David Singerman | CV

updated 2026-05-22

Assistant Professor of History and American Studies, University of Virginia (2017-present)

ds2ax@virginia.edu | davidsingerman.com | ORCID 0009-0001-5365-5815
Office: 484 Nau Hall | Mail: PO Box 400180, Charlottesville, VA 22904

Current research

• History of performance-enhancing drugs, especially erythropoietin (EPO) and the Enhanced Games
• Sports and advanced technology, especially automation and simulation

Education

• PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  Program in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, & Society, 2014
• MPhil, University of Cambridge
  History and Philosophy of Science, Technology, and Medicine, 2007
• BA, Columbia University
  History, 2006

Publications

Book

• Unrefined: How Capitalism Reinvented Sugar (University of Chicago Press, September 2025). Part of the Synthesis series in the history of chemistry.
  • Journal reviews: Ambix, Metascience
  • Awards:
    • Winner of the 2026 Paul Bunge Prize in the History of Scientific Instruments (press release)
    • Shortlisted for the British Society for the History of Science's 2026 Pickstone Prize (announcement)

Journal articles and book chapters

• "Modern Food as Ranked Food: Who's Afraid of the Dark Sugar?," in Acquired Tastes: Stories About the Origins of Modern Food, ed. Benjamin Cohen, Anna Zeide, and Michael Kideckel (MIT Press, 2021)
• "The Reproducibility Crisis in the Age of Digital Medicine" (with Aaron Stupple and Leo Anthony Celi), npj Digital Medicine 2, no. 1 (January 29, 2019): 2.
• "Sugar machines and the fragile infrastructure of commodities in the nineteenth century," Osiris vol. 33 (2018), special issue on "Science and Capitalism: Entangled Histories."
• "The Limits of Chemical Control in the Caribbean Sugar Factory," Radical History Review no. 127, "Political Histories of Technoscience," January 2017.
• "Keynesian Eugenics and the Goodness of the World," Journal of British Studies 55, no. 3, July 2016.
• "Science, Commodities, and Corruption in the Gilded Age," Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 15, no. 3, July 2016. (Awarded the 2018 Treasury Historical Association 1500 Penn Prize.)
• "Inventing Purity in the Atlantic Sugar World, 1860-1930," Enterprise & Society 16, no. 4, December 2015.
• "'A Doubt is At Best an Unsafe Standard': Measuring Sugar in the Early Bureau of Standards," NIST Journal of Research, January 2007.

Public writing

• "Public Thinker: Lara Putnam Wants You to Knock on Your Neighbor's Door," Public Books online, July 2022.
• "There's Something Fishy about U.S.-Canada Trade Wars," The Atlantic online, 14 June 2018.
• "Zones of Doubt: What we can learn about trade policy from a misbegotten 19th century effort to quantify the chemical properties of wool," Bunk, 2 October 2018.
• "The Sugar Tramp: One man's obsession with the ephemera of his industry," Bunk, 10 January 2018.
• "The Other End of the Telescope: Considering astronomy's history from the shadow of the Arecibo Observatory reveals the discipline's intimate ties to imperialism," Bunk, 24 November 2017.
• "When Science Was Big: This year's Nobel Prize in physics is a blast from the past of Cold War-era research investment. Is that era gone for good?" Bunk, 19 October 2017.
• "The Shady History of Big Sugar," Op-Ed, The New York Times, 17 September 2016.

Reviews

• Review of Christy Spackman, The Taste of Water: Sensory Perception and the Making of an Industrialized Beverage (University of California Press, 2024), in H-Environment, forthcoming.
• Review of Theresa Levitt, Elixir: A Parisian Perfume House and the Quest for the Secret of Life (Harvard University Press, 2023), in Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society 116, no. 2 (June 2025).
• Review of Daniel B. Rood, The Reinvention of Atlantic Slavery: Technology, Labor, Race, and Capitalism in the Greater Caribbean (Oxford University Press, 2017), in the World Sugar History Newsletter 51 (March 2019).
• Review of Megan Raby, American Tropics: The Caribbean Roots of Biodiversity Science (University of North Carolina Press, 2017), New West Indian Guide 93, nos. 1-2 (2019).
• Review of Adrian Leonard & D. Pretel, eds., The Caribbean and the Atlantic World Economy: Circuits of Trade, Money and Knowledge, 1650-1914 (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), in the World Sugar History Newsletter 49 (March 2018).
• Review of Bruce E. Baker and Barbara Hahn, The Cotton Kings: Capitalism and Corruption in Turn-of-the-Century New York and New Orleans (Oxford University Press, 2016), in American Nineteenth-Century History 19, no. 2 (2018).
• Review of April Merleaux, Sweetness and Civilization: American Empire and the Cultural Politics of Sweetness (University of North Carolina Press, 2015), in Agricultural History 90, no. 3 (summer 2016).
• Review of C. Allan Jones and Robert V. Osgood, From King Cane to the Last Sugar Mill: Agricultural Technology and the Making of Hawai'i's Premier Crop (University of Hawai'i Press, 2015), in Hawaiian Journal of History (2016).
• "Social History of Knowledge in the Slaveholding Atlantic World," review of Daniel Rood, "Plantation Technocrats: A Social History of Knowledge in the Slaveholding Atlantic World" (PhD dissertation, University of California - Irvine, 2010), at dissertationreviews.org, April 2012.

