Work, Publications, Research

Monographs

The Hour of Absinthe: A Cultural History of France’s Most Notorious Drink. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2024. Vol. 11 of the Intoxicating Histories Series. https://www.mqup.ca/hour-of-absinthe–the-products-9780228022206.php

The Hidden Patients: North African Women in French Colonial Psychiatry. Wien/Köln/Weimar 2015. Vol. 8 of the Zürcher Beiträge zur Geschichtswissenschaft. Open Access: The Hidden Patients | Volkskunde / Ethnologie | Literatur-, Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaften | Themen entdecken | Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Verlage (vandenhoeck-ruprecht-verlage.com)

Podcasts

Absinthe: The World’s Most Dangerous Drink? In: Gastropod, by Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley, 16.10.2024. Available via: https://gastropod.com/absinthe-the-worlds-most-dangerous-drink/

The Green Fairy and France with Dr. Nina Studer. In: French History Podcast, by Dr. Gary Girod, 25.08.2024. Available at: https://www.thefrenchhistorypodcast.com/the-green-fairy-and-france-with-dr-nina-studer/

Academic Articles

  • Uprooting What the French Planted: Wine, Culture and Identity in Colonial Algeria. In: The Maghreb Review. Vol. 48, No 1 (2023). 131-147. Available via: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/457/article/874978
  • A Drinking Problem: French Psychiatric Fears about the Increase in Muslim Alcoholics in Colonial Algeria. In: Znaien, Nessim/Bourmaud, Philippe (ed.). L’alcool dans les mondes musulmans: Histoire, lieux, pratiques et politiques (XVe-XXIe siècles). Special Edition of Revue des Mondes Musulmans et de la Méditerranée. Vol. 151 (2022). 105-122. Open Access: https://journals.openedition.org/remmm/17818
  • ‘The Native Is Indeed a Born Addict, But So Far He Has Not Yet Found His True Poison’: Psychiatric Theories on Overconsumption and Race in the Colonial Maghreb. In: The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs (edited volume on: “In and Beyond the Colony: Writing Drugs in the South”). Open Access: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/721607
  • Too Spicy for the French: Medical Descriptions of Sexuality, Masculinity and Spices in the Colonial Maghreb. In: Mauriello, Marzia/Cottino, Gaia (ed.). Edited volume of Anthropology of Food on “Feeding Genders”. Vol. 16 (2022). Open Access: https://journals.openedition.org/aof/13668
  • ‘Without Coffee, Our Algeria Would Be Uninhabitable’: Ambivalent Attitudes to Coffee Drinking in Medical Accounts on 19th Century Algeria. In: Historische Anthropologie. Vol. 29, No 1 (2021). 11-30. Open Access: https://www.vr-elibrary.de/doi/abs/10.7788/hian.2021.29.1.11
  • Entry on Jacques Azoulay. In: Richardson, Jennifer. The Doctors Who Time Forgot. In: British Medical Journal. Vol. 371, No 4582 (14.12.2020). 1f. Available at: https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/371/bmj.m4582.full.pdf
  • It Is Only Gazouz: Muslims and Champagne in the Colonial Maghreb. In: Asiatische Studien. Vol. 73, No 3 (2020). 399–424. Available at: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/asia-2019-0004/html?lang=en
  • With Zuher Jazmati: Racialising ‘Oriental’ Manliness: From Colonial Contexts to Cologne. In: Islamophobia Studies Journal. Center for Race & Gender. University of California, Berkeley. Autumn 2017, Vol. 4, No 1. Open Access: https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.13169/islastudj.4.1.0087
  • The Green Fairy in the Maghreb: Absinthe, Guilt and Cultural Assimilation in French Colonial Medicine. In: The Maghreb Review. Vol. 40, No 4 (2015). 493-508. Available via: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/457/article/863889
  • Absinth und Körper: Wirkungen der Grünen Fee im kolonialen Algerien. In: Bulletin der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft Mittlerer Osten und Islamische Kulturen. Vol. 40 (Spring 2015). 42-45. Available at: https://www.sagw.ch/en/sgmoik/publications/details/news/nr40-koerper
  • ‘Was trinkt der zivilisierte Mensch?‘ Teekonsum und morbide Normalität im kolonialen Maghreb. In: Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte. Vol. 64, No 3 (2014). 406-424. Available at: https://www.e-periodica.ch/digbib/view?pid=szg-006%3A2014%3A64%3A%3A471#471
  • ‘Will There Be Any Long Term Effects?’ The Power of Psychiatry in French Colonial North Africa. In: The Maghreb Review. Vol. 39, No 3 (2014). 347-368. Available via: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/457/article/864082
  • Die Pathologisierung des Maghrebs: Der Einfluss der französischen Psychiatrie auf koloniale Berichte über schlafende Schwangerschaften. In: Historische Anthropologie. Vol. 21, No 1 (2013). 126-140. Available at: https://www.vr-elibrary.de/doi/10.7788/ha.2013.21.1.126
  • ‘Pregnant with Madness‘: Muslim Women in French Psychiatric Writing about Colonial North Africa. In: The Maghreb Review. Vol. 35, No 4 (2010). 429-452. Available via: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/457/article/864140
  • Die Vorstellung der schlafenden Schwangerschaften im Maghreb. In: ROSA (Zeitschrift für Geschlechterfragen). Vol. 34 (March 2007). 37-9.
  • Jim Crow – über Rassismus in Satiren. Von Unterschichtenkultur zu Rassengesetzen. In: etü (Elfenbeintürmer – historikerzeitschrift). March 2007. 34f.

Chapters

  • Die Geißel der Zivilisation: Islam, Kolonialmedizin und Alkohol im Algerien des frühen 20. Jh. In: Heying, Mareen/Fabian, Sina/Winnerling, Tobias (eds.). Gefährlicher Genuss? Getränke und Trinkpraktiken seit der Frühen Neuzeit. Frankfurt: Campus Verlag, 2024. 235-255.
  • Selling Alcohol to the Muslims? Making Byrrh a Brand in the Colonial Maghreb. In: Wippel, Steffen (ed.). Branding the Middle East: Communication Strategies and Image Building from Qom to Casablanca. Vol. 38 of the series “Studies on Modern Orient”. Boston: De Gruyter, 2023. 215-225. Available at: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110741100-010/html
  • The Fear of the Immoderate Muslim: France’s Mission Civilisatrice and Alcoholism in Algeria, c. 1930-1962. In: Ernst, Waltraud/Müller, Thomas (eds.). Alcohol, Psychiatry and Society: Comparative and Transnational Perspectives, c. 1700-1990s. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2022. 248-279. Available at: https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526159403/
  • Remembrance of Drinks Past: Wine and Absinthe in Nineteenth-century French Algeria. In: Mark-Thiesen, Cassandra/Mihatsch, Moritz A./Sikes, Michelle M. (eds.). The Politics of Historical Memory and Commemoration in Africa. Oldenbourg: De Gruyter, 2021. 169-191. Open Access: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110655315-008/html?lang=en
  • The Infantilisation of the Colonised: Descriptions of Drinking Habits in the Colonial Maghreb. In: Ouaissa, Rachid/Pannewick, Friederike/Alena Strohmaier (eds.). Re-Configurations. Contextualising Transformation Processes and Lasting Crises in the Middle East and North Africa. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2020. 135-151. Open Access: https://www.springer.com/gb/book/9783658311599
  • The Same Drink? Wine and Absinthe Consumption and Drinking Cultures Among French and Muslim Groups in Nineteenth Century Algeria. In: Ernst, Waltraud (ed.). Alcohol Flows Across Cultures. Drinking Cultures in Transnational and Comparative Perspective. London/New York: Routledge, 2020. 20-43.

