Through archival research in collaboration with the Palais de Rumine, Lausanne, and the University of Lausanne archives, my colleagues and I examined the gender-biased education dispensed by Swiss missionaries in Austral Africa at the turn of the 20th century.
Drawing on bulletins, annual reports, photographs, and film, alongside contemporary missionary texts, our analysis considered both the content and the form of these materials. We argue that missionary education — far from neutral — functioned as a vector of gendered and colonial domination. It imposed a Western capitalist and patriarchal model, confining women to the domestic sphere and men to the role of producers. Education became a tool to transform ways of life, bodies, and social relations, legitimizing these hierarchies as aligned with divine will.
Research supervised by Stéphanie Ginalski and conducted with Johan Goedkoop and Arnaud Suter. BA Social Sciences, University of Lausanne, 2023.
Forthcoming publication in Les Cahiers de l’IEP, University of Lausanne.