My thesis weaves together the history of masculinities and the history of knowledge by interrogating the homosocial organisation of French academies of science in the 18th century (1750-1830). I examine how collective life in the sciences was founded upon masculine values developed and reproduced (yet always contested). Rather than accepting the masculine nature of scientific academies as self-evident, I explore the expressions and practices of masculinity developed in these spaces. By situating savants from five provincial academies within the larger society of the Enlightenment and especially new gender norms, my work shows that the valorisation of science and the persona of the savant simultaneously created homosocial bonds and justified (even depended on) the non-inclusion of women.

Foto: © Jen Vander Heide