R.F.J. de Bont
Research profile
Raf De Bont's research interest concerns the history of science and the environment in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He particularly published on human-animal relations, scientific ecology and nature protection, the relation between laboratory and field science, degeneration and evolution theories, and the representation of science (and scientists) in culture at large.
De Bont is the coordinator of the NWO VICI project ‘Moving Animals: A History of Science, Media and Policy in the Twentieth Century’ (https://moving-animals.nl/). In this project, he and his team analyse how humans have studied, represented and managed long-distance movements of (undomesticated) animals.
In the period 2012-2017 he was the PI of the NWO VIDI project 'Nature's Diplomats: Ecological Experts and the Conservation Policy of International Organizations, 1930-2000'. This research concerned the shifting role ecological experts have played in international organizations dealing with the protection of species, landscapes and habitats.
De Bont is the author of, amongst others, Darwins kleinkinderen: De evolutietheorie in België, 1865-1945 (Vantilt, 2008) and Stations in the Field: A History of Place-based Animal Research (University of Chicago Press, 2015) and Nature’s Diplomats: Science, Internationalism and Preservation (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021).
For an overview of Raf De Bont's publications, see: https://cris.maastrichtuniversity.nl/en/persons/raf-de-bont/publications/