# Matters of containment : Material approaches to the handling of threats in the modern world

Francisco Javier Martínez, Celia Miralles Buil

► To cite this version:

Francisco Javier Martínez, Celia Miralles Buil. Matters of containment: Material approaches to the handling of threats in the modern world. 3rd International Conference of the Quarantine Studies Network (QSN), May 2020, Lisbonne, Portugal. pp.00001, 10.1051/shsconf/202213600001. hal-04555600

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Submitted on 19 Jun 2024

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<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
# Matters of containment : Material approaches to the handling of threats in the modern world

Francisco Javier Martínez, Celia Miralles Buil

► To cite this version:

Francisco Javier Martínez, Celia Miralles Buil. Matters of containment: Material approaches to the handling of threats in the modern world. 3rd International Conference of the Quarantine Studies Network (QSN), May 2020, Lisbonne, Portugal. pp.00001, 10.1051/shsconf/202213600001. hal-04555600

HAL Id: hal-04555600

https://hal.science/hal-04555600v1

Submitted on 19 Jun 2024

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access
archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-
entific research documents, whether they are pub-
lished or not. The documents may come from
teaching and research institutions in France or
abroad, or from public or private research centers.

L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est
destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents
scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non,
émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de
recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires
publics ou privés.

<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
# Preface

## MATTERS OF CONTAINMENT

### Material approaches to the handling of threats in the modern world

### 3rd International Conference of the Quarantine Studies Network (QSN) Lisbon, Portugal, 28-29 May 2020

**Abstract.** This paper provides a quick overview of the theoretical outline, programme, organization, and participants of the 3rd QSN International Conference "Matters of Containment". Originally intended as an in-person meeting to be held at premises of the University of Évora and the University of Lisbon, in Portugal, the conference finally took place online.

## 1 Introduction

Past conferences of the Quarantine Studies Network (QSN) in Malta (2014) and Mallorca (2018) explored an expansion of the classical study of quarantines and sanitary cordons into an interdisciplinary field of "quarantine studies" so that their multiple political, military, social, economic and, of course, health dimensions were systematically brought to the foreground. [1] In this third conference, we intend to take a more decided step in that direction by exploring the material realities of containment anywhere in the world and preferably for the period 1750-today.

The word "containment" is usually given two meanings: a) "the act of keeping something within limits", usually a hazard, such as an epidemic disease or a radioactive leakage; b) "the policy, process or result of preventing the expansion of a hostile power or ideology". [2] Both meanings could be – and usually are – intertwined, as can be seen, for example, in the scientific and political measures taken to check the "threats" associated with the Mecca pilgrimage in the 19th century [3], the Soviet Revolution and Russian Civil War in 1917-1922 [4] or the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 [5].

This transversal nature of containment can be better grasped through a focus on its often-neglected material aspects – following the recent "material turn" in the history of science and other disciplines. [6] Containment ultimately consists of the handling of threatening human bodies, living beings, objects, emotions, and ideas, which is always performed by specialized groups of humans who use various tools and techniques to carry out different types of actions in a large variety of spaces. In this sense, for example, the detention and examination of the bodies of migrants aims to provide at the same time
# Preface

## MATTERS OF CONTAINMENT

### Material approaches to the handling of threats in the modern world

### 3rd International Conference of the Quarantine Studies Network (QSN) Lisbon, Portugal, 28-29 May 2020

**Abstract.** This paper provides a quick overview of the theoretical outline, programme, organization, and participants of the 3rd QSN International Conference "Matters of Containment". Originally intended as an in-person meeting to be held at premises of the University of Évora and the University of Lisbon, in Portugal, the conference finally took place online.

## 1 Introduction

Past conferences of the Quarantine Studies Network (QSN) in Malta (2014) and Mallorca (2018) explored an expansion of the classical study of quarantines and sanitary cordons into an interdisciplinary field of "quarantine studies" so that their multiple political, military, social, economic and, of course, health dimensions were systematically brought to the foreground. [1] In this third conference, we intend to take a more decided step in that direction by exploring the material realities of containment anywhere in the world and preferably for the period 1750-today.

The word "containment" is usually given two meanings: a) "the act of keeping something within limits", usually a hazard, such as an epidemic disease or a radioactive leakage; b) "the policy, process or result of preventing the expansion of a hostile power or ideology". [2] Both meanings could be – and usually are – intertwined, as can be seen, for example, in the scientific and political measures taken to check the "threats" associated with the Mecca pilgrimage in the 19th century [3], the Soviet Revolution and Russian Civil War in 1917-1922 [4] or the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 [5].

This transversal nature of containment can be better grasped through a focus on its often-neglected material aspects – following the recent "material turn" in the history of science and other disciplines. [6] Containment ultimately consists of the handling of threatening human bodies, living beings, objects, emotions, and ideas, which is always performed by specialized groups of humans who use various tools and techniques to carry out different types of actions in a large variety of spaces. In this sense, for example, the detention and examination of the bodies of migrants aims to provide at the same time
sanitary, ideological, and economic “protection”; measuring tools used in customs’ laboratories may guard the health of a country’s population against adulterated products and the country’s industry or agriculture against the “damage” caused by the “invasion” of another country’s products. Materiality can also provide a more accurate picture of the actual scope, the effectiveness, and consequences (social, political, economic, spatial or environmental) of containment measures, as well as of historical continuities and the collective memory about them.

## 2 Programme

Day 1, May 28, 2020 Thursday

8:30-9h Welcome and opening address

9-10:45h. Non-human objects

“Fumigating Mail. The Filtering and Expurgation of ‘threatening’ Ideas in the lazarettos of southern Europe 1790s-1903”. John Chircop, University of Malta.

“Drugs and medicines beyond borders: inspections and controls at customs in early 20th Century Spain”. Ignacio Suay-Matallana, Instituto interuniversitario López Piñero – Universidad Miguel Hernández.

“Radioactivity on tour: the picture of Eve Curie at the Portuguese Oncology Institute (IPO)”. Beatriz Medori, CIUHCT, Universidade de Lisboa.

“Containing the risk for the city. How sociotechnical tools are mitigating the earthquake risk in Istanbul?”. Youenn Gourain, PhD, LATTS, CRNS-Université Paris Est.

10:45-11:15. Coffee break

11:15-13h. Non-human objects//Nuclear-chemical containment

“Deputies, insects and trees: The Pine Wood Nematode in the Portuguese National Congress”. Ignacio García Pereda, CIUHCT, Universidade de Lisboa.

“The Romance of the North? Scotland as a proving and dumping ground for the British Military (1942 - 2000)”. Alexander Boyd, Photographer, PhD University of North Umbria.

“Containing radioactive and non-radioactive hazard: the case study of the nuclear industry on the Rhone river in France”. Louis Fagon, École Normale Supérieure, Lyon.

“Containment vs. the Earth System: How Nuclear Fallout Shaped Scientific Perception of the Earth as a Globally Interconnected Environmental System”. E. Jerry Jessee, University of Wisconsin Stevens Point.

13-14:30h. Lunch
sanitary, ideological, and economic “protection”; measuring tools used in customs’ laboratories may guard the health of a country’s population against adulterated products and the country’s industry or agriculture against the “damage” caused by the “invasion” of another country’s products. Materiality can also provide a more accurate picture of the actual scope, the effectiveness, and consequences (social, political, economic, spatial or environmental) of containment measures, as well as of historical continuities and the collective memory about them.

# 2 Programme

Day 1, May 28, 2020 Thursday

8:30-9h Welcome and opening address

9-10:45h. Non-human objects

“Fumigating Mail. The Filtering and Expurgation of ‘threatening’ Ideas in the lazarettos of southern Europe 1790s-1903”. John Chircop, University of Malta.

“Drugs and medicines beyond borders: inspections and controls at customs in early 20th Century Spain”. Ignacio Suay-Matallana, Instituto interuniversitario López Piñero – Universidad Miguel Hernández.

