@lumu.bsky.social
MIT PhD '19 | Science Studies #histSTM History Geography | Department of Geography & Environment #UNIGE | @youngacademy_ch | Environment ❄️ Experts 👩🔬 Political Economy | More at https://avalanche.hypotheses.org/
Digitalization Is the Answer…But What Is the Question? If you are interested in thinking together through making use of this magnificent collection as a source of critical historical research and engaging outreach - please reach out to me!
Le même exercice chaque année: le conseil fédéral annonce un déficit pour justifier les coupes budgetaires de la science et des programmes pour une bonne vie civile et associative - afin il y a un excédent: www.rts.ch/info/suisse/... Les cantons font pareil: www.uss.ch/themes/econo...
Very much looking forward to deepen and open up the discussion about "Expert Multiplicity and Scientific Authority in the Anthropocene" at our Roundtable with Jessica Wang, Sabine Clarke, David Demortain, and Etienne Benson at #HSS2026 #eshs2026 in July in Edinburgh: hssonline.org/page/Edinbur...
The zones reflect as much a political choice about protection and property rights as actual natural dangers. Living and building in a blue zone may mean following evacuation orders in moments of exceptional danger, like this morning.
In 1959, a SLF engineer first proposed these two types of zones - A/red with a building ban, and B/blue with a special building code -to resolve the dilemma between state guaranteed natural hazard protection and land/real estate interests in a country that carries out public votes on building zones.
This morning, the municipality of Orsière ordered around 50 people to evacuate their houses in the blue and red hazard zones, as an addition 80cm of fresh snow are expected, and the Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche (SLF) set the danger of avalanches to the category of 4+
The red avalanche can also be found on the national avalanche map from 1907, just one year before it contributed to a catastrophe in Goppenstein (1908). It makes it into the news every few years, interrupting traffic. Avalanches have a history, shaping the Alpine landscape deep into the valleys.
Avalanches were often named after the mountains from which they descend (Rothenberg). Its path gave name to the valley, Rothlaui, that is depicted on the Siegfried map of 1913, just after the railway tunnel was opened.
It did so next to the gallery of Rotloiwi, which we can first see on the map of 1977. The toponym (red avalanche) suggests that this isn't a new phenomenon.
Today, an avalanche cut off railway and road to the Lötschental. www.lenouvelliste.ch/valais/haut-...
Davos gave us globalism and now offers a front-row seat to its collapse.
With Grace Ballor, we examine both its historical momentum and weaknesses.
academic.oup.com/ser/advance-...
In an issue on the post-neoliberal order by @quinnslobodian.com @llchristyll.bsky.social @akentikelenis.bsky.social
Bonne année, Marianne
Tonight!
Applications open for Ischia Summer School!
Confirmed faculty: Daryn Lehoux (Queen’s), Dániel Margócsy (Cambridge), He Bian (Princeton), Patrick Anthony (Uppsala), Alison Bashford (UNSW), Hannah Landecker (UCLA), Edna Suárez-Díaz (UNAM), Sabina Leonelli (TUM) #STS #HPS
ischiasummerschool.org
Great program for HSSuisse25 this Friday in Lucerne! See you there! hssuisse.ch/meetings/202...
Looking forward to Anna Ahlers "Demystifying China’s Authoritarian Environmentalism - and Its Local and Global Nuances" on 8 December 2025, 17h15, at Uni Mail, M1170. Public talk - join if you are in Geneva!
Tonight!
Next week! Join for David Jones's talk about urban air pollution this Wednesday, as the autumnal fog sits upon Geneva and the Swiss plateau 🌫️
L’approche néo-schumpeterienne de Philippe Aghion a largement inspiré les politiques économiques en Europe depuis le tournant des années 2000. Et singulièrement celle d’Emmanuel Macron 1/
We are alarmed by reports that Germany is on the verge of a catastrophic about-face, reversing its longstanding and principled opposition to the EU’s Chat Control proposal which, if passed, could spell the end of the right to privacy in Europe. signal.org/blog/pdfs/ge...
25/11 FR "Contested Danger: Avalanches, Knowledge, Politics, and Land in Switzerland" www.unifr.ch/geo/humangeo...
11/12 GE "La géographie des trois chiens du Grand Saint Bernard: l’animal de travail, le chien de race, et le chien d’avalanche, dans le territoire Suisse" www.unige.ch/sciences-soc...
If you want to hear more about avalanches (and avalanche dogs 🐶 ), you have three opportunities in three languages across Switzerland this:
21/10, Chur, "Lawinen und soziale Ordnung. Graubünden als Labor des Umgangs mit Naturgefahren, 1867–1972," historia-gr.ch/veranstaltun...
8/12 – Anna Ahlers (MPIWG, Berlin): "Demystifying China’s Authoritarian Environmentalism - and Its Local and Global Nuances," 17h15
The series is part of the SNSF-project "Avalanches." More here
avalanche.hypotheses.org/gel
We have two great talks coming up in the Geneva Environmental Lecture series this term.
22/10 – David S. Jones (Harvard): "Particulate Matters: How PM2.5 Became a Cause of Death, and a Matter of Concern," 17h15, E712, Bd. Carl-Vogt 66
1/12 - In our book, The Mask, we show 58 striking images.
Remember those depictions of plague doctors wearing a beaked mask? Such visual elements were common in the 17th C and were always satirical.
Here is one by F. Bertelli, from Il Carnevale Italiano…1642 (The Met, NY).
tinyurl.com/uvzjs9py
So far, no polls have been published, and it seems unlikely that the referendum will succeed. However, the super-rich are spooked.
www.ft.com/content/1ca8...
Switzerland will vote in late November on a popular initiative to impose a 50% tax on inheritance and donations above 50 million. The initiative, lanced by the JUSO, proposes to use the funds for socially just measures for climate protection. zukunft-initiative.ch/fr/
Submit your proposal for a presentation at HSSuisse25 in Lucerne (5 December) till 15 August! Going into its 6th year, this workshop serves as an informal, respectful, and constructive environment to present new and old projects and think through them together. More on hssuisse.ch/meetings/202...
Our book is out! The surprising history of masks worn by plague doctors, factory workers, trench soldier, hospital nurses, and the rest of us.
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
@yalepress.bsky.social
@yalebooks.bsky.socuial
alongside "environment."