New Publication: Journal18 Issue #20 “Clean” with Contributions by Noémie Étienne

We are delighted to share that Journal18 has released its new issue Clean (Fall 2025), co-edited by Noémie Étienne (University of Vienna), Maarten Delbeke (ETH Zurich), and Nikos Magouliotis (ETH Zurich). The issue brings together research that examines how practices of cleaning shaped political, social, and cultural life in the eighteenth century — far beyond questions of hygiene.

Cleaning, as the editors show, is never neutral.
From Paris to Varanasi to the visual culture of Britain, acts of cleaning became tools of control, distinction, and power: removing monuments, redefining sacred waters, or framing filth as a marker of cultural difference.

Alongside three research articles, the issue features a Conversation Piece co-authored by Noémie Étienne with Maarten Delbeke and Nikos Magouliotis. Their dialogue highlights how cleaning — whether removing rubble, draining tanks, whitewashing architecture, or restoring paintings — shaped political order and social hierarchies. They also draw attention to the often invisible labor behind these processes, especially the work carried out by women, children, and marginalized groups.

Together, the contributions reveal a “grammar of cleaning” across the eighteenth century:
how dirt was defined, who had the authority to remove it, and how acts of clearing, erasing, or purifying reshaped spaces, memories, and identities.

🔗 Read the full issue on Journal18: