Mi Gyung Kim   
External Faculty Fellow, Associate Professor of History, North Carolina State University
The Aerieal Theater: Balloons and the Public in Pre-Revolutionary France

Kim's research focuses on the history of science and its relationship to broader historical and social transformations, including the processes of nation and empire-building. Her current project examines balloon mania in 18th-century France in order to make claims about science, reason, and power in a society undergoing fundamental and rapid change. She is the author of Affinity, that Elusive Dream: A Genealogy of the Chemical Revoluion  (MIT Press, 2003), a book which connects technical changes in matter theory and chemical dynamics with the emergence of new forms of education, training, and publication. Dr. Kim will teach a course on "Science and Empire" through the Department of History.