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| Institut d'Histoire des Sciences de l'Université de Genève | |
|---|---|
| Name | Institut d'Histoire des Sciences de l'Université de Genève |
| Established | 20th century |
| Type | Research institute |
| Parent | Université de Genève |
| City | Genève |
| Country | Suisse |
Institut d'Histoire des Sciences de l'Université de Genève is a research and teaching unit within the Université de Genève devoted to the historical study of science, technology and medicine. The institute situates its work at the intersection of intellectual history exemplified by figures such as Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, René Descartes and Louis Pasteur, material culture represented by collections like the Musée d'histoire des sciences de la Ville de Genève and archival sources tied to institutions such as the Bibliothèque de Genève, Bibliothèque nationale de France and British Library. Its scholars engage comparative and transnational histories that connect Geneva to networks including the Royal Society, the Académie des sciences (France), the Société de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Genève and the World Health Organization.
The institute emerged in the context of 20th-century historiographical shifts influenced by scholars such as Thomas Kuhn, Pierre Duhem, George Sarton and Margaret Rossiter and by institutional developments at the Université de Genève, the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, the Collège de France and the University of Oxford. Its founding scholars drew on manuscript collections linked to families and laboratories associated with Jean-Jacques Rousseau, François-Joseph-Victor Broussais and Horace Bénédict de Saussure, while engaging with debates in journals like Isis (journal), Annals of Science and British Journal for the History of Science. Over decades the institute appointed researchers who studied subjects from alchemy and natural philosophy to microbiology and meteorology, interacting with broader European centers including the Max Planck Society, Centro de Estudios Históricos de la Ciencia (Spain), Biblioteca Nacional de España and the State Library of New South Wales.
The institute's mission references the historiographical traditions of Michel Foucault, Ludwik Fleck, Bruno Latour and E. P. Thompson while addressing topics such as the circulation of instruments exemplified by the telescope, the microscope, the barometer and the sextant, the production of knowledge in laboratories tied to names like Antoine Lavoisier and Robert Koch, and the social dimensions explored by scholars in the vein of Sheila Jasanoff, Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer. Current research clusters include histories of medicine connected to Edward Jenner and Florence Nightingale, environmental histories linked to Alexander von Humboldt and Rachel Carson, and histories of computation touching figures such as Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing and institutions like International Business Machines Corporation and Centre national de la recherche scientifique.
The institute offers graduate and postgraduate programs integrated with the Faculté des Lettres and the Faculté de Médecine of the Université de Genève, including seminars on archival methods referencing collections from the Archives de Genève, coursework on the history of ideas connected to Enlightenment figures such as Voltaire and Denis Diderot, and modules on science policy drawing on examples from the European Union, the United Nations and the World Health Organization. Courses often examine case studies involving Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel, Sigmund Freud and Marie Curie, and they bring visiting scholars from the Harvard University, University of Cambridge, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and the University of Tokyo.
The institute curates and collaborates with repositories that hold material linked to instrument-makers, scientists and networks such as the Comité international des sciences historiques, the International Council for Science and the Royal Institution. Holdings include manuscript correspondence connected to Jean Piaget, laboratory notebooks in the tradition of Louis Agassiz, printed works by Galen and Hippocrates, early modern treatises by Nicolaus Copernicus and Johannes Kepler, and instrument collections comparable to those at the Science Museum, London, the Musée des Arts et Métiers and the Deutsches Museum. The institute's archive services engage with cataloguing standards used by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions and with digitization projects modeled on initiatives at the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Library of Congress.
Public programming includes lectures, exhibitions and conferences that bring together voices from institutions such as the Musée d'histoire des sciences de la Ville de Genève, the CERN, the WHO, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and the Palais des Nations. The institute organizes thematic series addressing topics involving Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's milieu, the scientific dimensions of the Geneva Conventions, and public debates linked to climate change activism led by figures like Greta Thunberg and policy bodies including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Partnerships support traveling exhibits with museums like the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford and educational outreach to schools affiliated with the Département de l'instruction publique (Geneva).
Scholars collaborate with international partners including the CERN, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the World Health Organization, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the European Research Council, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, the Wellcome Trust and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Research projects have linked Geneva archives to programs at the University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University, the School of Oriental and African Studies, the National Museum of Natural History (France) and the Vatican Library.
The institute is based in central Genève within buildings associated with the Université de Genève and in proximity to landmarks such as the Jet d'Eau, the Palais des Nations, the Musée d'histoire des sciences de la Ville de Genève and the Bibliothèque de Genève. Facilities include seminar rooms, secure archive stacks, conservation laboratories aligned with practices at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts and digital humanities workstations compatible with tools developed at the Université de Lausanne and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.
Category:Université de Genève Category:History of science institutions