In his talk, entitled A Micro Approach to the Forced Medication of Deportees at France’s Air Borders, 1980–1996, Fabrice Langrognet applies a microhistorical perspective to the study of deportation and border control practices at French airports.
The forced injection of medicines such as chlorpromazine or diazepam was regularly, albeit secretly and unlawfully, used by border police units at Western European airports in the 1980s before gradually receding in following years. Drawing on archival work and oral history interviews, the lecture will historicize this form of forced medication within longer legacies of violent subjugation of foreign and colonial bodies and then focus on Paris airports to offer a microhistorical understanding of the phenomenon from the standpoints of migrants and their families, police officers, medical doctors, attorneys and NGO members.
Fabrice Langrognet (Migrinter/CNRS, France) holds a Ph.D. in Migration History from the University of Cambridge and previously practised for several years as a specialist in migration law. His award-winning book Neighbours of Passage: A Microhistory of Migrants in a Paris Tenement, 1882–1932 (Routledge 2022) traces the lives of the occupants of a housing complex in the Plaine Saint-Denis using a wide range of methods and sources. His research combines statistical analysis and visualizations with extensive archival work as well as oral history interviews with relatives and former residents. Beyond his monograph, he has published several methodological articles and is known for his sustained engagement with interdisciplinarity and innovative approaches to the study of migration, asylum, and border regimes.
