Halea Ruffiner

Student assistant at the University of Zurich

Halea Ruffiner is currently working on her M.A. thesis on agriculture and culinary practices in 19^th century Senegal. By examining travelogues and agricultural reports from the archives of l’Afrique Occidentale Française, she hopes to trace how the lingering influence of the Atlantic Era and the growing French colonial presence affected foodways in Senegal. The thesis is part of the SNSF Sinergia project Foodways in West Africa: an integrated approach on pots, animals and plants. She is pursuing her M.A. in history and law at the University of Zurich. In her B.A. thesis at the UZH she studied how botanists linked the increase in non-native plants in early 20^th century Zurich to mobility, industry and urbanization.