Matheus Alves Duarte da Silva, Mathilde Gallay-Keller
{"title":"Rethinking the history of microbiology: new actors, geographies, places of knowledge, and ecologies.","authors":"Matheus Alves Duarte da Silva, Mathilde Gallay-Keller","doi":"10.1007/s40656-025-00678-2","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this introduction, we first paint a panorama of the historiography of microbiology from the end of the nineteenth century until today, spanning from Pasteurian hagiographies, institutional histories, STS-informed analyses to critical research on the emergence of microbiology in an age of global empires. We then suggest three possibilities for historians and anthropologists to rethink the past and present of microbiology: (1) by centralizing the focus of their analyses on geographies and actors outside of the realm of the Pasteur Institute and of the Pasteurians; (2) by studying places of knowledge beyond the laboratory and their interactions with the laboratory; and (3) by researching the past and present of complex ecologies that go beyond sole interactions between humans and pathogenic microbes. These three ways of recentralizing the history of microbiology are not unprecedented nor were they firstly enacted in this collection. On the contrary, this collection builds on a growing stream of innovative research and widens current avenues of research, helping thus to rethink the history of microbiology in a more global and inclusive way.</p>","PeriodicalId":56308,"journal":{"name":"History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences","volume":"47 3","pages":"31"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12185626/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-025-00678-2","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In this introduction, we first paint a panorama of the historiography of microbiology from the end of the nineteenth century until today, spanning from Pasteurian hagiographies, institutional histories, STS-informed analyses to critical research on the emergence of microbiology in an age of global empires. We then suggest three possibilities for historians and anthropologists to rethink the past and present of microbiology: (1) by centralizing the focus of their analyses on geographies and actors outside of the realm of the Pasteur Institute and of the Pasteurians; (2) by studying places of knowledge beyond the laboratory and their interactions with the laboratory; and (3) by researching the past and present of complex ecologies that go beyond sole interactions between humans and pathogenic microbes. These three ways of recentralizing the history of microbiology are not unprecedented nor were they firstly enacted in this collection. On the contrary, this collection builds on a growing stream of innovative research and widens current avenues of research, helping thus to rethink the history of microbiology in a more global and inclusive way.
期刊介绍:
History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences is an interdisciplinary journal committed to providing an integrative approach to understanding the life sciences. It welcomes submissions from historians, philosophers, biologists, physicians, ethicists and scholars in the social studies of science. Contributors are expected to offer broad and interdisciplinary perspectives on the development of biology, biomedicine and related fields, especially as these perspectives illuminate the foundations, development, and/or implications of scientific practices and related developments. Submissions which are collaborative and feature different disciplinary approaches are especially encouraged, as are submissions written by senior and junior scholars (including graduate students).