Dr Nina S. Studer
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drninastuder.bsky.social
Dr Nina S. Studer
@drninastuder.bsky.social
Historian, IEH2, University of Geneva

History of medicine & psychiatry, gender issues & drinking studies in the colonial Maghreb. Current: https://wetdreams.hypotheses.org/ 🗃️🍸

Passionate about literature and theatre.

She/her

https://nina-studer.com
My wonderful friend, Cordelia Bähr, co-authored a book based on her successfully bringing a Swiss case to the European Court of Human Rights - the case of the #Klimaseniorinnen. The court ruled that protection from climate change is a human right #climate #ClimateChange #Klima #newbook
November 10, 2025 at 2:34 PM
And more for people in Switzerland: I will give a presentation with the title "Leaky Masculinities: Imperialism & Nocturnal Pollutions in 19th-Century Medical Theories" at the ETHZ-UZH Research Colloquium in Global and Extra-European History in Zürich next week! Do come!

🗃️ #histmed #skystorians
October 7, 2025 at 3:57 PM
If anybody is in Geneva in the week of the 20th of October: Please come on Tuesday, the 21st of October 2025 (5:00pm), to the opening of the exhibition “Masculinity in Question: Remedies and Devices against Nocturnal Emissions (18th to 21st Centuries)” at the CMCSS, Campus Batelle, Bâtiment A!

🗃️
October 6, 2025 at 7:43 AM
Even though outside my field of research, I've long been aware of the adverts for "Salem Aleikum" cigarettes, produced in late 19th/early 20th century Dresden. Today I have come across this bizarre image from 1903 of a horned (?), pointy-eared bearded smoking man. I am at a loss - ideas? 🗃️🚬 #History
August 11, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Came across on of these "in the wild" - in Stockholm of all places! I spotted it in the street, on the wall of the Bistrot "Pastis"! #DrinkingStudies 🗃🍸
June 12, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Court cases - many of them murder cases! - are also often "humorously" depicted in these Oxygénée Cusenier sketches in "Le Sourire". In these, absinthe either played a role in the crimes or the defendants referred to absinthe to prove their truthfulness or humanity. Very strange! #DrinkingStudies 🗃️🍸
June 9, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Another thematic cluster in these Cusenier sketches in "Le Sourire" particularly surprises & amuses me: mountaineering! Oxygénée Cusenier was depicted as a force of energy - for men & women! - both when the mountain climbing was successful & when it was evidently not! #DrinkingStudies #Absinthe 🗃️🍸
May 7, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Working-class women - consumers of Cusenier or not! - were depicted very differently. While bourgeoises were shown as daintily enjoying a glass of absinthe, working-class drinkers were depicted as gaining strength through it - clearly interpreted as a masculine attribute! #DrinkingStudies 🗃️🍸
May 6, 2025 at 9:32 AM
When it comes to women who consumed Oxygénée Cusenier, they were often depicted (in "Le Sourire" in the early 20th century) as very elegant & upper-class. As can be seen in the one with the title "Wedding Night", their consumption was however also regularly sexualised! #DrinkingStudies #Absinthe 🗃️🍸
May 6, 2025 at 9:32 AM
These sketches often show couples where the man is much older than the woman, and also touch on questions of class and consent. Oxygénée Cusenier could, apparently, truly help with all kinds of issues! #DrinkingStudies #Absinthe #Alcohol 🗃️🍸