Research fellowships, grants, and awards

Fellowships and visiting positions

• Visiting faculty, Médialab, Sciences Po (Paris), fall 2026
• Visiting professor, Centre d’Études Nord-Américaines, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, 2024
• Visiting Fellowship, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2014-15 (declined)

Major awards

• Krooss Prize for Best Dissertation in Business History, Business History Conference, 2015
• Coleman Prize for Best Dissertation in Business History, Association of Business Historians (UK), 2015

Other awards

• UVA Library Research Sprint, 2024
• Treasury Historical Association 1500 Penn Prize, 2018
• New York Public Library Short-Term Research Fellowship, 2017
• Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry Research Award, 2014
• Massachusetts Historical Society Short-Term Fellowship, 2014-15

Talks, presentations, and conferences

Invited talks

• Four invited seminars at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, May-June 2024. Click here for more information on the professeur invité webpage.
• "Freedom From the New World: The Invention of Beet Sugar," Princeton University Davis Seminar, 31 March 2023.
• "Is history funny?" Harriet Ritvo Symposium, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 30 April 2022. Click here to watch the talk.
• "Sugar!" UVA Medical Center Hour. 6 March 2019. Click here to watch the talk.
• "Stolen sugar, smuggled herring, and other lessons in corruption from the Gilded Age." United States Department of the Treasury, Treasury Historical Association 1500 Penn Prize Lecture. 6 February 2019.
• "Sugar," at Edible Environments summer school, Concordia University, Montreal. 10 July 2018.
• "Sugar, science, and the history of capitalism," Department Seminar, History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge. 1 February 2018.
• "Inventing Purity in the Atlantic Sugar World, 1860-1930," Coleman Prize Plenary Session, Association of Business Historians Annual Meeting, Exeter, UK. 3 July 2015.
• "Inventing Purity in the Atlantic Sugar World, 1860-1930," Krooss Prize Plenary Session, Business History Conference, Miami, Florida. 26 June 2015.
• "Purity and Power in the American Sugar Empire," Lafayette College, Easton, PA. 23 April 2015.

Talks and conference presentations

• Roundtable on "Tracing the Chemical Across Disciplines," History of Science Society annual meeting, New Orleans, November 2025.
• “Who gets to decide whether doping is bad?” UVA Institute for Practical Ethics salon, 14 April 2025.
• "Freedom from the New World: The Invention of Beet Sugar." Business History Collective (online). 6 April 2021. Click here to watch the presentation.
• "How Hawaiian sugar colonized the Caribbean," American Society for Environmental History Annual Meeting, Columbus, OH. 13 April 2019.
• "The Limits of Control in the Ingenio Central, 1860-1935." Association of Caribbean Historians 2016 Conference, Havana, Cuba. June 2016.
• "Sugar Work and Scientific Control in Puerto Rico and Hawaii, 1875-1920." Organization of American Historians 2016 Annual Meeting, Providence, Rhode Island. April 2016.
• "Local Laboratories and Global Standards in the Sugar Trade, 1907-1930." Business History Conference 2016 Annual Meeting, Portland, Oregon. March 2016.
• "Frozen Herring and the Gilded Age State." American Society for Environmental History 2015 Annual Conference, Washington, D.C. 19 March 2015.
• "Sweetness and Control: Chemists in the Sugar Market." American Historical Association 2015 Annual Meeting, New York. 4 January 2015.
• "Sugar, Labor, and Chemical Control in the Caribbean." Small Conference on Labor and Empire (sponsored by Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas), University of California, Santa Barbara. 15 November 2014.

Conferences and panels chaired or organized

• (chair) “Hmmm....: History of Medicine Methods and Archival Silences,” Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science annual meeting, 14 March 2025, Charlottesville, VA
• (chair) "Histories of Data and the Data of History," History of Science Society/Society for the History of Technology 2021 Joint Meeting
• (chair) "Labor Control as Management Strategy,", Business History Conference 2021 Annual Meeting
• (organizer and chair) "After María: What Environmental History can Learn from the Caribbean," American Society for Environmental History Annual Meeting. Columbus, OH. 10-13 April 2019.
• (organizer) "Measuring Nature: Commodities and Standards," Business History Conference 2016 Annual Meeting, Portland, Oregon. March 2016.
• (organizer) "Poisoned and Pissed: Public Scandals and Environmental Regulation," American Society for Environmental History 2015 Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C. 18-22 March 2015.
• (organizer) "The Authority of Science at the Edges of Empire." American Historical Association 2015 Annual Meeting, New York. 4 January 2015.

