Sam Ducourant
Visiting Predoctoral Fellow (Dec 2022-Aug 2024)
Sam Ducourant is a Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow in the Max Planck Research Group Practices of Validation in the Biomedical Sciences, led by Lara Keuck. Sam first joined the Research Group as a DAAD-funded Predoctoral Fellow (2021–2022), and her current research project deals with concept transfers between biomedical sciences, that is, how disciplines share, exchange, and negotiate concepts—and their validity—in order to build and solidify their identities.
From September 2024 to August 2026, Sam will be a Postdoctoral Researcher in the HACAB project at Liège University, Belgium, working on the role of scientists (especially behavior experts) as spokespersons for non-human animals in political debates about farming practices.
Sam defended her PhD dissertation in December 2023 in cooperation with the École Normale Supérieure de Paris (ENS), under supervision of Prof. Florence Burgat and Prof. Sophie Roux. In 2023, she was a Visiting Fellow at the Maison Française d'Oxford. She received an MA in History of Philosophy at ENS (2018) and an MA in History and Philosophy of Science at ENS and Paris Diderot University (2016). In 2017–2018, she was a Visiting Fellow at Université de Montréal and started a French translation of Georg Ernst Stahl’s Theoria Medica Vera (1708). During her five PhD years (2018–2023), Sam also taught general philosophy, history, and philosophy of sciences, and supervised research projects at Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, Université de Bourgogne-Franche Comté and AgroParisTech.
Projects
Validating the Animal Welfare Sciences in 20th Century Western Europe: A Scientific or a Political Practice?
Selected Publications
Ducourant, Samuel (2023). “Science or Ignorance of Animal Welfare? A Case Study: Scientific Reports Published in Preparation for the First European Directive on Animal Welfare (1979-1980).” Science, Technology, & Human Values 48 (1): 139–166. https://doi.org/10.1177/01622439211040179.
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Ducourant, Samuel (2020). “Adaptation à l’environnement et réduction au silence. Analyse d’un débat scientifique sur les cages de batterie (1979-1981) au prisme des subaltern studies.” Diacronie. Studi di Storia Contemporanea 44 (4): 25–43. https://www.studistorici.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/02_DUCOURANT.pdf.
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Presentations, Talks, & Teaching Activities
Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology, University of Toronto Symposium, together with Simon Brausch, Alfred Freeborn, Ariane Hanemaayer, Lara Keuck, Michele Luchetti, and Hanna Worliczek