Frédéric Keck

A researcher at the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research), I trained in philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris and in anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.

I reflect on the responsibilities of social anthropology in a post-colonial world. I study the transformation of contemporary societies by zoonoses (diseases transmissible across borders between species).

I work with museums to display the effects of microbes on human organisms.

Anthropology

Anthropology is a science that compares human societies to identify common forms. I studied the history of this science in France through the writings of its founders: Auguste Comte, Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, Émile Durkheim, Henri Bergson, and Claude Lévi-Strauss. I reflected on how the French Revolution, the Dreyfus Affair, and the Holocaust transformed the figures of the “primitive” and the “savage.” I showed that they allowed us to think about the different ways societies prepare for disasters. My work extends this genealogy by reminding us that it was critical of colonization and remains relevant in a postcolonial world.

→

Zoonoses

Since the 1970s, diseases transmitted by other animal species have wreaked havoc on the human population: Ebola and HIV/AIDS, which originated in non-human primates; mad cow disease; avian and swine flu; bat coronaviruses (SARS and COVID-19)… I work with biologists who monitor mutations in these viruses to prevent them from causing pandemics. I hypothesize that they adopt the perspective of animals to understand how these viruses enter human ecosystems. From this, I draw theoretical implications for rethinking biopolitics in the Anthropocene and building new forms of justice for healthier habitats.

→

Museums

As the former director of the research department at the Musée du Quai Branly between 2014 and 2018, I learned to work with curators and artists to bring public issues to a wider audience than just the readership of my publications. While modern anthropology has always been accessible to the public, microbiology offers new opportunities to present images of the relationships between humans, other animal species, plant species, and the diversity of the microbial world. These relationships between living beings must be displayed because they are subject to transformations that affect them and sometimes make them ill. Working with museums allows us to consider ways to remediate these diseases.

→