“Radioactivity on tour: the picture of Eve Curie at the Portuguese Oncology Institute (IPO)”. Beatriz Medori, CIUHCT, Universidade de Lisboa.

“Containing the risk for the city. How sociotechnical tools are mitigating the earthquake risk in Istanbul?”. Youenn Gourain, PhD, LATTS, CRNS-Université Paris Est.

10:45-11:15. Coffee break

11:15-13h. Non-human objects//Nuclear-chemical containment

“Deputies, insects and trees: The Pine Wood Nematode in the Portuguese National Congress”. Ignacio García Pereda, CIUHCT, Universidade de Lisboa.

“The Romance of the North? Scotland as a proving and dumping ground for the British Military (1942 - 2000)”. Alexander Boyd, Photographer, PhD University of North Umbria.

“Containing radioactive and non-radioactive hazard: the case study of the nuclear industry on the Rhone river in France”. Louis Fagon, École Normale Supérieure, Lyon.

“Containment vs. the Earth System: How Nuclear Fallout Shaped Scientific Perception of the Earth as a Globally Interconnected Environmental System”. E. Jerry Jessee, University of Wisconsin Stevens Point.

13-14:30h. Lunch
14:30-16:15h. Nuclear-chemical containment

"Matters of Counter-Containment: Revisiting the popular maritime campaign against the Syrian chemical weapons' hydrolysis in the Mediterranean Sea". Nikolas Kosmatopoulos, American University of Beirut.

"Non-radioactive but nuclear? Containment and circulation of wastes from the French nuclear tests in Polynesia". Teva MEYER, Université de Haute-Alsace, Mulhouse.

"Spreading the atom, encapsulating radioactivity: an archaeology of the containment building of the Barcelona nuclear reactor". Jaume Valentines Àlvarez, Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

"Containing chemical warfare: industrial, medical and social protection against poison gases in Spain during the Rif War". Francisco Javier Martínez, CIDEHUS, Universidade de Évora.

16:15-16:45h. Cofee break

16:45-18:30h. Epidemic containment

"The 1894 Lisbon cholera epidemic: the answer of the Spanish authorities at the border". Alexandra Marques, FLSH-Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

« Le « Règlement de peste » : comment lutter contre la peste en Provence ». Jamel el-Hadj, Centre Norbert Elias, EEHS, Marseille.

"Fever Hospitals in Ireland during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century". Margaret DeLacy, Ph.D., Northwest Independent Scholars Association.

"More destructive than guns: contagious epidemic fever and public health in Lisbon. 1810-12". Ricardo Cabral de Freitas, Faperj/Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro.

Day 2, May 29, 2020 Friday

9-10:45h. Health and politics

"Living in an uncertainty of epidemics: border control of cholera in Japan at the turn of the 20th century". Shiori NOSAKA, PhD École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris.

"Epidemic containment and social control measures in Portugal: the borderland lazaretto system (1884–86)". Laurinda Abreu, CIDEHUS, Universidade de Évora.

« La politique de confinement de l'état sanitaire au Maroc au temps du protectorat Français : le cas de la ville de Mazagan (el Jadida) (1913-1945) ». Malika Ezzahidi, Université Hassan II, Mohammedia.

"Genealogies of containment: Migrant labour, bonifica integrale and carceral regimes in an Italian agro-industrial enclave » . Irene Peano, Universidade de Lisboa.
**14:30-16:15h. Nuclear-chemical containment**

"Matters of Counter-Containment: Revisiting the popular maritime campaign against the Syrian chemical weapons' hydrolysis in the Mediterranean Sea". Nikolas Kosmatopoulos, American University of Beirut.

"Non-radioactive but nuclear? Containment and circulation of wastes from the French nuclear tests in Polynesia". Teva MEYER, Université de Haute-Alsace, Mulhouse.

"Spreading the atom, encapsulating radioactivity: an archaeology of the containment building of the Barcelona nuclear reactor". Jaume Valentines Álvarez, Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

"Containing chemical warfare: industrial, medical and social protection against poison gases in Spain during the Rif War". Francisco Javier Martínez, CIDEHUS, Universidade de Évora.

**16:15-16:45h. Cofee break**

**16:45-18:30h. Epidemic containment**

"The 1894 Lisbon cholera epidemic: the answer of the Spanish authorities at the border". Alexandra Marques, FLSH-Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

« Le « Règlement de peste » : comment lutter contre la peste en Provence ». Jamel el-Hadj, Centre Norbert Elias, EEHS, Marseille.

"Fever Hospitals in Ireland during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century". Margaret DeLacy, Ph.D., Northwest Independent Scholars Association.

"More destructive than guns: contagious epidemic fever and public health in Lisbon. 1810-12". Ricardo Cabral de Freitas, Faperj/Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro.

## Day 2, May 29, 2020 Friday

**9-10:45h. Health and politics**

"Living in an uncertainty of epidemics: border control of cholera in Japan at the turn of the 20th century". Shiori NOSAKA, PhD École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris.

"Epidemic containment and social control measures in Portugal: the borderland lazaretto system (1884–86)". Laurinda Abreu, CIDEHUS, Universidade de Évora.

« La politique de confinement de l'état sanitaire au Maroc au temps du protectorat Français : le cas de la ville de Mazagan (el Jadida) (1913-1945) ». Malika Ezzahidi, Université Hassan II, Mohammedia.

"Genealogies of containment: Migrant labour, bonifica integrale and carceral regimes in an Italian agro-industrial enclave » . Irene Peano, Universidade de Lisboa.
10:45-11:15. Cofee break

11:15-13h. *Disturbing bodies*

"A modifying influence of great importance": the role of medical photographs in anti-black containment strategies under segregation in the United States". Stephen C. Kenny, Department of History, University of Liverpool.

"War humanitarian action and the management of dead bodies, 1867-1889". Jon Arrizabalaga. IMF-CSIC, Barcelona; Guillermo Sánchez-Martínez.

"Towards the Power of Spatial Scripts". Jonathan Cortez, Brown University, Providence.

"Containing the Moroccan Feminist Movement: Maintaining Patriarchal Order". Fatima Ouaryachi, PhD Universidad de Oviedo.

13-14:30. Lunch

14:30-16:15h. *Disturbing bodies/Epidemic containment*

"Portuguese emigrants and the health control: the function of the inspector-physicians during the dictatorship". Yvette Santos, Instituto de Historia Contemporánea, Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

"Cinema and containment: An approach to humanitarian narratives". Juan Carlos García-Reyes, independent scholar.

« Coercive an inquisitive surveillance in the pre-bacteriological quarantine system ». Quim Bonastra, Universitat de Lleida.

« Le confinement dans les hôpitaux pour cholériques dans les Etats Sardes au XIXe siècle : l'idée de contagion et la contagion des idées ». Dominique Bon.

16:15-16:45h. Cofee break

16:45-18:30h. *Epidemic containment*

"Quarantine at the Eastern gate. The Italian Perspective in Alexandria". Mauro Capocci, University of Pisa, Daniele Cozzoli, Universidad Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona.

"Quarantene, liberismo e riforma sanitaria nel Regno di Sardegna (1848-1861)". Roberto Cea, Universitate dello Stato, Milano.

"Suez Canal under Quarantine: the Sanitary History of the Mediterranean Gateway (19th-21th c.)". Costas Tsiamis, Chryssa Hatzara, Georgia Vrion, Athens University.

"Materiality of Sanitation in the late Ottoman Empire: Urla (Klazomenai) Quarantine in Izmir". Ufuk ADAK, PhD Department of Social Sciences, Altınbaş Üniversitesi, Istanbul.

20:30h. Conference dinner
10:45-11:15. Cofee break

11:15-13h. *Disturbing bodies*

"A modifying influence of great importance": the role of medical photographs in anti-black containment strategies under segregation in the United States". Stephen C. Kenny, Department of History, University of Liverpool.

"War humanitarian action and the management of dead bodies, 1867-1889". Jon Arrizabalaga. IMF-CSIC, Barcelona; Guillermo Sánchez-Martínez.

"Towards the Power of Spatial Scripts". Jonathan Cortez, Brown University, Providence.

"Containing the Moroccan Feminist Movement: Maintaining Patriarchal Order". Fatima Ouaryachi, PhD Universidad de Oviedo.

13-14:30. Lunch

14:30-16:15h. *Disturbing bodies/Epidemic containment*

"Portuguese emigrants and the health control: the function of the inspector-physicians during the dictatorship". Yvette Santos, Instituto de Historia Contemporánea, Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

"Cinema and containment: An approach to humanitarian narratives". Juan Carlos García-Reyes, independent scholar.

« Coercive an inquisitive surveillance in the pre-bacteriological quarantine system ». Quim Bonastra, Universitat de Lleida.

« Le confinement dans les hôpitaux pour cholériques dans les Etats Sardes au XIXe siècle : l'idée de contagion et la contagion des idées ». Dominique Bon.

16:15-16:45h. Cofee break

16:45-18:30h. *Epidemic containment*

"Quarantine at the Eastern gate. The Italian Perspective in Alexandria". Mauro Capocci, University of Pisa, Daniele Cozzoli, Universidad Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona.

"Quarantene, liberismo e riforma sanitaria nel Regno di Sardegna (1848-1861)". Roberto Cea, Universitate dello Stato, Milano.

"Suez Canal under Quarantine: the Sanitary History of the Mediterranean Gateway (19th–21th c.)". Costas Tsiamis, Chryssa Hatzara, Georgia Vrion, Athens University.

"Materiality of Sanitation in the late Ottoman Empire: Urla (Klazomenai) Quarantine in Izmir". Ufuk ADAK, PhD Department of Social Sciences, Altınbaş Üniversitesi, Istanbul.

20:30h. Conference dinner
## 3 Main features

The conference was organized by a local committee on behalf of the Quarantine Studies Network (QSN). The QSN, an international network of scholars interested in the global study of quarantines from an interdisciplinary perspective, was founded in 2014 by a group of Mediterranean scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds. The Lisbon conference organizing committee was integrated by Francisco Javier Martínez and Laurinda Abreu (CIDEHUS, University of Évora<fnref n="1" />) and Celia Miralles-Buil (CIUHCT, University of Lisbon<fnref n="2" />), all of them medical historians and members of the QSN. By the time of this publication, however, Dr. Martínez is based at the University of Zaragoza (Spain) and Dr. Miralles-Buil, at the University of Strasbourg (France). Additionally, the QSN managed to obtain support for the Lisbon conference from the European Association for the History of Medicine and Health (EAHMH). The most important of its kind in continental Europe, this association “aims to foster research and the international exchange of views on all issues concerning health and medicine in Europe and their connections with the extra-European world”. Specifically, this association recognized the QSN as a scientific network of interested and allocated funds that have made it possible to publish the present conference proceedings.

The committee took charge of both the organizational and scientific aspects of the meeting. The former were affected by the Covid-19 situation in Portugal and worldwide, which made it impossible to hold an in-person meeting in Lisbon as initially planned. As a result, the committee moved on to celebrate the meeting online on the same dates, 28-29 May 2020. For that purpose, first of all, video presentations recorded by contributors were uploaded to the QSN Facebook site https://www.facebook.com/QuarantineStudiesNetwork/ and Twitter https://twitter.com/QSN_network, and to the QSN YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkIZMPrVhtK2QvXK6SH-1tQ) at successive hours of each conference day. They are still accessible for anyone interested. Secondly, by the end of June, a debate took place via Zoom to allow for collective discussion on specific

<footnote n="1">¹ According to its website, the CIDEHUS (Interdisciplinary Centre for History, Culture and Societies), created in 1994, “is currently an interdisciplinary research laboratory in History and Social Sciences. Funded by FCT (the Portuguese national funding agency for science, research and technology), it classified as “Excellent” on the last evaluation process (December 2014). Its team gathers 190 researchers, 72 of whom are full members holding a PhD, specialized in history, cultural heritage, museology, tourism, demography, philology, linguistics, anthropology, architecture, IT, library and archive sciences, philosophy, sociology, psychology, or literacy studies, from fourteen different countries of four continents. Favouring a comparative approach, cross-paths and applied history, CIDEHUS' work program addresses societal changes over the long term. Its team observes and analyses issues taking the South as a reference point – Southern Portugal, Portugal as a political unit in the Iberian Peninsula and in Southern Europe, but also as a region with historical links to the Mediterranean and the meridional hemisphere”. https://www.en.cidehus.uevora.pt/about</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² According to its website, the CIUHCT (Inter-University Centre for the History of Sciences and Technology), “is the result of the merging of two previous units in the area of History of Science and Technology: Centro de História e Filosofia da Ciência e da Tecnologia (CHFCT) and Centro de História das Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa (CHCUL). From 2007 to 2014 it hosted two research lines associated with its two different host institutions (FCT/NOVA and Ciências/ULisboa). Following the 2014 evaluation period, in which CIUHCT scored the maximum grade – Exceptional, CIUHCT has undergone a thematic reorganization. GENERAL OBJECTIVES. CIUHCT aims at asserting the relevance of History of STM in building citizenship and European identity, focusing specifically, but not exclusively, in STM historical case studies on Portugal in an international perspective. CIUHCT participates actively in international debates on the concepts of center(s) and periphery(ies), on the relevance of STM knowledge in the construction of modern and contemporary societies, using an innovative methodological framework centered on the trilogy circulation, appropriation and innovation”. https://ciuhct.org/en/about/presentation</footnote>
## 3 Main features

The conference was organized by a local committee on behalf of the Quarantine Studies Network (QSN). The QSN, an international network of scholars interested in the global study of quarantines from an interdisciplinary perspective, was founded in 2014 by a group of Mediterranean scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds. The Lisbon conference organizing committee was integrated by Francisco Javier Martínez and Laurinda Abreu (CIDEHUS, University of Évora<fnref n="1" />) and Celia Miralles-Buil (CIUHCT, University of Lisbon<fnref n="2" />), all of them medical historians and members of the QSN. By the time of this publication, however, Dr. Martínez is based at the University of Zaragoza (Spain) and Dr. Miralles-Buil, at the University of Strasbourg (France). Additionally, the QSN managed to obtain support for the Lisbon conference from the European Association for the History of Medicine and Health (EAHMH). The most important of its kind in continental Europe, this association “aims to foster research and the international exchange of views on all issues concerning health and medicine in Europe and their connections with the extra-European world”. Specifically, this association recognized the QSN as a scientific network of interested and allocated funds that have made it possible to publish the present conference proceedings.

The committee took charge of both the organizational and scientific aspects of the meeting. The former were affected by the Covid-19 situation in Portugal and worldwide, which made it impossible to hold an in-person meeting in Lisbon as initially planned. As a result, the committee moved on to celebrate the meeting online on the same dates, 28-29 May 2020. For that purpose, first of all, video presentations recorded by contributors were uploaded to the QSN Facebook site https://www.facebook.com/QuarantineStudiesNetwork/ and Twitter https://twitter.com/QSN_network, and to the QSN YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkIZMPrVhtK2QvXK6SH-1tQ) at successive hours of each conference day. They are still accessible for anyone interested. Secondly, by the end of June, a debate took place via Zoom to allow for collective discussion on specific

