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Bruno J. Strasser

@brunostrasser.bsky.social
228 followers 93 following 32 posts

Historian of Science, Technology, Medicine. Just out: Bruno J. Strasser & Thomas Schlich, The Mask: A History of Breathing Bad Air (Yale U Press, 2025) brunostrasser.com

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Reposted by Bruno J. Strasser
Christos Lynteris @visualplague.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
« Les Feuilles de l’après-mai », de Jean-François Hamel : une passionnante plongée dans la presse militante issue de Mai 68 www.lemonde.fr/livres/artic...
lemonde.fr
« Les Feuilles de l’après-mai », de Jean-François Hamel : une passionnante plongée dans la presse militante issue de Mai 68
L’essayiste dresse une « histoire littéraire du gauchisme » à travers l’étude des virtualités performatives du langage révolutionnaire inventé en 1968.
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Bibliostoriae @bibliostoriae.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
🎧 " Corps ouvriers et produits chimiques, l’histoire toxique de l’industrialisation " Avec @judithrainhorn.bsky.social et Thomas Le Roux @crh.ehess.fr dans l'émission "Le Cours de l'histoire de @xaviermauduit.bsky.social Cycle "Attention travail ! Une histoire de sécurité " ▶️ urlr.me/HAsbzQ
urlr.me
Corps ouvriers et produits chimiques, l’histoire toxique de l’industrialisation : épisode du podcast Attention travail ! Une histoire de sécurité | France Culture
AUDIO Attention travail ! Une histoire de sécurité, épisode : Corps ouvriers et produits chimiques, l’histoire toxique de l’industrialisation. Une série inédite proposée par France Culture. Écoutez C...
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Christos Lynteris @visualplague.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Delighted to have my author's copies of How Plague Got Rats! A big thanks to series editors @steerewilliams.bsky.social @doravargha.bsky.social @hopkinspress.bsky.social & to @wellcometrust.bsky.social for funding this project! Book publ. May 19 & OA www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...
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Christos Lynteris @visualplague.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
A great podcast series @franceculture.fr on the most read, and perhaps most influential, work in anthropology: Claude Lévi-Strauss's Tristes Tropiques www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...
radiofrance.fr
"Tristes Tropiques" de Claude Lévi-Strauss : l'aventure humaine : un podcast à écouter en ligne | France Culture
Avec le mythique "Tristes Tropiques", Claude Lévi-Strauss raconte ses quatre années d’expéditions au Brésil et questionne la notion de civilisation. Publié en 1955, ce livre total mêle récit de voyage...
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infoclio.ch @infoclio.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
The 44th History of Technology Conference (Nov 2025), dealt with 'Low-Tech: Procedures, Actors, Concepts”. In his report, Martin Ullmann concluded that the conference had broadened “the perspective of how the concept of low-tech could be used for historical enquiry”. www.infoclio.ch/de/node/1917...
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Christos Lynteris @visualplague.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Very sad to hear of the death of the great historian Jacques Revel. Among many stellar works, Logiques de la foule (1988), which he co-authored with Arlette Farge, remains one of the best microhistories of fear and rumour
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Christos Lynteris @visualplague.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Book Review of The Mask: A History of Breathing Bad Air by @brunostrasser.bsky.social & Thomas Schlich in the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences academic.oup.com/jhmas/advanc...
academic.oup.com
The Mask: A History of Breathing Bad Air Bruno J. Strasser and Thomas Schlich
Masks are having a moment. This has been a long moment, admittedly, as this object has been a particularly visible cultural touchstone since the early days
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Society for the Social History of Medicine (SSHM) @sshmedicine.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
Leuven Centre for Health Humanities organises a yearly lecture series. Join online (or on campus, at KU Leuven) This series explores entangled relations between nature and health with perspectives from medical history, psychology, disability & colonial studies, & environmental humanities. #histmed
ghum.kuleuven.be
Health Humanities Lecture Series 2025-2026
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Warwick Anderson @wombatscholar.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
The Social Survey in Global Perspective, ed Charlotte Greenhalgh, @clarecorbould.bsky.social, and me, from @berghahnbooks.bsky.social now available! As ebook; or print at 50% off till April 30 with GREE4033 code #histstm @austhistassoc.bsky.social @acadsocsci.bsky.social @humanitiesau.bsky.social
berghahnbooks.com
The Social Survey in Global Perspective, 1900-2020s | Berghahn Books
Independent Publishing since 1994
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Bruno J. Strasser @brunostrasser.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Given how much I admire Nancy Tomes, I'm very proud she praised our book, The Mask: A History of Breathing Bad Air! Her review in Technology & Culture perfectly captures our key arguments. Thanks!
Book review
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Warwick Anderson @wombatscholar.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
A very insightful review of Spectacles of Waste by Baptiste Monsaingeon in the latest Technology & Culture: muse.jhu.edu/article/9809...
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infoclio.ch @infoclio.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Comment enseigner le genre en médecine et santé? Enjeux méthodologiques défi de l’interdisciplinarité #infoclioevent
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Comment enseigner le genre en médecine et santé? Enjeux méthodologiques défi de l’interdisciplinarité
Comment enseigner le genre en médecine et santé? Enjeux méthodologiques défi de l’interdisciplinarité Enjeux méthodologiques et défi de l'interdisciplinarité Ce colloque a lieu dans le cadre du projet Gender and medicine Programme 9h00-9h15 : Mots d’ouverture – Joëlle Schwarz et Francesca Arena  9h15-11h : Session 1 – Sexe/genre, corps, quelles épistémologies en jeu ? • 9h15-9h25 : Représentations culturelles de la propreté et du genre dans la formation des soignants à Bouaké : vers une pédagogie attentive aux représentations locales de l’hygiène et du corps Fingbé Ghislain Houedjissi, Université Alassane OUATTARA de Bouaké, Côte d’Ivoire • 9h25-9h35 : Enseigner les rôles du sexe/genre en faculté de médecine en France : retour d’expérience Patricia Lemarchand, Nantes Université, CHU de Nantes, CNRS, INSERM, l’institut du thorax, France • 9h35-9h45 : Enseigner le sexe et le genre dans une perspective bio-psycho-sociale : retours croisés d’un cours donné en médecine et en STAPS Pauline Launay, CHU de Caen, CERREV, Université de Caen Normandie, France • 9h45-9h55 : La construction médicale du genre ? Analyse d’une formation obligatoire dans la recherche biomédicale canadienne Stéphanie Pache, Université du Québec, Canada • 10h-10h10 : Etat des lieux de l'enseignement SHS sur le genre dans les facultés de santé en France Blanche Plaquevent, LERMA, Aix-Marseille Université, France 10h10-10h20 : Former les étudiant·es aux enjeux de genre : interroger les conditions de la transmission et de la réception des contenus Geneviève Zoïa, Université de Montpellier, France • 10h20-11h : discussion collective animée par Linda Guerry 11h-11h20 : pause 11h20-12h40 : Session 2 – Défis de l'opérationnalisation des enseignements (Session en Anglais) • 11h20-11h30: Operationalizing the Edu-GRAS Framework: Scaling up Sex- and Gender- Sensitive Medical Laura Wortmann, Department of Sex- and Gender-Sensitive Medicine, Medical Faculty OWL, University of Bielefeld, Germany • 11h30-11h40: Sex and Gender in Medicine - An Elective Course at the University of Zurich Fynn Betge, Chair for Gender Medicine, University of Zurich, Department of Cardiology, University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland Tanja Krones, Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine, Clinical Ethics, University Hospital of Zurich, University of Zurich, Switzerland Carolin Lerchenmüller, Chair for Gender Medicine, University of Zurich, Department of Cardiology, University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland • 11h40-11h50: Operationalising Gender Medicine in Medical Education: Experience from the University of Lucerne Anne Marie Schumacher Dimech, University of Lucerne, Switzerland Tanja Volm, University of Lucerne, Switzerland • 11h50-12h00 : Stéréotypes de genre dans les vignettes cliniques : un angle mort de l’enseignement Sara Arsever, Melissa Dominice Dao, Service de médecine de premier recours, Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève, Suisse • 12h-12h30 : Discussion collective animée par Joëlle Schwarz 12h30-14h Pause du midi 14h-15h15 : Session 3 – Approches critiques, inégalités, (in)justices • 14h-14h10: Gender and medicine interconnection and perspectives: an analysis from an African "feminist" Wyvine Ansima Bapolisi, Université Catholique de Bukavu, République Démocratique du Congo  • 14h10-14h20: Enseigner le genre aux professionnels de santé à travers le prisme des inégalités face aux IST/VIH au Maroc Bouchaib Majdoul, Université Ibn Zohr d’Agadir, Maroc • 14h20-14h30 : Politiser la formation médicale en santé sexuelle et reproductive. Du constat à l’intervention (France) Leslie Fonquerne, Centre d’Epidémiologie et de Recherche en santé des POPulations, Centre d’Etude et de Recherche Travail, Organisation, Pouvoir, France • 14h30-14h40 : Genre, savoirs et justice épistémique dans l’enseignement de la médecine  Anne-Catherine Archambault, Institut national de la recherche scientifique, Montréal, Canada • 14h40-14h50 : Former les enseignant·es au genre : un impensé Mathieu Azcue, Université Bourgogne Europe, Centre de Recherche et d’Etude en Droit et Science Politique, Dijon, Centre Max Wever, Lyon, France • 14h50-15h20 : Discussion collective par Francesca Arena 15h20-15h40 Pause 15h40-17h : Propositions pédagogiques féministes et alternatives • 15h40-15h50 : La performativité des savoirs sur le sexe et le genre en formation en santé : une lecture butlérienne des pratiques éducatives en soins infirmiers, ergothérapie et physiothérapie en Suisse Mathy (Mathieu) Turcotte, Haute Ecole de la Santé La Source, (HES-SO, Lausanne), Suisse  Véronique Hasler, Haute Ecole de Santé – Vaud (HESAV, HES-SO, Lausanne), Suisse Virginie Stucki, Haute Ecole de Travail Social et de la Santé (HETSL, HES-SO, Lausanne), Suisse • 15h50-16h : Divergences épistémologiques : opportunités ou culs-de-sac ? Denis Pouliot-Morneau, Haute Ecole de Travail Social et de la Santé, (HETSL, HES-SO, Lausanne), Suisse • 16h00-16h10: Narrative Medicine and Storytelling as Teaching Tools to Improve Gynecological and Obstetrical Care Laura Lazzari, Department of Italian Studies and Medical Humanities Initiative, Georgetown University (USA), Fondazione Sasso Corbaro per le Medical Humanities, Bellinzona, Switzerland • 16h10-16h20 : Enseigner le genre en médecine et en santé : vers une pédagogie sociale, inclusive et transformatrice Catherine Le Capitaine, Université Laval, Québec, Canada • 16h20-16h30 : Les Licences Accès Santé comme laboratoire de l’interdisciplinarité et des études de genre en santé Joëlle Kivits et Léa Loubet, Université Paris Cité, ECEVE, France • 16h30-17h10 Discussion collective animée par Eléonore Crunchant 17h20-17h30 : Mots de clôture Organisiert von Université de Genève CMU CS 10. Februar 2026 Auditoire Jean-Louis Reverdin, CMU, Université de Genève Rue Michel Servet 1 1206  Genève Website der Veranstaltung Programme Entrée libre Image for Content
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Yale University Press @yalepress.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
A new review by @KirkusReviews of A Field Guide to Falling Ill describes the book as “arresting prose meets emotional and clinical intelligence in this lucid collection.” Pick up a copy here!
yalebooks.yale.edu
Field Guide to Falling Ill
From the inaugural winner of the Yale Nonfiction Book Prize, a riveting exploration of illness and medicine that imagines a more humane form of care “What...
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Ben Gross @bhgross144.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
The most exciting #BookHistory talk of the season is coming up next week! Join us @ransomcenter.bsky.social or online as Ann Blair delivers the 2026 Pforzheimer lecture. This talk has Erasmus, Gessner, and volumes both large &small! Learn more: www.eventbrite.com/e/pforzheime... #booksky 🗃️📜📚
Pforzheimer Lecture
How Renaissance Scholars and Printers Decided on the Size of Books w/Dr. Ann Blair

Wednesday, January 21 at 6 p.m.
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Bruno J. Strasser @brunostrasser.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
You can now take a deep breath and listen to this New Book Network podcast episode, hosted by the wonderful Miranda Melcher, where Thomas Schlich and I discuss The Mask: A History of Breathing Bad Air! newbooksnetwork.com/the-mask @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social
Book cover: The Mask
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infoclio.ch @infoclio.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
In the latest episode of #Cliocast, Séveric Yersin talks to author Bruno Strasser about his monograph «The Mask. A History of Breading Bad Air» (Yale University Press). @brunostrasser.bsky.social @yalepress.bsky.social www.infoclio.ch/en/node/191254
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Nursing Clio @nursingclio.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
Some of our fantastic authors and editors sat down with @jwomenshistory.bsky.social to discuss our new book! Tune in to the podcast to hear @ayahnerd.bsky.social @lmansley.bsky.social and @sarahbelle721.bsky.social and learn more about the NC Reader! newbooksnetwork.com/the-nursing-...
newbooksnetwork.com
The Nursing Clio Editorial Collective, "The Nursing Clio Reader: Histories of Sex, Reproduction, and Justice" (Rutgers UP, 2025) - New Books Network
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Bruno J. Strasser @brunostrasser.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
Thrilled to see our book, The Mask: A History of Breathing Bad Air, featured on Nature’s list of 10 essential science reads of the year! www.nature.com/articles/d41...
author Bruno Strasser holding the book, The Mask.
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Biology-UNIGE @biology-unige.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Check out @brunostrasser.bsky.social latest article in @thelancet.com: Masking harm: dust, diseases, and industry 😷 www.thelancet.com/journals/lan... @sciencesunige.bsky.social
thelancet.com
Masking harm: dust, diseases, and industry
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we were all reminded of the long history of masks used as protection against disease, ranging from the iconic plague doctor's beaked mask to the cloth masks seen in histo...
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Dr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 04/10/2025
In 1848, railroad worker Phineas Gage survived a 13-pound iron rod blasting through his skull. He lived, but his personality was never the same. His accident would change how we understand the brain forever. 🧵/1
A photo of Phineas Gage holding the iron rod. The photo is in black and white, and is in a gilded frame. Phineas left eye is closed - from the damage he received to his skull from the accident.
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government health official (US) @rastawolf.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
And they used to hate masks. @brunostrasser.bsky.social yalebooks.yale.edu/2025/08/12/w...
yalebooks.yale.edu
“Worse Things Than Dying”: The Entangled History of the Anti-Mask and Anti-Vaccination Movements - Yale University Press
Thomas Schlich and Bruno J. Strasser— In May 2024 at the Libertarian National Convention in Washington, DC, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., recalled that, during the pandemic, he was asked whether... READ MOR...
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Dr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
The hematologist Oswald H. Robertson pioneered the idea of "blood banks" in WWI by packing glass jars of citrated blood from universal donors in an ice-filled chest that he had constructed from ammunition cases. He convinced countless others to donate blood during the war.
A blue-grey box with a Red Cross on it, which reads: "BLOOD TRANSFUSION SET."
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Bruno J. Strasser @brunostrasser.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Violet Affleck’s impassioned call at #UNGA80 for masking and clean #indoorair is the latest episode in the long —and always controversial— history of masks. To explore the earlier chapters and better understand what’s happening today, check out our book! tinyurl.com/579pz264
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History of science & technology @EPFL @lhst-epfl.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
Excited to share this year's program for the Séminaire romand d’histoire des sciences et des techniques! The colloquium is co-organized with @brunostrasser.bsky.social (Geneva), Simona Boscani Leoni (Lausanne), & Gianenrico Bernasconi (Neuchâtel) #histSTM #histsci www.epfl.ch/labs/lhst/la...
13 October 2025, Université de Genève
Laurence Talairach (Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès): “Women, Algology, and Science Popularisation in Nineteenth-Century Britain”

3 November 2025, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
Dania Achermann (Universität St. Gallen): “Travelling with Isotopes: Radiocarbon Dating and the Interdisciplinarisation of Climate Science”

15 December 2025, Université de Lausanne
Sabrina Minuzzi (Università degli Studi di Udine): “From Early Modern materia medica to Modern Pharmacology: Framing a Research Hypothesis”

16 February 2026, Université de Genève
Caitjan Gainty (King’s College London): “Radical Medicine: Medical Activism in the Long 1960s”

16 March 2026, Université de Lausanne
Barbara di Gennaro (CREA Padova): “The State Drug: Theriac, Pharmacy and Politics in Early Modern Italy”

20 April 2026, Université de Neuchâtel
Elisabeth Davin-Mortier (Sorbonne Université): “Les utopies hydro-politiques sionistes durant le Mandat en Palestine britannique (1922-1948) : une stratégie d’accaparement des ressources en eau ?”

11 May 2026, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
Marco Storni (Université Libre de Bruxelles): “Provincializing Natural Philosophy: Or, Being Cartesian in Newtonian France”

15 June 2026, Université de Neuchâtel
Guillaume Carnino (Université de Technologie de Compiègne): “Automatisation : faux enjeux de substitution et vraies évolutions du travail”
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Linus Westheuser @lwestheuser.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
OK, a🧵: Our new paper studies workers' political consciousness in times of class demobilization. We show there's more to workers' politics than right-wing resentment. Listening to workers, we reconstruct their moral critiques of money, power & recognition. Link journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
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Biology-UNIGE @biology-unige.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
📰Entretien de @brunostrasser.bsky.social dans le Journal de l'#UNIGE à l'occasion de la parution du livre «The Mask. A History of Breathing Bad Air» dont il est co-auteur : www.unige.ch/lejournal/re... 👉 yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
unige.ch
«Le masque est toujours un objet complexe» - - UNIGE
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Benoît Majerus @majben.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
@brunostrasser.bsky.social presents his book "The Mask" written with Thomas Schlich, a book that tells the story till the 1970s. Published by @yalepress.bsky.social @yalebooks.bsky.social #nocovid #eahmh25
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infoclio.ch @infoclio.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
Protecting Bodies at Work: Technical Devices, Materialities of Health, and Political Imaginaries #infoclioevent
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Protecting Bodies at Work: Technical Devices, Materialities of Health, and Political Imaginaries
Protecting Bodies at Work: Technical Devices, Materialities of Health, and Political Imaginaries September 18th 8:30-9:00 Welcome 9:00-9:10 Introduction 9:10-10:00 The Health of the Artisan * Ricardo Córdoba (Universidad de Córdoba): The prevention of occupational hazards in the practice of craft trades, Iberian Peninsula, 14th-15th centuries * Sarah Seinitzer (Universität Wien): The Use of Garlic to Maintain the Balance of Metalworker’s Body 10:00-10:20 Coffee Break 10:20-11:10 Underground Worlds I * Emeline Retournard (Université Clermont Auvergne): The costume and protection of miners in Europe from the High Middle Ages to the early modern period. A multidisciplinary approach * Charles-Antoine Wanecq, Bastien Cabot (Université de Lille ; Sciences Po): A worker's perspective on safety and hygiene devices: the archives of miners' safety delegates in France from 1890 to the 1980s 11:10-11:20 Coffee Break 11:20-12:10 Underground Worlds II * Pascal Raggi, Sébastien Mellard (Université de Lorraine): Mineworkers' helmets in France: their emergence, use and representations (from the late 1940s to the early 21st century) * Grace Simpson (Universidad Complutense de Madrid / Uniwersytet Jagielloński w Krakowie): Boots instead of espadrilles': changing attitudes to protective mining gear in the Asturian coal basins through the lens of the company committee, 1958–1964 12:10-12:30 Brainstorming 12:30-14:00 Lunch-workshop I 14:00-15:15 Breathing Modernities * Marie Thébaud-Sorger (CNRS): Living and working in the heat and noxious air: Charles Leroux's universal textile and the individualisation of protection * Erika Wicky (Université Grenoble Alpes): Anti-Miasma Devices designed to protect Colour Grinders (1789-1830) * Véronique Stenger, Yohann Guffroy, Bruno J. Strasser (Université de Genève): The Mask: Materiality and Imaginaries of Occupational Health in 19th Century France 15:15-15:30 Coffee Break 15:30-16:20 (Post-)Colonial Contexts I * Santosh Kumar Rai (University of Delhi): Protecting Bodies at Work: The Lives of Handloom Weavers in Colonial North India * Shreya Kundu (University of Ashoka): Precarious Bodies and Marginal Lives of Labouring Children in British India: Health and Technology at the Crossroads (1870s- 1940s) 16:20-16:30 Coffee Break 16:30-17:20 (Post-)Colonial Contexts II * Rose Angeline Abissi (Université de Douala): The physical ''protection'' of workers in the colonial context in Cameroon between 1908 and 1957 * Christian Papinot (Université de Poitiers): Exposure to occupational risks and (non-)use of protective equipment of construction workers in Madagascar 17:20-18:00 Brainstorming 19:30 Dinner at the Bains des Pâquis September 19th 8:30-9:00 Welcome 9:00-9:50 Safety at Sea * Guillaume Linte (Université Aix-Marseille): Protecting the seafarer's body: naval hygiene and technological innovation in 18th-century France * Baptistine Airiau-Bomont (Sorbonne Université): “L’hygiène ne saurait l’incriminer et la tradition le défend.” The navy sailors' uniform, between symbolism and protection for sailors at work (1856-1914) 9:50-10:00 Coffee Break 10:00-11:15 Expertises, Gender, and Policies * Marie Charvet (Nantes Université): How a production tool became a sanitary protection device: the difficult acclimatisation of spin-dryers in 19th century French public washhouses * Judith Rainhorn (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne): The toolbox of expertise. Dr Alice Hamilton and bodies at work during the Progressive era (United States, 1914-1930) * Almira Sharafeeva (LMU München): Protecting Women’s Bodies at Work: Soviet Occupational Health Policies and the Politics of Risk (1920s-1930s) 11:15-12:00 Brainstorming 12:00-13:30 Lunch-workshop II 13:30-14:20 Safety Education * Nadège Mariotti (Université de Lorraine): Safety Films in Mining and the Steel Industry: Audiovisual Devices and Prevention Imaginaries since 1938 * Sarah-Louise Rehahn, Katrin Petersen (DASA Arbeitswelt Ausstellung, Dortmund): Reaching out for a wide audience: exhibitions as educational tools for protecting bodies (and minds) at work 14:20-14:45 Coffee break 14:45-16:00 From Occupational to Environmental Health * Petra Seitz (University College London): Protecting white-collar bodies at work: The Northern European cellular office * Arthur Delacquis (Sorbonne Université): Hoods, caps and leftist propaganda–Aluminium Péchiney and the requests for action against fluoride fumes in l’Argentière- la-Bessée (1970-1982) * Marie Thirion (Université Grenoble Alpes): « Un ballo in maschera » - Materiality and symbolic significance of the gas mask in Porto Marghera 16:00-17:00 Brainstorming & Farwell Organisiert von University of Geneva CS 01. September 2025 veronique.stenger@unige.ch Online via Zoom Website der Veranstaltung Programme
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Yohann G. @yguffr.eurosky.social · 28/08/2025
🚨September 18-19🚨 Don't miss the international conference : "Protecting Bodies at Work. Technical Devices, Materialities of Health, and Political Imaginaries" Program: shorturl.at/rmniy You can attend online: shorturl.at/Be9mF (Zoom link) 🗃️ #AcademicSky #MedievalSky
shorturl.at
Conference - Section of Biology - UNIGE
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European Association for the History of Medicine and Health @eahmh.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Safe melted plastic syringe blocks? Unsettling presentation on single disposables in medicines by Jeremy Greene at #eahmh25
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Benoît Majerus @majben.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
With Ernest Mangesho we are moving to Tanzania. The project "After the Single Use" comprises eigth countries #eahmh25 wellcome.org/research-fun...
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Benoît Majerus @majben.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
The Mask is discussed by David Gentilcore, Christoph Gradmann, @ahlie.bsky.social and @luchen.bsky.social #eahmh25 #histmed
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Alila Brossard @alilacandonga.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
#EAHMH25 Fascinating ongoing Lunch Roundtable around Bruno Strasser and Thomas Schlich’s book Making the Medical Mask: a History of Breathing Bad Air
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Bruno J. Strasser @brunostrasser.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
Projit Mukharji opens his lecture at #EAHMH25 with the following point: 1/3 of all human beings live either in China or India. Yet, most scholarship in #histmed is about Western biomedicine. @eahmh.bsky.social
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Bruno J. Strasser @brunostrasser.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
Dora Vargha opening EAHMH 2025 in Berlin! @eahmh.bsky.social #EAHMH25 #histmed
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Bruno J. Strasser @brunostrasser.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
1/12 - In our book, The Mask, we show 58 striking images. Remember those depictions of plague doctors wearing a beaked mask? Such visual elements were common in the 17th C and were always satirical. Here is one by F. Bertelli, from Il Carnevale Italiano…1642 (The Met, NY). tinyurl.com/uvzjs9py
Engraving, F. Bertelli, 1642
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Warwick Anderson @wombatscholar.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
If you're in Berlin on August 29, come along to the launch (again) of Medicine on a Larger Scale (open access CUP 2025)! #histmed #histstm #sts
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Yale University Press @yalepress.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
In the past five years, masks have become a topic of debate regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. But there's more history to the face covering and it's controversies. 
yalebooks.yale.edu
“Worse Things Than Dying”: The Entangled History of the Anti-Mask and Anti-Vaccination Movements - Yale University Press
Thomas Schlich and Bruno J. Strasser— In May 2024 at the Libertarian National Convention in Washington, DC, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., recalled that, during the pandemic, he was asked whether... READ MORE
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Bruno J. Strasser @brunostrasser.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
The final negotiation round for the Global Plastic Treaty Begins today. Check out our essays in The Lancet on how plastics became so central in healthcare and what cam be done to reduce their use. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan... #PlasticTreaty
thelancet.com
Plastics in health care: rethinking medical device innovation, use, and disposal for sustainability
Around the world, some 16 billion plastic syringes and 15 billion face masks are thrown away each year.1,2 Unknown in the first half of the 20th century, the global production, circulation, and dispos...
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Linnerd @pnw4me.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
Hello there! I am currently reading your book—24% in. So fascinating! I’m at the end of a course on nursing history and also worked through COVID. This book is so fascinating and somewhat ❤️‍🩹 healing (so many emotions about the pandemic). 1/
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Warwick Anderson @wombatscholar.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
So glad to see this published in the latest @thelancet.com Trying to embed planetary care in human health care - making climate action less vulnerable to ideological delusions. Bioethics should be planetary health ethics too! #bioethics #planetary #STS @nam.edu @humanitiesau.bsky.social
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Duke University Press @dukepress.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
Save 30% on #NewBook "The Product of Medicine" by Caitjan Gainty @caitjan.bsky.social , which answers the question: What does the surgeon’s table owe to the factory floor? #USHistory #Medicine buff.ly/EI4Asqb
Cover of The Product of Medicine: How Efficiency Made American Health Care by Caitjan Gainty. The covers features images of surgery teams from a past era, as indicated by their historical attire. The images include photographs as well as well as semi-transparent photographic negatives. Various colored filters and fragments from the photographic development are superimposed on the images of the surgery teams.
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Yale University Press @yalepress.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Authors of The Mask: A History of Breathing Bad Air, Thomas Schlich and Bruno J. Strasser, on why a mask is never just a mask.
theglobeandmail.com
Opinion: A mask is never just a mask
Long before the pandemic, masks carried historical baggage and cultural meanings
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Dr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
This 1830s illustration depicts "Cholera Prevention Man" covered from head to toe in protective layers in an attempt to safeguard himself from the oncoming cholera epidemic. One for @brunostrasser.bsky.social, whose new book THE MASK looks at a history of breathing bad air: shorturl.at/yKhGK
A colorful illustration showing a man in an extravagant blue cape with a makeshift mask over his face.
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Dr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
DEAD ENDS - a new kids' book by @tealcartoons.bsky.social and me - has received a rare starred review from Kirkus! ⭐ "Macabre, madcap, and surprisingly wholesome in its positivity." You can pre-order SIGNED copies from @mysteriousbookshop.com - www.mysteriousbookshop.com/products/lin...
A screenshot of the starred review from Kirkus along with an image of the book cover for DEAD ENDS. 

In the vein of their Plague-Busters! (2023), Fitzharris and Teal round up wild examples of medical trial and error.

Arguing that “success and failure are often two sides of the same coin,” the co-authors demonstrate that mistakes have often resulted in groundbreaking medical breakthroughs. A 19th-century surgeon unable to patch up a hole in a patient’s side was afforded the rare opportunity to observe digestion up close; deaths from the first blood transfusions led to the discovery of blood types. Fitzharris and Teal present fascinating content, writing in an easy-to-digest, conversational tone while occasionally slipping in some gallows humor. The promise of grotesque medical tales will lure readers, but the authors also make some profound, even moving conclusions: Failure is a key part of learning, and medicine has come a long way over the years. The material is organized by body parts, with delightfully punny chapter titles: “Racking Your Brains,” “No Guts, No Glory.” “A Taste of Their Own Medicine” sections between chapters are ripe with tales of dark irony and people getting hoisted by their own petards. Teal’s black-and-white images use pops of bright red to spice up the visual gags and caricaturelike portraits of scientists and doctors. The subversive, gory humor is transgressive and fun for young readers without being so graphic as to disturb any but the most sensitive. Extensive backmatter will reward those with the guts to delve deeper.

Macabre, madcap, and surprisingly wholesome in its positivity. (selected sources, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 9-14)
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Bruno J. Strasser @brunostrasser.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
Our opinion piece “A Mask is Never Just a Mask” published today in the Globe and Mail! Discusses some issues raised in our book, The Mask: A History of Breathing Bad Air! www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti... #histstm #histmed
theglobeandmail.com
Opinion: A mask is never just a mask
Long before the pandemic, masks carried historical baggage and cultural meanings
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Bruno J. Strasser @brunostrasser.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
Our book is out! The surprising history of masks worn by plague doctors, factory workers, trench soldier, hospital nurses, and the rest of us. yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300... @yalepress.bsky.social @yalebooks.bsky.socuial
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Dr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
Next time you visit York, take note of this carving of a plague doctor outside York Minster Cathedral. It was recently carved out of magnesian limestone to replace figures eroded by time, as part of the ongoing restoration of the East Front. I love this little fellow.
A carving of a plague doctor wearing a beaked mask, long robe, gloves, and a brimmed hat. He's also holding a pole, and he has a little satchel.
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Bruno J. Strasser @brunostrasser.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
My latest find in the archives of the Academy of Medicine in Paris. Trying to figure out when this mask was made and if it was ever used (hint: it does not smell like vinegar). #histSTM #histmed
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