical Association and the Society for the History of Technology, and has appeared in French as Le rayonnement de la France: Énergie nucléaire et identité nationale après la seconde guerre mondiale (2004/ 2014).

Her affiliations at Stanford include the Center for African Studies, the Program in Science, Technology, and Society, the Center for Global Ethnography, the Program on Urban Studies, and the Program in Modern Thought and Literature. Hecht taught in the University of Michigan’s History department for 18 years, where she helped to found and direct UM’s Program in Science, Technology, and Society (STS). She served as associate director of UM’s African Studies Center, and participated in its long-term collaboration with the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (South Africa).

Hecht holds a PhD in History and Sociology of Science from the University of Pennsylvania (1992), and a bachelor’s degree in Physics from MIT (1986). She’s been a visiting scholar in universities in Australia, France, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, and Sweden. Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council for Learned Societies, and the South African and Dutch national research foundations, among others. She serves on numerous advisory boards, including for the Andra, France’s national radioactive waste management agency.

Academic Appointments


Honors & Awards


  • PROSE Award in Government and Politics, Association of American Publishers (2024)
  • Guggenheim Fellow, Guggenheim Foundation (2023)
  • National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, NEH (2022)
  • General Anthropology Division Prize for Exemplary Cross-Field Scholarship, American Anthropological Association (2019)
  • Rachel Carson Prize, Society for Social Studies of Science (2016)
  • Susanne M. Glasscock Humanities Book Prize for Interdisciplinary Scholarship, Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at Texas A&M University (2014)
  • Honorable Mention, Melville J. Herskovits Prize, African Studies Association (2013)
  • Robert K. Merton Prize, Science, Knowledge, and Technology Section, American Sociological Association (2013)
  • Martin A. Klein Prize in African History, American Historical Association (2012)
  • Michigan Humanities Award, University of Michigan (2012)
  • Edelstein Prize, Society for the History of Technology (2001)
  • Henry Baxter Adams Prize, American Historical Association (1999)
  • Abbott Payson Usher Prize, Society for the History of Technology (1996)
  • Dean's Award, Stanford University (1996)
  • Levinson Prize, Society for the History of Technology (1991)
  • Newcomen Prize, Newcomen Society (1991)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations


  • Advisory Board Member, RADIANT: Radioactive Ruins: Security in the Age of the Anthropocene, Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) (2018 - Present)
  • Member, Nuclear Consulting Group (2018 - Present)
  • Advisory Board Member, AnthroTOX Convergence Environment, University of Oslo (2017 - Present)
  • Advisory Board Member, Chair of excellence in Security Studies, Sciences Po (2017 - Present)
  • Member, Conseil Scientifique, ANDRA (Agence nationale pour la gestion des déchets radioactifs) (2015 - Present)
  • Member, Comité Scientifique, Projet AGORAS (Amélioration de la Gouvernance des Organisations et des Réseaux d’Acteurs pour la Sûreté Nucléaire) (2014 - 2019)
  • Member, Scientific Advisory Board, Sciences Po (2013 - 2017)
  • Editorial Board Member, Technology’s Stories (2016 - Present)
  • Editorial Board Member, Engaging Science, Technology, and Society (eSTS) (2015 - Present)
  • Editorial Board Member, Feminist Technosciences book series, University of Washington Press (2014 - Present)
  • Editorial Board Member, African Perspectives book series, University of Michigan Press (2014 - Present)
  • Editorial Board Member, Global History and Culture: Medicine, Science and Technology book series, Manchester University Press (2013 - Present)
  • Editorial Board Member, Hospodarske dejiny (2013 - Present)
  • Editorial Board Member, History and Technology (2008 - Present)
  • Member, Merton Prize Committee, Science, Knowledge and Technology Section, American Sociological Association (2014 - 2014)
  • Member, Executive Council, Society for the Social Studies of Science (2006 - 2009)
  • Member, Comité d’histoire d’électricité, Fondation Electricité de France (2001 - 2015)
  • Member, Executive Council, Society for the History of Technology (2000 - 2003)
  • Member, Transition and Coordinating Committees, Tensions of Europe (1999 - 2007)
  • Theme Leader, “Colonialism, Decolonization, and Development,” Tensions of Europe (1999 - 2004)
  • Member, Editorial Committee, Society for the History of Technology (1995 - 2000)
  • Co-founder & Convener, Bay Area Technology & Culture discussion group (1993 - 1998)
  • Member, Levinson Prize Committee, Society for the History of Technology (1993 - 1995)

Program Affiliations


  • Center for African Studies
  • Modern Thought and Literature
  • Program in History & Philosophy of Science
  • Program on Urban Studies
  • Science, Technology and Society

