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ArchOMEP project: take part in a history and anthropology research project about the health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic

The project leaders of the recently launched ArchOMEP project (Oral Archives, Memories and Experiences in Pandemic Times) need the help of the Pasteurian community.


 
A key partnership

 

ArchOMEP is a research project led by the Institut Pasteur in partnership with the COVID-19 Ad Memoriam Institute (see the June 4, 2021 issue of the newsletter).
 
This collaborative project reflects a desire to investigate, analyze and archive the collective memories produced within major institutions – scientific and political organizations, associations and hospitals, for example – that played an active role in the COVID-19 crisis and the response to it. The Institut Pasteur was – and continues to be – one of these major players. It is a leading institution in the national and international scientific landscape, especially with respect to its work on infectious diseases and the crises they cause. But despite its key role and concerted efforts – which reached their culmination in the COVID-19 crisis –, little is known about the Institut Pasteur's scientists themselves, apart from those who have been individually celebrated over history.
 
So this partnership is both logical and crucial: on the one side there is the Institut Pasteur, guided by a desire to understand epidemic crises "from the inside" and by a process of reflexivity and preparation for future crises; and on the other the COVID-19 Ad Memoriam Institute, an organization dedicated to developing a dialog with institutional and civil society stakeholders with a view to preparing for future crises. The idea is to "listen to and collect experiences in order to understand and remember, because there is no hope without memory".


 
An interdisciplinary project

 

This project, led by Fleur Beauvieux and Clément Tarantini, combines history and anthropology. The two project leaders specialize in social sciences of health and infectious and epidemic diseases.
 
The purpose of the research is to shed light on the health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic by means of accounts from Institut Pasteur staff. These accounts are transcribed and analyzed using theoretical and methodological frameworks from the fields of history and anthropology.
 
But the aim of this project to gather testimonies and seek to understand experiences is not just scientific; there is another equally important objective, and that is to build oral archives of the crisis via accounts from Institut Pasteur staff about their experiences. These archives will be made accessible in 25 years' time and will serve as resources for future generations of researchers and citizens.


 
How to take part in the project?

 

The researchers involved in the project would like to conduct interviews with Institut Pasteur staff on a voluntary basis to find out about their experiences of the COVID-19 epidemic.
 

Who is eligible?

 

To piece together the lived experience of the crisis as faithfully as possible from the Institut Pasteur's viewpoint, the aim is to interview staff from all the occupational categories at the Institut Pasteur who keep the institute running on a daily basis: scientists and early career scientists, administrative staff, technicians, security officers, cleaners and maintenance staff, those working in restaurants on campus, archive and heritage professionals, etc.


 
Interested?

 

If you are interested in sharing your story or would like to find out more about the project, feel free to contact the researchers involved in the project.

 
Project email address: archomep@pasteur.fr

To contact the project researchers individually:

Fleur Beauvieux : fleur.beauvieux@pasteur.fr
Clément Tarantini : clement.tarantini@pasteur.fr
 
You can also go to the project page for more information

 

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