<footnote n="1">¹ According to its website, the CIDEHUS (Interdisciplinary Centre for History, Culture and Societies), created in 1994, “is currently an interdisciplinary research laboratory in History and Social Sciences. Funded by FCT (the Portuguese national funding agency for science, research and technology), it classified as “Excellent” on the last evaluation process (December 2014). Its team gathers 190 researchers, 72 of whom are full members holding a PhD, specialized in history, cultural heritage, museology, tourism, demography, philology, linguistics, anthropology, architecture, IT, library and archive sciences, philosophy, sociology, psychology, or literacy studies, from fourteen different countries of four continents. Favouring a comparative approach, cross-paths and applied history, CIDEHUS' work program addresses societal changes over the long term. Its team observes and analyses issues taking the South as a reference point – Southern Portugal, Portugal as a political unit in the Iberian Peninsula and in Southern Europe, but also as a region with historical links to the Mediterranean and the meridional hemisphere”. https://www.en.cidehus.uevora.pt/about</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² According to its website, the CIUHCT (Inter-University Centre for the History of Sciences and Technology), “is the result of the merging of two previous units in the area of History of Science and Technology: Centro de História e Filosofia da Ciência e da Tecnologia (CHFCT) and Centro de História das Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa (CHCUL). From 2007 to 2014 it hosted two research lines associated with its two different host institutions (FCT/NOVA and Ciências/ULisboa). Following the 2014 evaluation period, in which CIUHCT scored the maximum grade – Exceptional, CIUHCT has undergone a thematic reorganization. GENERAL OBJECTIVES. CIUHCT aims at asserting the relevance of History of STM in building citizenship and European identity, focusing specifically, but not exclusively, in STM historical case studies on Portugal in an international perspective. CIUHCT participates actively in international debates on the concepts of center(s) and periphery(ies), on the relevance of STM knowledge in the construction of modern and contemporary societies, using an innovative methodological framework centered on the trilogy circulation, appropriation and innovation”. https://ciuhct.org/en/about/presentation</footnote>
points of the conference. Regarding the scientific aspects, the committee took charge of selecting the contributions and drafting the scientific programme (see Section 2). Due to the Covid-19 situation, certain contributors found it impossible to record their videos, though some of them managed to participate in the post-conference discussion and/or send their written papers for this publication.

Following the scientific goals put forward by the committee (see Section 1), the conference was organized into five panels: a) Non-human objects; b) Nuclear-chemical containment; c) Epidemic containment; d) Health and politics; e) Disturbing bodies. There were 32 presentation proposals in total, by scholars from multiple disciplinary backgrounds (historians of science, geographers, social activists, political scientists, librarians/archivists, sociologists, contemporary historians) and from institutions or associations of 12 countries all over the world (Portugal, Spain, France, Malta, Greece, United States, Great Britain, Turkey, Morocco, Lebanon, Italy, and Brazil). The conference language was English.

## References

1. J. Chircop, F. J. Martinez, *Mediterranean Quarantines, 1750-1914. Space, Identity and Power* (Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2018)

2. Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “Definition of containment”. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/containment

3. M. C. Low, Int J Middle East Stud **40** (2008)

4. P. Zylbermann, Hist Cienc Saude Manguinhos **27**, 1 (2020)

5. M. van der Veen, Rethink. Marx. **25**, 1 (2012)

6. A. Guerini, Lit. Compass **13**, 7 (2016)
points of the conference. Regarding the scientific aspects, the committee took charge of selecting the contributions and drafting the scientific programme (see Section 2). Due to the Covid-19 situation, certain contributors found it impossible to record their videos, though some of them managed to participate in the post-conference discussion and/or send their written papers for this publication.

Following the scientific goals put forward by the committee (see Section 1), the conference was organized into five panels: a) Non-human objects; b) Nuclear-chemical containment; c) Epidemic containment; d) Health and politics; e) Disturbing bodies. There were 32 presentation proposals in total, by scholars from multiple disciplinary backgrounds (historians of science, geographers, social activists, political scientists, librarians/archivists, sociologists, contemporary historians) and from institutions or associations of 12 countries all over the world (Portugal, Spain, France, Malta, Greece, United States, Great Britain, Turkey, Morocco, Lebanon, Italy, and Brazil). The conference language was English.

## References

1. J. Chircop, F. J. Martinez, *Mediterranean Quarantines, 1750-1914. Space, Identity and Power* (Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2018)

2. Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “Definition of containment”. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/containment

3. M. C. Low, Int J Middle East Stud **40** (2008)

4. P. Zylbermann, Hist Cienc Saude Manguinhos **27**, 1 (2020)

5. M. van der Veen, Rethink. Marx. **25**, 1 (2012)

6. A. Guerini, Lit. Compass **13**, 7 (2016)