University of Geneva, PhD '13

RESEARCH INTERESTS

European cultural history; technical literature on embodied knowledge; history of science and medicine; martial arts studies.

BIOGRAPHY

Daniel Jaquet is a medievalist with a background in literary studies and interests in history of science and material culture in the early modern period. He specialized in martial arts studies, with specific interest into the production, transmission, and reception of embodied knowledge in the past.

His current research (Fulbright 2025-2026) is looking into the development of physical exercises in the United States (1820-1920), especially the reception of Swedish Gymnastics and its influence in the United States.

He earned his PhD in Medieval history at the University of Geneva in 2013. He taught at the University of Geneva, Lausanne and Neuchâtel (2008-2022) and was a visiting scholar at the Centre pour l’Histoire des sciences et des techniques (University of Paris, Pantheon Sorbonne 1, 2011) and at Max Planck Institute for History of Science (Berlin, 2015-2016). He is the editor in chief of Acta Periodica Duellatorum (open access, peer-reviewed Journal dedicated to European Martial Arts). He also is a museologist (ICOM certification 2022) with experience in State museums (Château de Morges 2017-21) and curated local and international exhibitions. He co-led the research projects "Martial Culture in Medieval Towns" (University of Bern 2018-22), "Digitising and Augmenting the Panorama of the Battle of Murten" (EPFL 2022-2026) and "Memory of the Burgundian Wars (1476-2026)" (University of Lausanne, 2024-2027).

CURRENT PROJECT

The Birth of Therapeutic Physical Exercises: the Reception of the European Medical Gymnastics in the United States at the End of the 19th and Beginning of the 20th Centuries (Fulbright, University of Chicago, 2025-2026).