Interviews

Reviews

  • Book Review: Znaien, Nessim. Les raisins de la domination. Une histoire sociale de l’alcool en Tunisie à l’époque du Protectorat (1881-1956). Paris/Tunis: Karthala/IRMC, 2021. In: The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs: An Interdisciplinary Journal. Vol. 38, No 1 (Spring 2024). 153-156.
  • Book Review: Matthee, Rudi. Angels Tapping at the Wine-Shop’s Door: A History of Alcohol in the Islamic World. London: Hurst & Company 2023. In: The Maghreb Review. Vol. 49, No 2 (2024). 180-182. Available at: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/457/article/924761
  • Book Review: Staszak, Jean-François/Pieroni, Raphaël (ed.). Quartier réservé: Bousbir, Casablanca. Chêne-Bourg: Georg éditeur, 2020. In: The Maghreb Review. Vol. 48, No 3 (2023). 322-325. Available at: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/457/article/901471
  • Book Review: Sadiki, Reda. Médecine et colonialisme au Maroc sous protectorat français. Casablanca: En toutes lettres, 2021. In: The Maghreb Review. Vol. 48, No 3 (2023). 326-329. Available at: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/457/article/901472
  • Book Review: Mayer, Tobias. Muḥammad Yaḥyā al-Walātī und die Nāzila fī ibāḥat atāy. In: Arbeitsmaterialien zum Orient. Band 31. Baden-Baden 2017. In: The Maghreb Review. Vol. 43, No.4 (2018). 454-456. Available at: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/457/article/863829
  • Book Review: Krais, Jakob. Geschichte als Widerstand: Geschichtsschreibung und nation-building in Qaḏḏāfīs Libyen. Würzburg 2016. In: The Maghreb Review. Vol.42, No 3 (2017). 373-376. Available at: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/457/article/863991
  • Book Review: Kallander, Amy Aisen. Women, Gender, and the Palace Households in Ottoman Tunisia. Austin 2013. In: The Maghreb Review. Vol. 40, no. 2 (2015). 248ff. Available at: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/457/article/863871
  • Book Review: Bossaller, Anke. ‘Schlafende Schwangerschaft‘ in Islamischen Gesellschaften. Entstehung und soziale Implikationen einer weiblichen Fiktion. Würzburg 2004. In: The Maghreb Review. Vol. 35, No 4 (2010). 461f. Available at: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/457/article/864144
  • Geschichten aus 1001 Islam. Rezension zu Krämer, Gudrun. Geschichte des Islam. In: etü (Elfenbeintürmer – historikerzeitschrift). April 2006. 70.

