Opening address

Abstract

This paper consists of the text read by the author on 28 May 2020 to serve as inaugural speech for the 3rd International QSN conference “Matter of containment”. After briefly outlining the rationale behind the inception of this meeting, the author justifies the centrality of “containment” for the project of expanding “quarantine studies” from a medical history subject into a truly interdisciplinary area of research. The text ends with a short description of the conference topics and organization.