Beginning in the autumn semester 2025, Schober will lead the research project “Matter of Distinction: Early Modern Hair, Race, Trade and Multispecies History, 1650–1820” at the University of Lucerne's Department of History. The research grant amounts to CHF 1.8 million. The team will include a postdoc, a doctoral student and two student assistants. The project will run for five years.

Categorisation with serious consequences

The team will focus on the question of how hair became a distinguishing feature between 1650 and 1820. Specifically, they examine how hair was used to classify individuals into various categories. According to Schober, alongside skin colour and skull shape, the colour, texture and density of head and body hair were examined, felt, sorted, collected and evaluated. These practices aimed at differentiating, categorising and creating hierarchies among people. Notably, the hair of non-Europeans, particularly people from Africa, was increasingly likened to animal "wool," contributing to a process of dehumanisation. Schober’s research team is exploring the historical context and consequences of this phenomenon.

The team will investigate the processes that contributed to the "racialisation" of hair. As Schober explains: “On the one hand, we are examining the rapidly expanding trade in human and animal hair during this period. We aim to understand how hair was classified, valued and transformed into a material commodity during the ‘age of the wig.’” Traded throughout Europe and overseas, hair – both human and animal – became a highly sought-after resource, including in Switzerland, where the wig-making industry thrived for about a century. The research team is therefore addressing questions such as which types of hair were considered particularly valuable and which ones were not – and why.

“On the other hand, we employ the tools of so-called ‘multispecies history,’” Schober explains. This approach broadens the scope beyond humans to focus on the interconnected relationships between living beings. While the use of hair as a marker of distinction is particularly prominent in early racial discourse, it is not limited to it. Schober highlights that speciesism – the discrimination, exploitation, and separation of non-human entities – also intensified during this period, in ways that are deeply interwoven with these categorisations. Schober sums up: “Entangled and knotted together, hairs and their history ultimately reveal how deeply interconnected we are and how artificial the divisions between us truly are.”

Short distances between disciplines and historical time periods

Schober is enthusiastic about pursuing the project at the University of Lucerne, highlighting that the Department of History offers an ideal environment for scholarly exchange. She notes that the department provides excellent opportunities to engage with topics such as the history of pre-modern bodies and their commodification, the history of knowledge and global history, as well as the history of slavery. Schober adds that the project touches on diverse intellectual intersections and connects the pre-modern and modern periods. Lucerne’s close-knit academic community, which facilitates collaboration across disciplines and historical time periods, was a decisive factor in choosing the university: “The exceptionally friendly atmosphere and the stunning location by the lake made the decision very easy.”