Franklin is currently the home of a two-year research project fully funded by the Swiss Network for International Studies (SNIS).
This project is focused on understanding the complex interrelations of managing pandemics and the creation of national borders in the 19th century, especially in the Mediterranean and South-Eastern Europe.
It is led by Prof. Pyka and Prof. Bucher, the principal investigator and post-doctoral researcher of this project being Dr. Giorgio Ennas.
The Pandemics and Borders project is now at its midway point and on track!
During the first year of research, Dr. Giorgio Ennas was able to visit the relevant archives in Bern, Geneva, Genua, Istanbul, Nantes, Rome, Sarajevo, Turin, and Vienna. Following a trail of scattered documents, Dr. Ennas was able to locate and compile an impressive body of primary sources that will allow us to generate a much more nuanced and detailed understanding of the relationship between sanitary measures, international sanitary conferences, consular work, and national identities.
The second year of the project will now be dedicated to further studying the collected corpus of primary sources and to add to the already impressive number of project related publications – both in English and Italian.