Conversation at the Salon around an object: Medical Mission and Humanitarian Aid, another Facet of Colonization

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Conversation at the Salon around an object:

Medical Missions and Humanitarian Aid, Another Facet of Colonization

With Marie-Luce Desgrandchamps and Guillaume Linte
Colonial history is not only characterized by the material conquests achieved in economic, political and military terms. It also includes a philanthropic side, or one that is openly declared as such: that of health and moral assistance to colonized peoples. Colonization also brought with it a tremendous development in European medicine, while organizations with a pretense of beneficence, such as the Christian missions, sprang up in the 19th century, including in Switzerland, to bring health and salvation to the overseas Indigenous. In this context, Geneva played a very important role. The International Committee of the Red Cross, for example, was a major player in Africa, also and especially in the 20th century.
What are the links between the humanitarian cause and colonial domination, decolonization and independence ? What is at stake, past and present, in such an undertaking ?
Introduction of guests
Marie-Luce Desgrandchamps is a lecturer at the University of Geneva and a Swiss National Science Foundation senior researcher at the University of Fribourg. Her research focuses on the history of humanitarian aid, non-governmental and international organizations, and the contemporary history of Africa. Her publications include L'humanitaire en guerre civile. La crise du Biafra (1967-1970) (Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2018).
Guillaume Linte is a historian. After completing his doctorate at Université Paris-Est and teaching at Université de Strasbourg, he joined the University of Geneva in 2020. He is now head of research at the Institut des Humanités en Médecine of the University of Lausanne and the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois. His work focuses on the history of health, infectious diseases and colonization. His publications include Hygiène navale et médecine des colonies en France (XVIe-XVIIIe siècle) (Paris, Indes Savantes, 2023) and Maladies infectieuses sans fin. Le cas de la syphilis pour penser la mobilisation-démobilisation prophylactique (XXe-XXIe siècle) with Alexandre Wenger and Christian Bonah (Geneva, Editions Georg, 2022).
The Conversations at the Salon is the lecture-meeting series for the temporary exhibition "Remembering. Geneva in the colonial world".
This cycle was conceived and organized by Fabio Rossinelli.