What will we ultimately remember about the Covid-19 pandemic? For many, this global crisis represented a true "anthropological rupture" – a profound moment of personal and collective change that has left deep societal scars.
In this compelling lecture, acclaimed social anthropologist Laëtitia Atlani-Duault will explore our collective memory of the crisis in France. Drawing from her book Covid-19 Ad memoriam: What we remember and what remains, Atlani-Duault – who served on France’s Covid-19 Scientific Council – will explore deeply personal testimonies of life during the pandemic from across France.
Join us to explore how the act of remembering serves as a symbolic "counter-gift" – a vital way to express gratitude and recognise the immense efforts of everyone who helped hold our society together during unprecedented times.
Programme
- 10:00 Opening Remarks Eivind Engebretsen, Dean of the Open Campus, Circle U.
- 10:05 Keynote Address Pr. Laëtitia Atlani-Duault, Vice President Europe, Université Paris Cité "Remembering the Covid-19 Pandemic"
- 11:00 Comments by Helge Jordheim, Director, Centre for Global Sustainability
About the speakers
Prof. Laetitia Atlani-Duault's career over the past 25 years has been a unique blend of work in both academia in France and the US, and the United Nations system.
Pr. Laëtitia Atlani-Duault is a social anthropologist, Vice-President of Université Paris Cité, President of the Ad Memoriam Institute, which she founded at Université Paris Cité in 2020, full tenured Research Professor in social anthropology at the Université Paris Cité-IRD, and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York. She is also the co-Editor in Chief of the academic journal Socio, published at the Editions des Sciences de l’Homme.
As an academic, her work focuses on the making and governance of crises, their impacts and their memories. She has published numerous articles in major international journals (Lancet, Lancet Public Health, Ethnologie française, Transculturel Psychiatry, Social sciences and medicine, Public understanding of science, Medical anthropology, etc.) and over a dozen books in French, English, Italian and Romanian, such as: Humanitarian Aid in Former Soviet Union: An Anthropological Perspective (Routledge 2007); Les ONG à l’heure de la ‘bonne gouvernance’ (Armand Colin – Autrepart, 2005); Au bonheur des autres. Anthropologie de l’aide humanitaire [For their Own Good. Anthropology of Humanitarian Aid] (Armand Colin 2009 ; Anthropologie de l’aide humanitaire et du développement [Anthropology of Humanitarian and Development Aid] with L. Vidal (Armand Colin 2011) ; Ethnographie de l’aide [Ethnographies of Aid] (PUF-Ethnologie française 2011) ; Chercheurs à la barre [Social Sciences Seized by Justice], with S. Dufoix (Socio, Editions de la MSH 2014) ; La santé globale, nouveau laboratoire de l’aide internationale ? [Global Health, A New Laboratory for International Aid?], with L. Vidal (Armand Colin-Tiers Monde, 2013) ; Violences extrêmes : Enquêter, Secourir, Juger [Extreme Violence. Investigate, Save, Judge], with JH Bradol, M. Lepape et C. Vidal (Editions de la MSH, 2021) ; Lieux de mémoire sonore. Des sons pour survivre, des sons pour tuer [Sonic Memories. Sounds of survival, Weaponization of Sounds], with L. Velasco (Editions de la MSH, 2021) ; Les spiritualités en temps de pandémie [Spirituality and Religions in Times of Pandemics], (Albin Michel 2022); Les personnes âgées au risque de la pandémie [The Ederly and the Covid19 pandemic], with PH Duée et JF. Delfraissy (La Documentation française 2022) ; Les violences sexuelles dans l’Eglise catholique : apprendre des victimes pandémie [Systemic Sexual Abuse in the French Catholic Church], with C. Lazerges et J. Molinario (Dalloz, 2023) ; Religions et fin de vie [Religions, Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide] (Fayard, 2023) ; Covid19 Ad Memoriam. Fragments pour les mémoires (La Documentation française, 2025), and Covid19 Ad Memoriam. What we remember and what remains (La Documentation française, 2026).
Her career has also included several posts at the United Nations in Central Asia, the Caucasus and Eastern Europe (1994-2003) and most recently as Senior Advisor for Humanitarian Affairs at UN headquarters in New York (2012-2015). She served as a member of the French Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church (2019-2021) and, during the pandemic, she served on France’s Covid-19 Scientific Council (2020-2023). She was until recently Vice-President of the Haut conseil de la santé publique (French government’s High Council for Public Health) (2022-2025).
She received the CNRS bronze medal for research excellence in 2008 and was inducted as a chevalier in both the Order of Academic Palms (2018) and the Legion of Honor (2023). She is regularly invited as a visiting professor in the USA, Canada and Italy.
Prof. Eivind Engebretsen is a medical humanities scholar and professor of interdisciplinary health science at the University of Oslo, serving since 2023 as Dean of the Open Campus at Circle U., and founding head of the Sustainable Health Unit (SUSTAINIT) and the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare Education (SHE), a Norwegian government-funded Centre of Excellence in Education.
Prof. Helge Jordheim is the director of the Centre for Global Sustainability at the University of Oslo.
In his research, Jordheim seeks to understand the frameworks we use to make sense of the climate and environmental crisis. He focuses on the words we use — such as progress, development, global, Anthropocene, crisis, and sustainability — because they shape what we are able to see and do.
Prof. Jordheim also explores the significance of how we experience time: How do we imagine the future? What do we know about the history that has brought us to where we are today? And, importantly, what does it take to think long-term while acting decisively in the present?
