Isabelle Laboulais

Isabelle Laboulais is a Professor of Modern History at the Faculty of Historical Sciences, University of Strasbourg, and a member of the SAGE research laboratory (Sociétés, acteurs, gouvernement en Europe). She is actively engaged in research, teaching, and academic supervision, with a focus on the history of science, administrative knowledge, and professional cultures between the 18th and 19th centuries.

Her research interests include:

• Social and cultural history of science and knowledge (1750–1850)
• History of mining administration and mineral resource governance
• Professional identity and training of mining engineers
• Administrative practices, office work, and paper technologies
• Publishing, reputation, and intellectual networks in the Enlightenment and post-revolutionary periods

Her recent publications reveal a strong thematic coherence around the institutionalization of scientific and administrative knowledge, particularly in state contexts. She examines how expertise was constructed, documented, and deployed through bureaucratic and educational institutions, with a special emphasis on material and spatial dimensions of knowledge production. Her work often bridges intellectual, cultural, and political history, drawing on archival studies and the history of science.

She has supervised numerous doctoral theses, both as principal and co-supervisor, on topics related to public administration, gender, cartography, and expert knowledge. She is also involved in scientific governance, serving on the SAGE Laboratory Council.

Her teaching includes courses on the history of nature, historiography, political culture, and social sciences. She currently supervises six Master’s research projects.