Vital Perspectives on Healthcare and Science: Book Launch for Ksenia Tatarchenko

The Vital Perspectives on Healthcare and Science series engages with some of the most pressing public health issues of our time, in a regular public forum catalyzed by a book.

For the October event, we are delighted to welcome Dr. Ksenia Tatarchenko to share her new book Soviet SCI_BERIA: The Novosibirsk Science Center and the Late Soviet Politics of Expertise! It focuses on the Novosibirsk Scientific Center, or Akademgorodok, which at first glance, appears as an outlier in academic excellence. This ‘science city’ is renowned for a preeminent university, dozens of research institutes, and a thriving technopark. At home, it is an emblem of Russian innovation; abroad, it is often portrayed as a potential threat, a breeding ground of cyber soldiers. Soviet SCI_BERIA not only fosters a conversation between history, area studies, and science studies but also sheds new light on Soviet modernity and the limits of its transformative projects.

This event is open to the public, and we encourage you to come even if it’s your first time joining for this event series!

Since 2025, Ksenia Tatarchenko has been teaching in the Medicine, Science, and the Humanities program at Johns Hopkins University. Previously, she held positions as an assistant professor of science and technology studies at the College of Integrative Studies at Singapore Management University (2019–2024), a lecturer at the Global Studies Institute at the University of Geneva, a visiting assistant professor of history at NYU Shanghai, and a postdoctoral fellow at the Harriman Institute at Columbia University. In 2025–2026, she is a fellow at the JHU Alexander Grass Humanities Institute. She serves as an associate editor at the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing.