During the COVID-19 pandemic, we were all reminded of the long history of masks used as protection against disease, ranging from the iconic plague doctor's beaked mask to the cloth masks seen in histo...

Thomas Schlich and Bruno J. Strasser— In May 2024 at the Libertarian National Convention in Washington, DC, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., recalled that, during the pandemic, he was asked whether... READ MOR...

Protecting Bodies at Work: Technical Devices, Materialities of Health, and Political Imaginaries September 18th 8:30-9:00 Welcome 9:00-9:10 Introduction 9:10-10:00 The Health of the Artisan * Ricardo Córdoba (Universidad de Córdoba): The prevention of occupational hazards in the practice of craft trades, Iberian Peninsula, 14th-15th centuries * Sarah Seinitzer (Universität Wien): The Use of Garlic to Maintain the Balance of Metalworker’s Body 10:00-10:20 Coffee Break 10:20-11:10 Underground Worlds I * Emeline Retournard (Université Clermont Auvergne): The costume and protection of miners in Europe from the High Middle Ages to the early modern period. A multidisciplinary approach * Charles-Antoine Wanecq, Bastien Cabot (Université de Lille ; Sciences Po): A worker's perspective on safety and hygiene devices: the archives of miners' safety delegates in France from 1890 to the 1980s 11:10-11:20 Coffee Break 11:20-12:10 Underground Worlds II * Pascal Raggi, Sébastien Mellard (Université de Lorraine): Mineworkers' helmets in France: their emergence, use and representations (from the late 1940s to the early 21st century) * Grace Simpson (Universidad Complutense de Madrid / Uniwersytet Jagielloński w Krakowie): Boots instead of espadrilles': changing attitudes to protective mining gear in the Asturian coal basins through the lens of the company committee, 1958–1964 12:10-12:30 Brainstorming 12:30-14:00 Lunch-workshop I 14:00-15:15 Breathing Modernities * Marie Thébaud-Sorger (CNRS): Living and working in the heat and noxious air: Charles Leroux's universal textile and the individualisation of protection * Erika Wicky (Université Grenoble Alpes): Anti-Miasma Devices designed to protect Colour Grinders (1789-1830) * Véronique Stenger, Yohann Guffroy, Bruno J. Strasser (Université de Genève): The Mask: Materiality and Imaginaries of Occupational Health in 19th Century France 15:15-15:30 Coffee Break 15:30-16:20 (Post-)Colonial Contexts I * Santosh Kumar Rai (University of Delhi): Protecting Bodies at Work: The Lives of Handloom Weavers in Colonial North India * Shreya Kundu (University of Ashoka): Precarious Bodies and Marginal Lives of Labouring Children in British India: Health and Technology at the Crossroads (1870s- 1940s) 16:20-16:30 Coffee Break 16:30-17:20 (Post-)Colonial Contexts II * Rose Angeline Abissi (Université de Douala): The physical ''protection'' of workers in the colonial context in Cameroon between 1908 and 1957 * Christian Papinot (Université de Poitiers): Exposure to occupational risks and (non-)use of protective equipment of construction workers in Madagascar 17:20-18:00 Brainstorming 19:30 Dinner at the Bains des Pâquis September 19th 8:30-9:00 Welcome 9:00-9:50 Safety at Sea * Guillaume Linte (Université Aix-Marseille): Protecting the seafarer's body: naval hygiene and technological innovation in 18th-century France * Baptistine Airiau-Bomont (Sorbonne Université): “L’hygiène ne saurait l’incriminer et la tradition le défend.” The navy sailors' uniform, between symbolism and protection for sailors at work (1856-1914) 9:50-10:00 Coffee Break 10:00-11:15 Expertises, Gender, and Policies * Marie Charvet (Nantes Université): How a production tool became a sanitary protection device: the difficult acclimatisation of spin-dryers in 19th century French public washhouses * Judith Rainhorn (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne): The toolbox of expertise. Dr Alice Hamilton and bodies at work during the Progressive era (United States, 1914-1930) * Almira Sharafeeva (LMU München): Protecting Women’s Bodies at Work: Soviet Occupational Health Policies and the Politics of Risk (1920s-1930s) 11:15-12:00 Brainstorming 12:00-13:30 Lunch-workshop II 13:30-14:20 Safety Education * Nadège Mariotti (Université de Lorraine): Safety Films in Mining and the Steel Industry: Audiovisual Devices and Prevention Imaginaries since 1938 * Sarah-Louise Rehahn, Katrin Petersen (DASA Arbeitswelt Ausstellung, Dortmund): Reaching out for a wide audience: exhibitions as educational tools for protecting bodies (and minds) at work 14:20-14:45 Coffee break 14:45-16:00 From Occupational to Environmental Health * Petra Seitz (University College London): Protecting white-collar bodies at work: The Northern European cellular office * Arthur Delacquis (Sorbonne Université): Hoods, caps and leftist propaganda–Aluminium Péchiney and the requests for action against fluoride fumes in l’Argentière- la-Bessée (1970-1982) * Marie Thirion (Université Grenoble Alpes): « Un ballo in maschera » - Materiality and symbolic significance of the gas mask in Porto Marghera 16:00-17:00 Brainstorming & Farwell Organisiert von University of Geneva CS 01. September 2025 veronique.stenger@unige.ch Online via Zoom Website der Veranstaltung Programme

Thomas Schlich and Bruno J. Strasser— In May 2024 at the Libertarian National Convention in Washington, DC, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., recalled that, during the pandemic, he was asked whether... READ MORE

Around the world, some 16 billion plastic syringes and 15 billion face masks are thrown away each year.1,2 Unknown in the first half of the 20th century, the global production, circulation, and dispos...