Periodic Reporting for period 4 - HRP-IAEA (Living with Radiation: The Role of the International Atomic Energy Agency in the History of Radiation Protection)
Berichtszeitraum: 2024-01-01 bis 2025-07-31
The HRP-IAEA project has shown, through both historical and ethnographic research, that radiation protection is not merely a technical matter but a profoundly diplomatic and geopolitical one. By tracing the international history of radiation protection and the IAEA’s pivotal role in standardizing related practices, the project redefined the boundaries between science, diplomacy, and technology. It demonstrated that radiation standards have always been embedded in international governance structures and shaped by negotiations among scientific, regulatory, and political actors.
Over the course of the project, research explored the material, institutional, and diplomatic dimensions of radiation protection from the interwar period to the post-Fukushima era. Guided by its three core objectives, the PI and her team developed three major areas of historical inquiry: O1) the material culture of the IAEA and its Technical Assistance programs, O2) the geopolitics of radiation protection within the United Nations system and beyond, and O3) the multi-level processes through which radiation protection practices and policies have been standardized.
Methodologically, the project directs attention to global diplomacy and international governance as essential frameworks for understanding historical developments in science and technology. It sheds new light on key aspects of the post-WWII history of science by examining the roles of state actors, international organizations, and epistemic communities involved in producing and circulating expert knowledge. In addition, HRP-IAEA advances a new field of research, the Diplomatic Studies of Science, which foregrounds diplomacy as a fundamental dimension in the production, circulation, and governance of scientific knowledge.
Given the enduring scientific, political, and social stakes surrounding the effects of ionizing radiation on humans and the environment—and the measures required to protect them—this research offers insights that are highly relevant to contemporary policy debates. The results of the project matter to those involved in designing and implementing radiation protection policies and to scientific advisors; to practitioners working with radioactive materials in nuclear industries and medical sectors; and to the broader public, who routinely encounter radiation in everyday life.
Over the course of the project, research explored the material, institutional, and diplomatic dimensions of radiation protection from the interwar period to the post-Fukushima era. Guided by its three core objectives, the PI and her team developed three major areas of historical inquiry: O1) the material culture of the IAEA and its Technical Assistance programs, O2) the geopolitics of radiation protection within the United Nations system and beyond, and O3) the multi-level processes through which radiation protection practices and policies have been standardized.
Methodologically, the project directs attention to global diplomacy and international governance as essential frameworks for understanding historical developments in science and technology. It sheds new light on key aspects of the post-WWII history of science by examining the roles of state actors, international organizations, and epistemic communities involved in producing and circulating expert knowledge. In addition, HRP-IAEA advances a new field of research, the Diplomatic Studies of Science, which foregrounds diplomacy as a fundamental dimension in the production, circulation, and governance of scientific knowledge.
Given the enduring scientific, political, and social stakes surrounding the effects of ionizing radiation on humans and the environment—and the measures required to protect them—this research offers insights that are highly relevant to contemporary policy debates. The results of the project matter to those involved in designing and implementing radiation protection policies and to scientific advisors; to practitioners working with radioactive materials in nuclear industries and medical sectors; and to the broader public, who routinely encounter radiation in everyday life.
The project’s central aim has been to promote a “diplomatic turn” in the history of science by bridging science and technology studies, diplomatic history, and the history of science and technology. From its outset, the PI made a concerted effort to advance this agenda through original research, conferences, seminars, and publications. One of the most important achievements in this respect is the establishment of a new book series on Science Diplomacy with Brepols, edited by the PI. She has also taken on the editorship of Almagest, which she aims to transform into a journal dedicated to creating the kind of transnational and interdisciplinary space that will enable early-career scholars to publish innovative work often overlooked by traditional disciplinary journals. By now, the PI is recognized as an expert in the field of science diplomacy and has been invited to consult for the EU, UNIDIR, and the IAEA. The project’s visibility reached an estimated audience of 500,000 people when an interview with the PI was published in Germany’s leading newspaper Die Zeit.
A central strand of the research examined the IAEA’s technical assistance programs and their material culture, demonstrating how radiation technologies circulated globally not as neutral tools but as diplomatic objects embedded in political negotiations and institutional agendas. Publications on dosimetry as a “global experiment,” mobile laboratories, and radiation dummies along with studies of nuclear agriculture in India, Soviet responses to the establishment of the IAEA, and the development of the Greek nuclear program, revealed the entanglement of science and diplomacy across multiple arenas. A second strand traced the geopolitics of nuclear regulation, highlighting how Cold War divisions shaped the IAEA’s rise to dominance within the UN system and produced an asymmetrical international nuclear order. A third strand focused on standardization, arguing that the IAEA’s safety standards remain the most powerful form of international nuclear governance. This work also opened new perspectives on gender in radiation protection, including the use of female phantoms in dosimetry studies.
