Dr Alex Aylward

I am a historian of the life and human sciences, especially their evolving political implications and societal applications across the modern period. I have published extensively on the statistician, geneticist and eugenicist R. A. Fisher (1890-1962), and in 2022 I curated an exhibition on Fisher at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. I am currently finishing my first monograph, titled Selective Reading: Evolution, Eugenics, and the Contested Legacies of R. A. Fisher's The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection. My current work is focused on eugenics in twentieth-century Britain, particularly the institutional and political processes by which it gained, then subsequently lost, its status as legitimate 'science'. More broadly, I'm interested in the question of how sciences end, and I co-organised a workshop on this theme held in Oxford in summer 2025. My research has been awarded the Singer Prize by the British Society for the History of Science (2020), and the Majorie Grene Prize by the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology (2025). In 2026, I was selected to deliver an Early Career Plenary Lecture at the joint meeting of the European Society for the History of Science and the History of Science Society in Edinburgh.
 

I joined Oxford's History Faculty in October 2021, following a PhD at the Centre for History and Philosophy of Science, University of Leeds. I've also spent time as a visiting scholar at Charles University, Prague, and as Eugene Garfield Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. I currently serve as archivist for the British Society for the History of Science.
 

I am interested in hearing from students (undergraduates and postgraduates) wishing to pursue historical research in any of the following areas:

• Modern science, ca. 1800–present
• Life sciences, esp. evolutionary biology and genetics
• Eugenics
• Population control
• Race science & scientific racism
• Scientific publishing and reading
• Literature and science

I am also programme convenor for Oxford's MSc/MPhil in History of Science, Medicine and Technology. I would be glad to discuss the course with prospective applicants.
 

Current DPhil supervision

Julia Gustavsson 

Azlal Nasir 

Isobel Oliver