Franklin University Switzerland is proud to present the findings of the two-year project “Pandemics as Driver towards Modern Borders and International Collaboration in 19th Century Mediterranean and Southeastern Europe,” supported by the Swiss Network for International Studies (SNIS). In this transdisciplinary and transnational study of how pandemics helped to shape contemporary national borders in political, diplomatic, sanitary, and even cultural and artistic terms, the research team coordinated by Prof. Marcus Pyka, Prof. Bernd Bucher, and the Principal Investigator Giorgio Ennas focuses primarily on the years 1865-1867, a time when the understanding of epidemics underwent profound changes. The project’s results underlined why these years are considered a particularly significant period for the process of reinforcing imperialist agendas and nation-state borders through the imposition of sanitary measures to contain cholera pandemics and the development of quarantine networks.
Ennas’s full discussion of the project’s final results with Prof. Pyka on the Franklin campus reveals that in the nineteenth century, cholera was considered a particularly harrowing presence and, by comparatively analyzing the contents of diplomatic documents, medical descriptions, and records from various sources, the team was able to arrive at a new vision of how cholera emergencies were handled and used to strengthen borders. Collaborators from eight different countries and sources from digital and traditional archives contributed to this innovative research project, combining medical history with border studies and to maintain an international, interdisciplinary, and non-Eurocentric research methodology. Although many of us may not have thought about historical pandemics before 2020 and the arrival of COVID-19 as a global menace, this research has become particularly timely and important in terms of looking at our history to predict the outcomes of our future, placing Franklin at the forefront of border studies, and the history of population movement management in the Mediterranean region, as well as quarantine studies.
Under the supervision and mentorship of Prof. Pyka and Prof. Bucher, the project has achieved remarkable results, with the participation in several international conferences and workshops, the production of articles for scientific journals, the convening of an international workshop on the Franklin campus, and the production of a monograph that will facilitate future research in the academic realm. Even more interesting for an academic and non-academic audience is the conception of a digital map (soon accessible on Franklin’s Division of Communication, History and Political Sciences website) elaborated by team members that shows precisely how quarantines contributed to the demarcation or maintenance of state borders. It is a still-in-progress part of the project, but deeply innovative and intended to offer a fundamental contribution to all those interested in borders studies, history of medicine, but also international relations and political sciences. In fact, in his forthcoming monograph entitled Between Pandemics and Borders, Ennas explains that although it may seem that nineteenth-century events are not relevant to contemporary concerns, the truth is that with the COVID-19 not yet in our rear view, we can come to better understand that pandemics can be important stressors on governments and can lead to desires for emancipation and change among certain areas or strata of society. It is the team members’ hope that the results of this project will lead to a better understanding of pandemic-ridden contexts.
One further fascinating aspect of this project is that it is not only based on medical science or international relations, but also on humanities, such as history and art, as artistic depictions of cholera-sufferers are integrated into the research and are considered as important as medical and statistical documents. This two-year study makes an important contribution to humanities and social sciences, particularly in areas such as history, art, political sciences, and international relations, and, in addition to articles published in 2021 and 2022, will surely be expanded with further scientific articles by team members, an edited volume by advisory board, and a monograph to be soon published. Franklin University Switzerland faculty and students can learn a great deal from this promising research, which aims to contribute to the understanding of the transformation of societies and international relations in pandemic and post-pandemic periods.