2026 Hagströmer fellowship awarded to Dr. Sophie Panziera

Dr Panziera’s research focuses on the relationship between sleep, health and society in modern times. Her approach stands at the crossroads of the social history of healthcare practices and the history of social sensibilities and imaginaries. She first explored the history of sleep in a PhD thesis entitled "Sleep in the 19th century. Norms and Imaginaries of good sleeping (1770-1914)", completed at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, and awarded the Prize of the French Society for the History of Medicine. Following on from this work, her postdoctoral research focused on sleep therapies - which emerged in Europe at the turn of the 20th century - and more broadly in social representations of healing and well-being through sleep. 

Dr Panziera is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris, affiliated with the research center in social and cultural history of science “Centre Alexandre Koyré”. 

During her stay at the Hagströmer library Dr Panziera will study the exchanges and circulations between Swedish and French medicine – and more broadly Western medicine – at the turn of the 20th century, by studying the work of Swedish doctors who were the first to propose sleep therapies through their practice of medical hypnosis.