Professional Education


  • Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, History and Sociology of Science (1992)
  • M.A., University of Pennsylvania, History and Sociology of Science (1988)
  • S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Physics (1986)

2023-24 Courses


All Publications


  • Systemic and Epistemic Racism in the History of Technology TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Bhimull, C., Hecht, G., Jones-Imhotep, E., Mavhunga, C., Nakamura, L., Siddiqi, A. 2022; 63 (4): 935-952

    View details for DOI 10.1353/tech.2022.0152

    View details for Web of Science ID 000884693500002

    View details for PubMedID 36341602

  • 2012: An elemental force: Uranium production in Africa, and what it means to be nuclear BULLETIN OF THE ATOMIC SCIENTISTS Hecht, G. 2020; 76 (6): 431–37
  • INTERSCALAR VEHICLES FOR AN AFRICAN ANTHROPOCENE: On Waste, Temporality, and Violence CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY Hecht, G. 2018; 33 (1): 109–41

    View details for DOI 10.14506/ca33.1.05

    View details for Web of Science ID 000427245700005

  • Residue Somatosphere Hecht, G. 2018
  • Uranium Africain, une histoire globale Hecht, G. Editions du Seuil. 2016
  • AHR Conversation History after the End of History: Reconceptualizing the Twentieth Century AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW Goswami, M., Hecht, G., Khalid, A., Krylova, A., Thompson, E. F., Zatlin, J. R., Zimmerman, A. 2016
  • Does Africa Really Want Yesterday's Future The African Technopolitan Hecht, G. 2015
  • Being Nuclear: Africans and the Global Uranium Trade Hecht, G. MIT Press. 2014
  • Radioactive Excess: Modernization as Spectacle and Betrayal in Postcolonial Gabon Modernization as Spectacle in Africa Hecht, G., Manuh, T. edited by Bloom, P. J., Miescher , S. F. 2014
  • Nuclear Janitors: Contract Workers at the Fukushima Reactors and Beyond The Asia-Pacific Journal Hecht, G. 2013; 11 (1)
  • The Work of Invisibility: Radiation Hazards and Occupational Health in South African Uranium Production INTERNATIONAL LABOR AND WORKING-CLASS HISTORY Hecht, G. 2012: 94-113
  • An elemental force: Uranium production in Africa, and what it means to be nuclear BULLETIN OF THE ATOMIC SCIENTISTS Hecht, G. 2012; 68 (2): 22-33
  • Entangled Geographies: Empire and Technopolitics in the Global Cold War edited by Hecht, G. MIT Press. 2011
  • History and the Technopolitics of Identity: The Case of Apartheid South Africa JOURNAL OF SOUTHERN AFRICAN STUDIES Edwards, P. N., Hecht, G. 2010; 36 (3): 619-639
  • History and the Technopolitics of Identity: The Case of Apartheid South Africa Journal of Southern African Studies Edwards, P., Hecht , G. 2010; 36 (3)
  • The Technopolitics of Cold War: Through a Transregional Perspective Essays on Twentieth-Century History Hecht, G., Edwards, P. 2010
  • HOPES FOR THE RADIATED BODY: URANIUM MINERS AND TRANSNATIONAL TECHNOPOLITICS IN NAMIBIA JOURNAL OF AFRICAN HISTORY Hecht, G. 2010; 51 (2): 213-234
  • Africa and the Nuclear World: Labor, Occupational Health, and the Transnational Production of Uranium COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN SOCIETY AND HISTORY Hecht, G. 2009; 51 (4): 896-926
  • The Radiance of France, New Edition: Nuclear Power and National Identity after World War II Hecht, G. MIT Press. 2009
  • Le Rayonnement de la France: énergie nucléaire et identité nationale après la Seconde Guerre mondiale Hecht, G. MIT Press. 2009
  • A Cosmogram for Nuclear Things Isis Hecht, G. 2007; 98: 100-108
  • Nuclear Ontologies Constellations Hecht, G. 2006; 13 (3)
  • Negotiating Global Nuclearities: Apartheid, Decolonization, and the Cold War in the Making of the IAEA Osiris Hecht, G. 2006; 21 (1): 25-48
  • Globalization meets frankenstein? Reflections on terrorism, nuclearity, and global technopolitical discourse History and Technology Hecht, G. 2003; 19 (1)
  • Rupture-Talk in the Nuclear Age: Conjugating Colonial Power in Africa Social Studies of Science Hecht , G. 2002; 32 (5-6): 691–727
  • Technology, Politics, and National Identity in France Technologies of Power: Essays in Honor of Thomas Parke Hughes and Agatha Chipley Hughes Hecht, G. edited by Allen, M. T. 2001