Déborah Dubald

Déborah Dubald is a Lecturer in the history of science and health at the University of Strasbourg, affiliated with the Department of History of Life and Health Sciences within the Faculty of Medicine, Midwifery and Health Sciences. She is a member of the SAGE laboratory (Sociétés, acteurs, gouvernement en Europe), where she conducts research at the intersection of scientific heritage, material cultures, and gender history.

Education:

• PhD in History, European University Institute, Florence (2019)

Her research focuses on the history of material cultures in science, health, and nature, particularly examining 19th- and 20th-century scientific and medical collections. She investigates the labor and gender dynamics behind collection-making, with a special focus on microscope slides and human remains. Her current ANR-funded project, 'Bodies of glass', explores the preservation of human remains on histological slides from 1850 to 1990. She also contributes to the environmental history of collections through her involvement with the Collection<>Ecologies collective and co-organizes a monthly seminar with the Philadelphia CHSTM.

The analysis of her recent publications reveals a strong thematic focus on 19th-century French provincial science, particularly in cities like Lyon, Nantes, and Toulouse. Her work examines how municipal museums participated in shaping local identities and scientific authority through collecting, cataloging, and exhibiting natural knowledge. She emphasizes the entanglement of bureaucratic practices with scientific fieldwork and challenges romanticized narratives of exploration by highlighting the administrative dimensions of knowledge production.

Scientific Awards:

• Co-winner of the 2020 James Kaye Memorial Prize for the Best Thesis in History and Visuality

Déborah Dubald has advised no listed students but has held significant collaborative roles, including as a postdoctoral researcher on the SNSF/Sinergia project on syphilis and as a scientific collaborator on the 'ArchiMed - Mining Medical Archives' project. She has also led the 'Experiences: situated studies of the ecology of knowledge' project funded by MISHA (2023–2024). Her teaching includes courses on gender, medicine, and society, as well as museum and collection studies across multiple master's programs.

Labs and Teams:

• SAGE Laboratory (Sociétés, acteurs, gouvernement en Europe)
• Collection<>Ecologies collective
• Scientific collaborator, ArchiMed project
• Co-referent for heritage, pathological anatomy collections (with Tricia Close-Koenig)