The project’s dissemination strategy combined scholarship and public history. The exhibition Living with Radiation, hosted by the Siemens Healthineers MedMuseum, and its accompanying visual history volume created a publicly accessible narrative of scientific diplomacy. Two edited volumes ("The Missing Interaction", Brepols, and the forthcoming "Negotiating Radiation Protection in the Nuclear Age", Pittsburgh UP) will consolidate the project’s scholarly contributions along with several publications and special journal issues.
The project leaves behind a durable legacy: new conceptual frameworks for studying science diplomacy, lasting scholarly networks, improved access to the IAEA archives, and a generation of researchers prepared to carry forward the critical study of science, diplomacy, and radiation governance.
A central strand of the research examined the IAEA’s technical assistance programs and their material culture, demonstrating how radiation technologies circulated globally not as neutral tools but as diplomatic objects embedded in political negotiations and institutional agendas. Publications on dosimetry as a “global experiment,” mobile laboratories, and radiation dummies along with studies of nuclear agriculture in India, Soviet responses to the establishment of the IAEA, and the development of the Greek nuclear program, revealed the entanglement of science and diplomacy across multiple arenas. A second strand traced the geopolitics of nuclear regulation, highlighting how Cold War divisions shaped the IAEA’s rise to dominance within the UN system and produced an asymmetrical international nuclear order. A third strand focused on standardization, arguing that the IAEA’s safety standards remain the most powerful form of international nuclear governance. This work also opened new perspectives on gender in radiation protection, including the use of female phantoms in dosimetry studies.
The project’s dissemination strategy combined scholarship and public history. The exhibition Living with Radiation, hosted by the Siemens Healthineers MedMuseum, and its accompanying visual history volume created a publicly accessible narrative of scientific diplomacy. Two edited volumes ("The Missing Interaction", Brepols, and the forthcoming "Negotiating Radiation Protection in the Nuclear Age", Pittsburgh UP) will consolidate the project’s scholarly contributions along with several publications and special journal issues.
The project leaves behind a durable legacy: new conceptual frameworks for studying science diplomacy, lasting scholarly networks, improved access to the IAEA archives, and a generation of researchers prepared to carry forward the critical study of science, diplomacy, and radiation governance.
The project advocates a “diplomatic turn” in the history of science, positioning diplomacy not as a background context but as a central analytical category. Highly interdisciplinary in scope, it brings together expertise from the history of science and technology, diplomatic history, and science and technology studies, promising significant advances across these fields.
At the heart of this work, the PI has proposed Diplomatic Studies of Science, a framework that sheds light on diplomatic processes as integral to knowledge-making. It advances the notion that nuclear science and diplomacy have been co-produced, with the IAEA serving as a pivotal site where this entanglement becomes visible. By focusing on the history of radiation protection and the development of standards, the project demonstrates that this history is neither linear nor merely a story of international scientific cooperation. Instead, it highlights broader conceptions of international relations, nuclear diplomacy, and the circulation of materials, knowledge, and expertise. The research underscores the central role of international organizations and regulatory institutions—both national and global—and reframes international governance as an analytical lens, through which coordination occurs not only through treaties, policies, and laws but also, crucially, through scientific standards and material practices.
The HRP-IAEA project has also worked to soften boundaries—not only between disciplines but also between academic and non-academic audiences. Alongside scholarly publications, exhibitions, and films, the PI has developed new formats of dissemination, including a children’s book based on one of her historical cases on radiation protection and the IAEA. Science Takes a Trip has been published by Clavis Publishing (August 2025). This effort reflects the project’s commitment to reach beyond academia and to cultivate awareness of science diplomacy and radiation governance among the widest possible publics.
At the heart of this work, the PI has proposed Diplomatic Studies of Science, a framework that sheds light on diplomatic processes as integral to knowledge-making. It advances the notion that nuclear science and diplomacy have been co-produced, with the IAEA serving as a pivotal site where this entanglement becomes visible. By focusing on the history of radiation protection and the development of standards, the project demonstrates that this history is neither linear nor merely a story of international scientific cooperation. Instead, it highlights broader conceptions of international relations, nuclear diplomacy, and the circulation of materials, knowledge, and expertise. The research underscores the central role of international organizations and regulatory institutions—both national and global—and reframes international governance as an analytical lens, through which coordination occurs not only through treaties, policies, and laws but also, crucially, through scientific standards and material practices.
The HRP-IAEA project has also worked to soften boundaries—not only between disciplines but also between academic and non-academic audiences. Alongside scholarly publications, exhibitions, and films, the PI has developed new formats of dissemination, including a children’s book based on one of her historical cases on radiation protection and the IAEA. Science Takes a Trip has been published by Clavis Publishing (August 2025). This effort reflects the project’s commitment to reach beyond academia and to cultivate awareness of science diplomacy and radiation governance among the widest possible publics.