Françoise Waquet
Dr. Françoise Waquet is a French historian whose approach is known as historical anthropology. Much of her research has focused on the scientific world (16th-21st century). Rather than focusing on scientific ideas and a sociology of populations, she has been interested in the relationships between people (personal relationships, communities), the forms of scientific communication, the materiality of knowledge and the emotional dimension of this world. Her research is based on a general reflection on scientific work.
She has explored subjects that have not received much (if any) attention: the oral, rather than the written word and publications; the materiality of science, rather than the analysis of ideas; emotions, rather than reason; and the ‘little hands’ who are ‘invisible’ in science. The book she is currently writing is on the body of the scientist, from the 16th to the 21st century, based on the (self-evident) idea that if scientists do indeed have a mind, they also have a body - a body with physical capacities, a body that is educated in its oral expression as well as in its gestures, a body that dresses to mark its identity and also to work, a body of a worker that feels tiredness...
She is Emeritus research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and works on the forms of scholarly sociability within the "République des lettres" and intellectual circles. In particular, she has studied communication within this milieu, the languages used, and the importance of oral communication.
She has received several awards, including the CNRS Silver Medal (2003), the Prix Biguet from the Académie française (2015), Knight of the French Legion of Honour (2017), and the Prix Laurain Portemer from the Académie des sciences morales et politiques (2020).
Recent publications:
- L'ordre matériel du savoir : comment les savants travaillent : XVIe - XXIe siècles. Paris, CNRS éditions, 2015
- Une histoire émotionnelle du savoir: XVIIe - XXIe siècle, Paris, CNRS éditions, 2019
- Behind the scenes in science: technicians, little hands and other invisible workers, CNRS éditions, 2022, 347 p. (ISBN 978-2-271-13549-0)
Dr. Waquet is welcomed by Hélène Dollfus, USIAS Paul Ehrlich Chair in life sciences. During her visit to Strasbourg in November 2024, she will give a public lecture at the 2024 annual symposium of the Alsace Inter-University House for the Social Sciences and Humanities (MISHA) entitled Talking together: orality at the service of interdisciplinarity, and a public lecture at the Strasbourg Biomedicine Research Centre (CRBS): Dressing for work in the scientific world.
