In the 2020s, experts emerged as an embattled group in European and US politics. Some hailed them as enlightened leaders who would guide us toward a greener future, others condemned them for concealing thoroughly political programs. Such public controversies have been reflected in divergent scholarship on experts in the history of science, STS, and geography. This talk considers the multifaceted roles that members of this group have played in state and civil society efforts to control deadly avalanches in twentieth-century Switzerland. Centering on conflict and cooperation among foresters, engineers, and mountain guides, this talk shows how the fragmentation of epistemic and political authority has actually served to construct a widely supported public science and politics of dealing with natural dangers.

About the speaker

Lucas Müller is a teaching fellow at ETH Zurich, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Geneva and an LMRG Visiting Senior Research Fellow. Lucas analyzes the interaction of science, technology, politics, and commerce in transforming the environment, health, and wealth since the late nineteenth century. During this period, scientific experts became prominent actors in national and international government institutions. He earned a PhD in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2019 and is currently completing a book, tentatively titled Toxic Relationships: Health, Trade, and Science in a Decolonizing World, on the global history of food contaminants since 1960.