Funded by the Wellcome Trust with an Investigator Award in the Humanities and Social Sciences (grant number 217988/Z/19/Z) The Global War Against the Rat and the Epistemic Emergence of Zoonosis (2019-2024) examines the global history of a foundational but historically neglected process in the development of scientific approaches of zoonosis: the global war against the rat (1898-1948). During his visiting fellowship to MPIWG, Professor Christos Lynteris will examine how this global war unfolded and became mutually entangled in China between the 1870s and the 1920s. Prof Lynteris will collaborate with MPIWG’s China in the Global System of Science research group on the employment of anthropological research at the archive, and the ways in which this may contribute to our understanding of China’s emergence as an important player in global systems of epidemiological science.
“A black rat sitting upright on the ground. Etching by W. S. Howitt”, Courtesy of Wellcome Collection.