Genay Lucie

Coming from the department of English studies (ILCEA4 Université Grenoble-Alpes), my focus is on American civilization. I have therefore been teaching English and American history at university since 2009.

As a specialist of the nuclear industry in New Mexico, I took part in both winter schools organized by the Labex. In 2014, I presented a paper on the arrival of atomic science in Los Alamos in the Jémez range during World War Two. This was the location of the first atomic laboratory where the bomb used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, 1945 was designed and built. In 2016, after defending my doctoral thesis (The Scientific Conquest of New Mexico: Local Legacies of the Manhattan Project, 1942-2015) I broadened the scope of this research including other sites in the American Southwest in order to develop the concept of “nuclear mountains” which presents a mixture of scenic beauty and anxiety-provoking nuclear technology. My work is based on sources including oral histories, press articles, and economic reports.

Even though my research is about a different geographical area and wanders from traditional issues in mountainous spaces, listening and talking to other members of the Labex has enabled me to see the object I am studying from news angles and to share points of view on theory.

I wish to continue doing research on the nuclear industry in this region and further explore its connections to mountain territories and populations.