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Department of History

Nathan Kapoor

Assistant Professor
Nathan's Profile Image
Office
SCH Schroeder Hall 317
Office Hours
Tuesday from 10:00 am -11:00 am

Wedneday ​11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Other meeting times available on other days by request or via Zoom/Teams.
Office Phone
(309) 438-8129office
phone
Email
nnkapo1@ilstu.eduemail
  • About
  • Education
  • Awards & Honors
  • Selected Research

Biography

Nathan Kapoor is an Assistant Professor of History at Illinois State University, where he teaches courses in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine. Professor Kapoor received his Ph.D. in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine from the University of Oklahoma in 2019.

Current Courses

HON 206.001 Advanced Honors Seminar: Innovation and Inquiry

HIS 499.024 Independent Research For The Master's Thesis

HIS 490.006 Readings -- Field Of Study

HIS 300.002 Senior Seminar In History

HIS 105.003 World History

HIS 332.001 Environmental History

HIS 496.001 Philosophy Of History And Historiography

HIS 210.001 The History of Science

Teaching Interests & Areas

Energy History, Science and Technology Studies, Medical Humanities, Colonialism, and Engineering History

Research Interests & Areas

History of Electric Power Systems, New Zealand, British Empire, and Indigenous Studies

PhD

University of Oklahoma
Norman, Oklahoma

MA

University of Oklahoma
Norman, Oklahoma

BS

Tennessee Technological University
Cookeville, Tennessee

Influential and Inspirational Faculty Member

History and Social Sciences Education Program
2025

Influential and Inspirational Faculty Member

History and Social Sciences Education Program
2024

Influential and Inspirational Faculty Member

History and Social Sciences Education Program
2023

Book Review

Book Review of Apartheid’s Leviathan: Electricity and the Power of Technological Ambivalence. New African Histories. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2023
Nathan Kapoor.
(2023), 3, H-Net
Wind and Power in the Anthropocene
Nathan Kapoor.
(2020), 686-689, Technology and Culture
Book Review of Charged: A History of Batteries and Lessons for a Clean Energy Future
Nathan Kapoor.
Environmental History

Book, Chapter

Energy and empire
Nathan Kapoor.
(2021), 97-106, 10.4324/9780429273360-10, The Routledge Handbook of Science and Empire, Routledge
“We Have no Niagara”: Electrifying the “Britain of the South”
Nathan Kapoor.
25, Electrical Conquest New Approaches to the History of Electrification, Springer

Book, Edited

Electricity in Victorian Britain: A Primary Source Reader
Nathan Kapoor.
(2025), 884, Routledge

Journal Article

"Who Has Seen the Wind": Imagining Wind Power for the Generation of Electricity in Victorian Britain
Nathan Kapoor.
Technology and Culture, 60 (2), 467-493, (2019), 10.1353/tech.2019.0032

Other

Edited Volume of Correspondences
Piers Hale, Elizabeth Neswald, Nathan Kapoor.
(2021)

Presentations

"Me a Scholar"
Nathan Kapoor.
"3 Minute Thesis" Style Colloquium for the Science Studies Initiative, Normal, IL, February 16, 2023
Empowering Colonialism: Electrification in New Zealand
Nathan Kapoor.
BEECon Seminar, IL, February 7, 2023
Seismic Shifts: The Wairakei Power Station and New Zealand's Energy (Re)Transition
Nathan Kapoor.
Annual Meeting of the American Society for Environmental History, Eugene, Oregon, March 22, 2022
Just Steam: Geothermal Energy and Indigenous Resource Reclamation in the Anthropocene
Nathan Kapoor.
Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Online, November 20, 2021
Neglected Terms: The Strange Relationship between Energy and Language
Nathan Kapoor.
Annual Meeting of the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, Online, October 1, 2021