When objects remind us of the pandemic
Sociologist Mathilde Bourrier, a member of the NRP 80 Steering Committee, has co-authored a book that examines objects as material witnesses to the pandemic. These objects also tell a story of social inequality.
Even if we try to repress painful memories of the pandemic, some items such as surgical masks, disinfectant gel, self-tests, webcams and floor markings have left a lasting impression on our memory.
In the illustrated book Les objets de la pandémie – Mémoires et échos du Covid-19, published in June 2025, sociologist Mathilde Bourrier, professor at the University of Geneva and member of the NRP 80 Steering Committee, documents this collective memory together with co-author Claudine Burton-Jeangros. But the listed objects reveal more than that: they expose the major social inequalities that the pandemic has brought to light. For example, both authors recall the long queues that formed in Geneva for food parcels. These showed that the pandemic did not affect all sections of the population equally.
Released five years after the pandemic, the book combines memory, social analysis and documentary photography. Resisting the temptation to forget, it recalls the crisis and encourages reflection on fairer, more inclusive and collectively supported measures to contain a pandemic. The Swiss National Science Foundation financed the book and the exhibition on which it is based as part of its Agora funding scheme. Agora finances communication projects that enable researchers to engage directly with society.