Presentations

  • 26.09.2024: “Tales of Fraud and Competition: Algeria and the Origins of the French Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée“, with Andrina Sommer. In: DAVO Congress, University of Göttingen
  • 26.06.2024: “’We would be led to think that madness must be rare amongst them’: French Colonial Psychiatry’s Views on North African Women”. In: Knowing the Psyche in the Middle East and North Africa Research Seminar, Centre d’Études et de Documentation Économiques, Juridiques et Sociales, Cairo
  • 07.06.2024: “Algeria and the Creation of Absinthism: The Green Fairy in a Colonial Context”. In: Drinking, Power and Illegalisms: Alcohol(ism) in Controversy, Haute École de Santé Vaud, Lausanne
  • 22.05.2024: “Spices and Wet Dreams: Medical Theories on Nocturnal Emissions in France’s Age of Imperialism”. In: Un/doing Masculinity: Wet Dreams: from the 18th Century to the Present, University of Geneva
  • 17.04.2024: “Reproduire la violence coloniale? Les représentations des corps racialisés dans la recherche historique”. In: Éthique de la recherche dans les science humaines et sociales: quelle place pour les personnes subissant une discrimination systémique?, University of Geneva
  • 29.02.2024: Selling Alcohol to the Muslims? Making Byrrh a Brand in the Colonial Maghreb. In: Rencontre Ibn Khaldoun, “Branding the Middle East and North Africa”, Bibliothèque Nationale de Tunisie, Tunis
  • 26.01.2024: “‘Islamism Produces Perverse Madness like Alcohol Produces Alcoholism’: Alcohol, Insanity and Islam in the Colonial Maghreb”. In: Critiquing Connected Health Histories of Alcohol and Drugs-Workshop, Goldsmiths, University of London
  • 15.12.2023: “‘Most Stick to the Orthodox Lemonade’: A History of Soft Drinks in the Maghreb from the French Colonisation to the 21st Century”. In: Global Drinking Workshop, University of Aarhus
  • 17.-19.07.2023: “’Muhammad Implanted a Real Neuropathic State in the Brains of Believers’: Gender and Colonial Psychiatry in the Maghreb”, Shaping Body and Spirit: Gender, Reform and Religion in the Colonial Era (c. 1900-1960), Universität der Bundeswehr München, invited by Prof. Dr. Jakob Krais
  • 30./31.03.2023: “‘Most of the Residents of our Asylums and our Prisons are Alcoholics’: Alcoholism in Psychiatric Institutions in the Colonial Maghreb”, Confinement in Africa: History and Social Sciences (19th-21st Centuries), Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin
  • 26./27.01.2023: “‘Civilisation is a Flower that Only Grows in Vineyards’: Alcohol and French Imperialism in Colonial Algeria”, Living and Healing: Other Histories of Intoxication and ‘Addiction’ in Disrupted Times Workshop, University of Exeter, invited by Dr. Maziyar Ghiabi
  • 07.01.2023: “Lessons from School: Psychiatric Racism, the École d’Alger and the Writings of Antoine Porot”, Modern Language Association Conference, online (San Francisco)
  • 30.09.2022: “‘Freiwillige Vergiftungen‘: Medizinische Beschreibungen von Kaffee, Tee und Alkohol im kolonialen Maghreb”, Gefährlicher Genuss? Getränke und Trinkpraktiken seit der Frühen Neuzeit-Conference, FernUniversität Hagen
  • 28.03.2022: “Uprooting What the French Planted: Wine, Culture and Identity in Colonial Algeria”, Maghreb Studies Association Conference, Christ Church College, University of Oxford
  • 15.06.2021: “A Man’s Drink: Medical and Psychiatric Descriptions of Drinking Habits and Masculinity in the Colonial Maghreb”, Séminaire Genre et Santé Masculine: Regards Croisés des Sciences Humaines et Sociales et de la Médecine, University of Geneva, invited by Dr. Francesca Arena
  • 14.10.2020: “‘The native is indeed a born addict, but so far he has not yet found his true poison’: Psychiatric Theories on Overconsumption and Race in the Colonial Maghreb”, Middle East Studies Association Conference, online (Washington DC)
  • 15.02.2020: “Ruling Bodies: North African Women in French Colonial Psychiatric Institutions”, University of Giessen, invited by Hanna El-Taher
  • 08.02.2020: “Tracing Psychiatric Racism: Die Annales Médico-Psychologiques und der Maghreb zwischen 1843 und 1970”, University of Heidelberg
  • 06.02.2020: “‚Tödlicher als die Schwerter der Araber‘: Absinth und die Mission Civilisatrice im kolonialen Algerien”, University of Heidelberg, invited by Prof. Dr. Henning Sievert
  • 27.06.2019: “Die Sprache des Protestes: Frauen und die Anti-Mandatsbewegung von 1925 und 1926 in Syrien und im Libanon”, University of Heidelberg
  • 13.06.2019: “Voicing Dissent: Women and the Anti-Mandate Protests of 1925 and 1926 in Syria and Lebanon”, The Near Eastern Saddle Period: The Formation of Modern Concepts in Arabic, Turkish, and Persian-Conference, University of Bern
  • 14.11.2018: “Starting Early: Drinking Habits of Children and Adolescents in the Colonial Maghreb”, Research Network Re-Configurations Final Conference, University of Marburg
  • 07.11.2018: “Sharing A Drink: A History of Alcoholism in Colonial Algeria”, Global Histories Psychiatry-Conference, University of Groningen
