Séveric Yersin

Research projects

My current research project (Electric Liaisons. Market creation and the construction of a transnational powerline network in Western Europe, 1950-1980) explores the creation of electricity markets in Western Europe after World War 2. I focus on the transnational infrastructures of electricity exchange and distribution – the powerlines and substations that constitute the “grid” – which were essential to this market. I study how economic and political interests contributed to shaping these technologies.

I regularly write about recent history books in the Swiss newspaper Le Courrier (https://lecourrier.ch/auteur/severic-yersin/), and I talk to authors about their work on the podcast Cliocast (https://www.infoclio.ch/de/cliocast). I’ve published in numerous newspapers about my research, including the Wochenzeitung and Le Temps.

Biography

My first step as a historian of STM was with the history of history – a scientific biography of the Swiss historian Willi Gautschi and his work on the Swiss General Strike of 1918. Following this, I completed my PhD on the history of Public Health in Switzerland from 1800 to the 1920s. I had the privilege of being part of the history department at the University of Basel and the Centre-Alexandre Koyré at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Currently, I am focused on researching the interconnectedness of economic, political, and technological aspects of major transnational infrastructures, particularly the electricity market and its powerline network in Western Europe after World War 2.