Interviews and media

• April 28, 2026: Interview with Sasha Lilley for "Sugar and Capitalism" episode of "Against the Grain" on KPFA (listen here)
• March 15, 2026: Interview with Jonquilyn Hill for "Sugar Crash" episode of Vox's podcast "Explain It to Me" (listen here)
• October 11, 2025: Interviewed by Dr. Miranda Melcher for a New Books Network episode on Unrefined: How Capitalism Reinvented Sugar
• February 22, 2025: Interviewed by Srijana Mitra Das for the Times of India Evoke section: "Mass-produced sugar came from chemicals, corruption — and environmental destruction"
• September 27, 2016: Interview with Michael Smerconish on SiriusXM about "The Shady History of Big Sugar."

Teaching

Teaching awards and grants

• UVA Alumni Board of Trustees Teaching Award (2025), given annually to one assistant professor at the university for outstanding teaching
• Science and Society Co-Design Grant (2025-26), $10,500 to co-develop "Bread: A Human History" with Ali Guler (UVA Biology)

Courses in History

• HIST 9993, "Global History of Science, Technology, and Medicine" (Spring 2025, Spring 2026)
• HIUS 2101, "Technologies of American Life" (Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2024)
• HIST 3501, "Introductory History Workshop: Sugar and Global History" (Spring 2023)
• HIST 1501, "The Global Financial Crisis of 2008" (Fall 2018, Fall 2020, Fall 2022)
• HIST 1501, "Corruption and Fraud" (Fall 2017)

Courses in American Studies

• AMST 3001, "Theories and Methods of American Studies" (Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024)
• AMST 3559, "Science and Democracy in America" (Spring 2018)

Courses in Arts & Sciences programs

• EGMT 1520: “Empirical and Scientific Engagement: Sourdough” (Spring 2026)
• EGMT 1520: "Empirical and Scientific Engagement: Information and Democracy" (Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025)
• FORU 1500, "The World Gone Wrong: Introduction to the Forum" (Fall 2019)
• FORU 2500, "The World Gone Wrong: Forum Capstone" (Spring 2021)

External courses

• Four seminars at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris, May-June 2024 (link)
• “Sugar,” at Edible Environments summer school, Concordia University, Montreal, July 2018

Teaching Development

• Casteen Faculty Fellowship in the Teaching of Ethics (2021)
• UVA Library Course Enrichment Grant (2020)
• Faculty Seminar on the Teaching of Writing (2019)
• Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) Course Design Institute & IGNITE (2018), and various workshops

Departmental teaching-related service

• Director of Undergraduate Program, American Studies (Fall 2024 - present)
• Assessment Director, American Studies (2019-present)
• Faculty co-organizer, MADCAP history of capitalism workshop (2017-2023)
• Faculty advisor, graduate-student-led department colloquium (2021-2023)

University/College teaching-related service

• Advisor to 2nd-year transfer students from UVA College at Wise (AY25-26)
• Faculty AI Guide Program (2024-present)
• College Fellows Program (Fall 2024-Spring 2026)
• Dean's Science and Society Advisory Committee (2025)
• Dean's Wayfinding Advisory Committee (2025-present)
• Reader, Harrison Undergraduate Research Award (2024, 2025)
• Organized and funded Corruption Lab (Democracy Initiative) graduate fellowship program (2020-2021)

Civic engagement

• Organized voter registration drive for all Engagements classes (Fall 2024, Fall 2025)
• Visited 10-15 classes per year to register hundreds of students to vote (2017-2023)

Advising

• UVA Wise transfer cohort advisor (20 students), 2025-2026
• USOAR Research Mentorship Program students: 2
• PhD Mentoring Institute students: 2
• Dissertation committees
  • History: Ali Kelley, Hank Lanphier, Chris Maternowski, Bethany McGlyn, Abeer Saha, Nick Scott
  • English: Annie Persons
  • Landscape architecture: William Shivers
  • Sociology: Joris Gjata
  • Physics: John Boyd
• DMP theses supervised: 3 American Studies, 3 History
• Harrison Undergraduate Research Awards supervised: 1
• Departmental advisees: 10 per year
• 1st and 2nd year advisees: 10 (2019-2021)

Previous positions

• Research Associate, Harvard Business School (2015-2016)
• Postdoctoral Associate, Rutgers University Center for Historical Analysis (2014-2015)