  • 29.10.2018: “The History of Colonial Psychiatry in the Maghreb”, University of Basel
  • 01.06.2018: “‘Les Dames Extrémistes’: Women on the Street in Mandate Syria in the Early 1930s”, University of Bern
  • 01.12.2017: “Petitionen, Demonstrationen und Unruhen: Die Beteiligung von Frauen an Protestbewegungen zur Mandatszeit in Syrien und Libanon”, University of Bern
  • 18.09.2017: “Vereinigt durch Kaffee? Der Konsum von Kaffee im Kolonialen Algerien”, Deutscher Orientalistentag, University of Jena
  • 07.07.2017: “Absinthe kolonisiert die Welt: Der Zusammenhang zwischen Zivilisation und Alkohol im kolonialen Maghreb”, i.SLAM, Berlin
  • 05.07.2017: “Maghreb im Glas: Der Konsum von Absinth, Tee und Kaffee zur Kolonialzeit”, Freie Universität Berlin, invited by Prof. Dr. Birgit Krawietz
  • 30.06.2017: “Assimilation by Alcohol: The Role of France’s Mission Civilisatrice in the Spread of Alcoholism in 20th Century Algeria”, Alcohol, Psychiatry and Society-Conference, University of Oxford
  • 04.04.2017: “Die Beteiligung von Frauen an Protestbewegungen im Libanon während der französischen Mandatszeit”, University of Bern
  • 09.09.2016: “Under the Influence: Champagne Drinking, Qu’anic Law and the Civilising Mission in 19th Century Algeria”, African Studies Association of the UK-Conference, University of Cambridge
  • 30.06.2016: “The Same Drink? Wine and Absinthe Consumption Among French and Muslim Groups in Nineteenth-century Algeria”, Alcohol Flows Across Cultures: Drinking Cultures in Transnational and Comparative Perspective-Conference, University of Oxford
  • 12.01.2016: “Descriptions of Muslim Women in the Publications of Colonial Psychiatrists”, Folie(s) en Méditerranée à l’ère de la colonisation. Regards croisés sur la psychiatrie en Afrique du Nord-Conference, Centre Koyré, Paris
  • 17.06.2015: “Coffee Drinking as a Military Strategy”, Research Network Re-Configurations, University of Marburg
  • 07.06.2015: “France’s Other Tricolour: Medical Descriptions of Champoreau, Wine and Absinthe in Colonial Algeria”, Drinking Studies Network Conference, University of Leicester
  • 10.09.2014: “Absinthe in the Maghreb: Guilt and Cultural Assimilation in French Colonial Medicine”, African Studies Association of the UK-Conference, University of Sussex, Brighton
  • 10.07.2014: “Constructing Supersoldiers: The Medical Role of Coffee and Absinthe in the Military Conquest of Algeria”, Society for the Social History of Medicine 2014 Conference, University of Oxford
  • 27.06.2014: “The Dissolution of the Green Fairy: Race, Law and Absinthe Prohibition in North Africa”, STARACO Summer University at the Casa de Velázquez, Madrid
  • 29.05.2014: “The Green Fairy in the Colonial Maghreb: Medical Concerns about Alcoholism and the French Mission Civilisatrice”, 17th Annual International Congress, Mediterranean Studies Association, Málaga
  • 24.05.2014: “Tea Crazes in the Colonial Maghreb: The Medicalization of a Drinking Habit”, Canadian Society for the History of Medicine Conference, Brock University
  • 17.10.2013: “‘A Civilised Drink?’ – Tea Crazes, Colonial Anxieties and Psychiatric Normality in the Maghreb”, Historical Institute, Bangor University, invited by Prof. Dr. Christian Koller
  • 02.10.2013: “Teekonsum und morbide Normalität im kolonialen Maghreb”, Historical Institute, University of Zürich, invited by Prof. Dr. Gesine Krüger
  • 24.06.2013: “’Will There Be Any Long Term Effects?’ The Power of Psychiatry in French Colonial North Africa”, Maghreb Studies Association Conference, Mansfield College, Oxford
  • 27.02.2012: “Empirical Knowledge: Categorising Female North African Patients in French Colonial Psychiatry”, African History and Politics Seminar, Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford
  • 23.01.2012: “Medical Descriptions of a Social Construct: Sleeping Pregnancies and the Colonial Maghreb”, History of Medicine Seminar, Wellcome Institute, University of Oxford
  • 08.12.2011: “Fabricating Knowledge: French Colonial Psychiatry and the Manufacturing of Authority”, Global Perspectives in Intellectual History Workshop, St Cross College, University of Oxford
  • 25.10.2011: “Psychopathology of Normality: The Fascination with the Non-Patient”, University of Oxford
  • 03.09.2011: “Fasting, Couscous and Tea: Psychiatric Attitudes on Food in the Colonial Maghreb”, European Association of the History of Medicine and Health Conference, University of Utrecht
  • 29.06.2011: “Protective Religion or a Sign of Degeneration? Adherence to Islam as a Source/Hindrance of Mental Diseases in the Writings of Colonial French Psychiatrists”, Anglo-American Conference, London
  • 17.05.2011: “Admitting Insanity: The Criminalization of Patients”, University of Oxford
  • 23.03.2011: “Madness, Race and Religion – nordafrikanische Frauen in den Augen der Kolonialpsychiatrie”, University of Zürich
  • 10.11.2010: “Madness, Race and Religion – Maghrebi Women in Colonial Psychiatric Writing”, University of Oxford
  • 18.12.2009: “Sleeping Pregnancies in Morocco”, African History Day, University of Basel