Jean-Luc Laffont

Jean-Luc Laffont is Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Perpignan-Via Domitia, where he also works as a researcher at the Centre de Recherches sur les Sociétés et Environnement Méditerranéens (CRESEM-EA 7397). He has edited several publications for the Presses Universitaires du Midi (Université de Toulouse-II Jean Jaurès), including as part of the collection “Histoire notariale.” In addition, he is a member of the Académie des Sciences, Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres de Toulouse (Belles-Lettres class), the vice-president of the Société des Etudes du Comminges, and a member of the board of directors of the Toulousains de Toulouse and the Bureau des Amis de l’Hôtel d’Assézat.
Laffont specializes in the urban history of the modern period (16^th-18^th centuries). In particular, he has studied issues related to public order and to the history of notaries in southern France (Gascony, Languedoc, Roussillon), with the aim of improving the understanding of old public and private social norms.
His most recent publications, in the field of social history and collective mentalities, focus on death and particular affects (fear). His work has also explored the history of man-made disasters (fires, collective accidents, epidemics) and natural disasters (floods, earthquakes, animal epidemics) in southern France in the modern period.