John Cheng

John Cheng is a historian of nineteenth and twentieth-century America and the history of science and technology. He earned his A.B. from Harvard College and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and taught at Binghamton University, George Mason University, and Northwestern University. His research interests include popular culture, media, and technology; gender, race, and ethnic relations; the history of earth, life, and human sciences and of computing; and historiography and critical theory. He was a contributor to California Newsreel’s documentary series and web site, Race: The Power of an Illusion. John also holds a patent from youthful summers as a research intern. While he used to play basketball, volleyball, and Ultimate frisbee, he now enjoys scenic bicycle rides and the company of friends and family, particularly his nieces and nephews.John’s book,
Astounding Wonder: Imagining Science and Science Fiction in Interwar America
, was published in March 2012 by the University of Pennsylvania Press. His new project, Barred Zones: The Strange Geography of Asian America, considers the relationship of race, geography, law and the American nation-state in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.In Fall 2013 he is returning to Binghamton University where he will be Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies and History.