Lydia V. Pyne | |
---|---|
Occupation | Writer Historian [1] |
Language | English |
Citizenship | United States |
Education | University of Texas [1] |
Alma mater | Arizona State University [2] |
Genre | History Non-fiction |
Subject | Science |
Website | |
www |
Lydia V. Pyne is an American historian and science writer. She is a current visiting fellow at the Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. [3] Pyne and her work have been featured in National Geographic, [4] Inside Higher Education, [5] the Wall Street Journal, [6] and on ABC, [7] Science Friday, [8] WHYY, [9] KERA, [10] Wisconsin Public Radio, [11] and Talk Nerdy. [12]
Pyne credits her father, Stephen J. Pyne and her mother, Sonja, [13] with encouraging her to pursue the sciences by being "curious about a lot of things". When she pursued higher education, Pyne was an English major. [1] She ended up switching to anthropology and history, earning a double major in the subjects, both from Arizona State University. [1] [14] She earned her master's from the University of Texas, Austin in anthropology and biology at Arizona State. [1] [14] For her PhD, she started as an archaeology student and in the end, earned a degree in history and philosophy of science from Arizona State University. [1] [2]
Pyne's first book was The Last Lost World: Ice Ages, Human Origins, and the Invention of the Pleistocene was co-authored with her father, Stephen J. Pyne in 2012. [1] That year, she served as a fellow at Pennoni Honors College at Drexel University. [12]
Pyne's second book is Bookshelf, a history of the bookshelf, which was published in 2016 by Bloomsbury as part of their "Object Lessons" series. [1] That same year, Viking Press published Pyne's Seven Skeletons: The Evolution of the World's Most Famous Human Fossils. Seven Skeletons presents the history of "celebrity fossils" including Lucy and La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1. [4]
In 2019, Pyne's book Genuine Fakes: How Phony Things Teach Us About Real Stuff was published by Bloomsbury. The book examines the difference between artificial and "real" things, such as real diamonds versus lab grown diamonds. [8]
Currently, Pyne is a visiting researcher at the Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. [3] Pyne is also a freelance writer. Her science and history writing has been published in Hyperallergic, [15] the Pacific Standard [16] and Archaeology. [17]
Pyne's two most recent books were published in 2021 and 2022. Postcards: The Rise and Fall of the World's First Social Network was the first of these, published by Reaktion Books. [18] In it, Pyne investigates postcards in order "to understand them as artifacts that are at the intersection of history, science, technology, art, and culture." [19] Endlings, published in August 2022, is part of the Forerunners: Ideas First series from University of Minnesota Press. [20] In this book, Pyne talks about how the stories we tell about endlings, or the last known individual of a species, draw from various narrative traditions and what those stories can tell us about grief and loss.
Pyne lives in Austin, Texas. [4] She's an active member of the American Alpine Club. [25]
Lydia V. Pyne | |
---|---|
Occupation | Writer Historian [1] |
Language | English |
Citizenship | United States |
Education | University of Texas [1] |
Alma mater | Arizona State University [2] |
Genre | History Non-fiction |
Subject | Science |
Website | |
www |
Lydia V. Pyne is an American historian and science writer. She is a current visiting fellow at the Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. [3] Pyne and her work have been featured in National Geographic, [4] Inside Higher Education, [5] the Wall Street Journal, [6] and on ABC, [7] Science Friday, [8] WHYY, [9] KERA, [10] Wisconsin Public Radio, [11] and Talk Nerdy. [12]
Pyne credits her father, Stephen J. Pyne and her mother, Sonja, [13] with encouraging her to pursue the sciences by being "curious about a lot of things". When she pursued higher education, Pyne was an English major. [1] She ended up switching to anthropology and history, earning a double major in the subjects, both from Arizona State University. [1] [14] She earned her master's from the University of Texas, Austin in anthropology and biology at Arizona State. [1] [14] For her PhD, she started as an archaeology student and in the end, earned a degree in history and philosophy of science from Arizona State University. [1] [2]
Pyne's first book was The Last Lost World: Ice Ages, Human Origins, and the Invention of the Pleistocene was co-authored with her father, Stephen J. Pyne in 2012. [1] That year, she served as a fellow at Pennoni Honors College at Drexel University. [12]
Pyne's second book is Bookshelf, a history of the bookshelf, which was published in 2016 by Bloomsbury as part of their "Object Lessons" series. [1] That same year, Viking Press published Pyne's Seven Skeletons: The Evolution of the World's Most Famous Human Fossils. Seven Skeletons presents the history of "celebrity fossils" including Lucy and La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1. [4]
In 2019, Pyne's book Genuine Fakes: How Phony Things Teach Us About Real Stuff was published by Bloomsbury. The book examines the difference between artificial and "real" things, such as real diamonds versus lab grown diamonds. [8]
Currently, Pyne is a visiting researcher at the Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. [3] Pyne is also a freelance writer. Her science and history writing has been published in Hyperallergic, [15] the Pacific Standard [16] and Archaeology. [17]
Pyne's two most recent books were published in 2021 and 2022. Postcards: The Rise and Fall of the World's First Social Network was the first of these, published by Reaktion Books. [18] In it, Pyne investigates postcards in order "to understand them as artifacts that are at the intersection of history, science, technology, art, and culture." [19] Endlings, published in August 2022, is part of the Forerunners: Ideas First series from University of Minnesota Press. [20] In this book, Pyne talks about how the stories we tell about endlings, or the last known individual of a species, draw from various narrative traditions and what those stories can tell us about grief and loss.
Pyne lives in Austin, Texas. [4] She's an active member of the American Alpine Club. [25]