Lissa L. Roberts

Lissa L. Roberts is a scholar specializing in the intersection of history of science and labor history. She has co-authored significant works exploring how labor has been historically erased from scientific narratives and how these fields can be brought together for more comprehensive historical analysis.

Her research interests focus on the political economy of science, examining how scientific work is embedded within broader labor systems and social structures. Roberts investigates the spatial dimensions of scientific labor, recovery of invisibilized workers in scientific history, and the connections between scientific practice and political economy.

Roberts has contributed to important scholarly conversations about how a labor history of science can help us understand contemporary challenges in academic labor, knowledge production, and the relationship between scientific work and other forms of labor. Her work emphasizes making visible the contributions of technicians, assistants, enslaved peoples, and other marginalized workers in the history of science.

As an active researcher in the field, Roberts has collaborated with scholars across disciplinary boundaries to advance the project of integrating labor history and history of science. Her recent publications reflect a commitment to examining science as ordinary work rather than exceptional knowledge production.