Biography
Ádám Mézes earned his PhD in History from Central European University (Budapest) in 2020 with the dissertation, ‘Doubt and Diagnosis: Medical Experts and the Returning Dead of the Southern Habsburg Borderland (1718-1766)’.
He is interested in intersections between religion and science, and has researched the ways early modern surgeons, physicians and lay healers dealt with unnatural afflictions, such as demonic possession, bewitchment and vampirism. Finding themselves at the crux of clashing interests between local communities, imperial administration and various churches, these experts produced knowledge on the borders of the natural, and influenced social practices of the discernment, manipulation, and disciplining of patients and supernatural entities alike. Ádám’s research combines historical anthropology with science and technology studies to study the Enlightenment in a Central European context, assessing questions of laicization, professionalization, and governance.
Before joining EUI, Ádám was a Research Analyst at Altrata, a wealth intelligence company and taught courses on culture, gender, and critical thinking to high school students at the Milestone Institute. Earlier, he also taught BA and MA seminars at Eötvös Loránd University and at CEU on historiography and the history of science and magic.
At the EUI, Ádám will be working on the transformation of his dissertation into a monograph and a few articles. He will also devise a second project, an eighteenth-century social ecology of the Habsburg Banat, focusing on the resilience of humans, flora and fauna in a hostile environment.