Paula Findlen

{{Short description|American Italian historian}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2025}} '''Paula E. Findlen''' (born 1964)<ref name="stanford1">{{cite web |url=https://history.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/findlen_cv_9-1-15.pdf |title=Paula Finden CV |website=History.stanford.edu |accessdate=2017-03-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151009002456/https://history.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/findlen_cv_9-1-15.pdf |archive-date=2015-10-09 |url-status=dead }}</ref> is the Ubaldo Pierotti Professor of Italian History, the director of the Suppes Center for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, and the director of the SIMILE Program, all at Stanford University.<ref name="stanford2">{{cite web|url=https://history.stanford.edu/people/paula-findlen |title=Paula Findlen | Department of History |website=History.stanford.edu |date= |accessdate=2017-03-09}}</ref>

Findlen received a bachelor's degree in medieval and renaissance studies from Wellesley College in 1984. She then pursued graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and earned a master's degree in history in 1985 and a Ph.D. in 1989.<ref name="stanford2"/><ref name="stanford1"/>

Her book titled ''Possessing Nature: Museums, Collecting, and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy'' (1995) was given the Pfizer Award in 1996 by the History of Science Society.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://hssonline.org/page/pfizeraward|title=Pfizer Award|publisher=History of Science Society|access-date=12 April 2026}}</ref> Her article "The Scientist's Body: The Nature of Woman Philosopher in Enlightenment Italy", in ''The Faces of Nature in Enlightenment Europe'', (Berlin: Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, 2003), pp. 211–236, received the 2004 Margaret W. Rossiter History of Women in Science Prize from the History of Science Society.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://hssonline.org/page/rossiter|title=The Margaret W. Rossiter History of Women in Science Prize - History of Science Society|website=hssonline.org}}</ref>

In 2016, Findlen gave the inaugural Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Lecture on the history of collecting, at London V&A.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.vam.ac.uk/shop/whatson/index/view/id/3690/event/The-Gilbert-Lecture-2016---Paula-Findlen/dt/2016-11-30/eType/1/free/2 |title=The Gilbert Lecture 2016: Paula Findlen |access-date=2017-03-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312061203/https://www.vam.ac.uk/shop/whatson/index/view/id/3690/event/The-Gilbert-Lecture-2016---Paula-Findlen/dt/2016-11-30/eType/1/free/2 |archive-date=2017-03-12 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://societyhistorycollecting.wordpress.com/2016/11/04/the-gilbert-lecture-2016-paula-findlen/ |title=The Gilbert Lecture 2016: Paula Findlen | The Society for the History of Collecting |website=Societyhistorycollecting.wordpress.com |date=2016-11-04 |accessdate=2017-03-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180702064538/https://societyhistorycollecting.wordpress.com/2016/11/04/the-gilbert-lecture-2016-paula-findlen/ |archive-date=2018-07-02 |url-status=dead }}</ref> That same year, she also received the Premio Galileo prize, an annual, international award for contributions to understanding Italian culture.

==Selected publications== *''Possessing Nature: Museums, Collecting, and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy'' *''Mapping the Republic of Letters'', with Caroline Winterer, Giovanna Ceserani and Dan Edelstein *''Early Modern Things: Objects and their Histories, 1500-1800'' *''Gusto for Things'' *"[https://www.chronicle.com/article/Why-Go-to-Grad-School-/149957 Why Go to Grad School?]"

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{wikiquote}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Findlen, Paula}} Category:1964 births Category:Living people Category:American women historians Category:American historians of science Category:Stanford University faculty Category:Stanford University Department of History faculty Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni Category:Wellesley College alumni Category:21st-century American women