Dr Elena Romero-Passerin d'Entreves (she/her)

I studied history at Sorbonne University for my BA and MA, including a year abroad in the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. I then taughtin Amherst College, Massachusets, for a year, before starting my PhD in the University of St Andrews. I wrote my doctoral dissertation on the botanic gardens of Scotland and Tuscany, 1765-1790, under the supervision of Dr Sarah Easterby-Smith and Prof AIleen Fyfe, and defended in 2021. After receiving my PhD, I have held two postdoctoral contracts with the Universal Short Title Catalog, and with the Royal Horticultural Society, as well as taught across several departments, including HIstory and International Relations, in the University of St Andrews. I moved to the University of Exeter in 2024.

I am currently working on my book manuscript entitled Botanic Gardens and the Early Institutionalisation of Science which will be published by Routledge. Based on my PhD thesis, the book explores how the spaces and institutional structures of botanic gardens in the late eighteenth century reflected the growing understanding of "science" as a specific form of knowledge, separate from laymen's, and deserving of funding and protection from the public authorities. The research is a comparative study of the botanic gardens of Edinburgh, Florence, and Pisa.