Professor Mary Morgan

My research interests include: history, philosophy and sociology of science, focussed on economics and statistics, models, measurements, experiments, observations and ‘travelling facts’. Her current work is focussed on three themes. One is the function of narratives in the sciences, with a forthcoming (joint) edited volume Narrative Science: Reasoning, Representing and Knowing since 1800 (CUP 20220); this is the outcome of a large European Research Grant (2016-21). The second is a critical analysis on the various ways of measuring economic activity, the history of such numbers, and their usage in both academic and public domains. This joins with my third focus investigating ‘performativity’: the ways in which economic ideas and technologies of governance have reshaped economies in the world over the last century.

Finally, I have been active in the Royal Economic Society (RES) in recent years and am honoured to have been chosen as President Elect for 2022-23, and will then be President in 2023-4.

Current and Recent Research Projects

• ‘Narratives in Science’ a special issue of Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science in 2017; and European Research Council Advanced Investigator Grant (2016-21)
• British Academy Wolfson Research Professorship project: Re-Thinking Case Studies Across the Social Sciences
• Leverhulme Trust / ESRC project: "How Well Do Facts Travel?" (a group project of the Department of Economic History)
• Observation in Science: joint work with the University of Amsterdam's History and Philosophy of Economics Research Group and the Max Planck Institute for History of Science in Berlin.

Teaching

• EH429 History of Economics: Ideas, Policy and Performativity

Curriculum Vitae

• View Professor Morgan's CV here: Mary Morgan CV [PDF]

Expertise

History and philosophy of economics and statistics