To get a sense of what interests me, have a look at how I connect my work – and the study of early modern societies more generally – to the challenges of the Covid-pandemic. While the past might not lend itself straightforwardly to ‘lessons learned’, informative prequel to the present or concrete policy implications, it provokes us, as I believe, to think about the current moment in longer and thus less immediate terms, sometimes less encumbered by the haste or chaos of one point in time.