Descriptions & references are, as always, in the captions.
May 5, 2025 at 11:07 AM
The idea most commonly depicted in these sketches for Oxygénée Cusenier seems to be that women will be more attracted to a man if he is an avid drinker. Amazing! These are just a few examples from the early 20th century by different French artists. Details in the captions! #DrinkingStudies 🗃️🍸
May 5, 2025 at 11:07 AM
As part of our project into the medical history of wet dreams (@wetdreams-hist.bsky.social) Ishita Pande will speak about "(Wet) Dreams of the Indian Nation: Colonialism, Consumerism & the Globalization of an Ailment" on the 13th of May. Do join us over zoom! unige.zoom.us/j/68123992256 #histmed 🗃️
May 1, 2025 at 9:09 AM
In time for Easter: These two sketches show women reacting to being given Oxygénée Cusenier instead of chocolate eggs, with the one on the left (by Georges Léonnec, 1909) describing it as a "talisman of eternal love & youth" & the one on the right as "tasteful" (by A. Bertrand, 1905). #Absinthe 🗃️🍸
April 17, 2025 at 2:16 PM
The same regret - of not having distributed absinthe to the troops - is shown in this sketch from 1907 by the French caricaturist Jules Depaquit: "If I had given a [glass of] Oxygénée Cusenier to each of my soldiers on the morning of Waterloo, I would not be on Saint Helena!" #DrinkingStudies 🗃️🍸
April 17, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Another one showing Father Christmas: This one is by the French artist A. Bertrand, from 1906, with Père Noël saying: "Toys for the little ones, Oxygénée Cusenier for the grown-ups - that is how you make everyone happy!" I love the umbrella he seems to be carrying! #DrinkingStudies #absinthe 🗃️🍸
April 14, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Even art found its way into these pro-absinthe sketches in "Le Sourire"! In 1908, the French illustrator Markous drew Rodin's sculpture "The Kiss" [from 1882]. The spectator is shown as saying: "To get the models to pose for him, he had to give them some Oxygénée Cusenier." #DrinkingStudies 🗃️🍸
April 11, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Other sketches showed seasonal celebrations like this one by Falco from 1908: Father Christmas is shown as distributing presents - bottles of Oxygénée Cusenier, of course! - by plane in Paris. Christmas is here a celebration of both progress (the plane) and absinthe, apparently! #DrinkingStudies 🗃️🍸
April 10, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Many of these sketches showed political figures. This one here - by Paul d'Espagnat - shows F.D. Roosevelt in 1910. Roosevelt explains that he got through the many events of a recent Europe trip with the help of absinthe: "Thanks to Oxygéne Cusenier, my dear! That's my secret." #DrinkingStudies 🗃️🍸
April 10, 2025 at 1:53 PM
This same idea of longevity through the consumption of absinthe can also be found in this sketch from A. Bertrand, published in 1904. The description explains: "The wise men of the past did not find the Elixir of Long Life, but Oxygénée Cusenier has since been invented." #DrinkingStudies 🗃️🍸
April 4, 2025 at 2:23 PM
These sketches also play with the idea that Cusenier drinkers lived very long lives. This one here shows a middle-class family paying to see a 100-year-old woman who allegedly used this money to buy her weekly bottle of "Oxygénée Cusenier"! #DrinkingStudies #Absinthe 🗃️🍸
April 4, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Not only humans were portrayed as gaining strength from Cusenier: The French artist Jacques Nam - known for his depictions of animals - showed a meeting between tiger & cat in 1909, with the tiger explaining his status/size/strength (?) through his daily consumption of absinthe! #DrinkingStudies 🗃️🍸
April 4, 2025 at 9:10 AM
This idea of strength through absinthe can be found regularly in these Cusenier sketches in "Le Sourire". In this one here from 1912 - by A. Bertrand - a man is about to be robbed & says: "There are only two of them... Bah! I would not fear five; I've just drunk an Oxygénée Cusenier!" #Absinthe 🗃️🍸
April 3, 2025 at 2:52 PM
There are some absinthe sketches that I just don't understand. This one here - by A. Bertrand from 1904 - is called "Thirst in the Sahara". In it, the "emperor of the desert" says: "My kingdom, my kingdom for a [bottle of] Oxygénée Cusenier", obviously an allusion to Richard III. #DrinkingStudies 🗃️🍸
April 3, 2025 at 2:38 PM
The same artist, Paul d'Espagnat, depicted Abdul Hamid II a third time in November 1909. The leaders of Austria, Bulgaria and Greece offer him three bottles of absinthe in exchange for Bosnia, Bulgaria and Crete, to which he replies: "Three bottles of Oxygénée Cusenier! I win!" #DrinkingStudies 🗃️🍸
April 3, 2025 at 12:04 PM
This one is perhaps even more astonishing. It shows a meeting between two French soldiers - one from 1908 & one from 1808. The one from 1908 tells his military ancestor that each conscript now carries a bottle of Cusenier Oxygen in their bag - "and that makes us superhuman!" #DrinkingStudies 🗃️🍸
April 2, 2025 at 2:57 PM