Visiting Scholars Directory

Yuma Terada is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University. His writing has appeared in Grey Room. Terada holds M.A. and B.A. degrees from Columbia University.

Vrinda Sharma is a PhD candidate in Economics at the Paris School of Economics and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, under the supervision of Karen Macours. She holds a Mas- ter’s in Applied Economics from the Paris School of Economics and EHESS (Summa cum Laude) and a BA (Honours) in Economics from Kirori Mal College, Delhi University.

Her thesis titled ”Climate Change and Economics of Water” aims to understand the household consequences of changing water access in developing countries. She works at the intersection of development and environmental economics with a focus on gender and agriculture. Previously, she was a pre-doctoral researcher at E ́cole Polytechnique and a consultant at the World Bank.

After completing a bachelor's degree in Political Science in Brussels, Viola Denizon joined l’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, during which she wrote a thesis on "The perception of immigration by the Sicilian population". Since 2021, Viola Denizon has been a contractual doctoral student at the University Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne and the Ecole Française de Rome, under the supervision of Jean-Louis Briquet. She is co-supervised by the University Federico II of Naples and is affiliated with the Centre Européen de Sociologie et de Science Politique (CESSP). Viola Denizon's research focuses on the implantation of the far right in Southern Italy, specifically on Giorgia Meloni's party in Sicily, Fratelli d'Italia, in order to highlight the rise of extremism and right-wing populism within contemporary democracies. This thesis work is based on a 6-month ongoing field survey, combining participant observation and comprehensive interviews. She has participated in several international scientific projects (in New York, Rome, Sfax, Tunis, Paris, Madrid) during which she presented her ongoing work. Currently, she is writing a scientific article entitled "Campaigning for « La Meloni »: The Case of Regional and National Elections in Sicily."

Valérie is a Ph.D. Fellow from Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne studying European environmental Law and Access to justice in environmental matters. She earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degrees from the Free University of Brussels (Belgium). She completed a master of Advances studies in European law at Ghent University (Belgium) and an LL.M. at University of California, Berkeley. She has worked as a lawyer at the Brussels and Paris Bars and as a law clerk to Judges at the Court of justice of the European Union (Luxembourg). During her stay at Columbia Law School, she will focus on climate change litigation.

Ulysse Guttmann-Faure is a Ph.D. student in constitutional law at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University (ISJPS), under the supervision of Professor Anne Levade. He also serves as a Teaching and Research Fellow in public law at Sorbonne Law School, after graduating valedictorian of his Master's degree.

He is conducting a global study of constitutional rigidity, with a focus on constitutional amendment attempts initiated by members of parliament in France and members of Congress in the United States. He also specializes in Empirical Legal Studies, a field in which Columbia University and American scholars have developed significant expertise.

In addition to his research, Ulysse is actively involved in academic life. He is currently responsible for organizing the Georges Vedel Moot Court on Constitutional Review (QPC), organized by the French Association of Constitutional Law and sponsored by the French Constitutional Council, and serves on the executive board of the Paris 1 University Foundation. He has also received several awards for his involvement in charitable activities.

At Columbia Law School, Ulysse is supervised by Kate E. Andrias, Faculty Director for the Center for Constitutional Governance and Patricia D. and R. Paul Yetter Professor of Law.

My name is Titouan. I studied mathematics and physics at Ecole Polytechnique and this year I chose to specialize in artificial intelligence and data analysis. I come from Grenoble, a French city nicknamed the capital of the Alps, where I love to cross-country ski, hike and be close to nature. I look forward to joining Columbia University and especially Pierre Gentine’s team, to use artificial intelligence to improve climate models.

Joining Columbia University, I am very excited to work on climate-invariant deep learning architectures, as this emerging field of research seems very promising for the future of climate prediction.

Thomas is a doctoral candidate in African history. His research focuses on histories of childhood, gender, health, and development in West Africa in the 20th century. His dissertation, titled « Burkinabè Humanitarianisms: Children, Mutual Aid, and Migration in and beyond Burkina Faso (1932-1990) » examines the multifaceted interventions that surveyed children’s lives in Burkina Faso (Upper-Volta before 1984) from the 1930s to the 1980s. These efforts played a critical role in defining communities’ interactions and interpretations of governmental practice in the late colonial and post-colonial periods. The project links a history of social work practice, an analysis of economic models that quantified households in the post-war period, and a social history of experiences of such interventions.

Prior to pursuing his Ph.D., Thomas worked as a Peace Corps Fellow at University Neighborhood Housing Program, working on housing rights in New York. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin for two years, with a focus on health and education.

Thaís Tanure is a historian, PhD candidate (funded) at University Paris 1 Panthéon- Sorbonne. Member of the Centre for Social History at Contemporary Worlds and of the Labex Dynamite (Center of Excellence for Territorial and Spatial Dynamics). She is preparing a thesis on the heritage of slavery in Nantes and Rio de Janeiro (1983– 2019). Her research focuses on the processes of memorialization of the Atlantic slave trade and colonial slavery from a transatlantic perspective, as well as on the history of Afro-Atlantic cultures.

Thaïs Roussel, originally from Lille, France, is a final-year student at École Polytechnique, where she specializes in applied mathematics. She aspires to conduct scientific research on major societal challenges. She has previous experience using machine learning, stochastic modeling, and statistics to address health-related issues, and now looks forward to exploring their use in climate modeling at the Gentine Lab, particularly in the study of cyclone dynamics.

I’m excited to join the Gentine Lab to apply mathematical and machine learning tools to tropical cyclone dynamics. I’m also looking forward to meeting and learning from researchers in this inspiring environment!

I’m Sylvain Dehayem, a master’s student in Artificial Intelligence at École Polytechnique. I previously completed a third year in Informatics Engineering at École Nationale Supérieure Polytechnique Yaoundé (Cameroon). Before joining Columbia, I worked as a research intern at DXO Labs on diffusion models for image inpainting. During this internship, I explored diffusion-based generative models for high-quality image reconstruction. This experience deepened my interest in probabilistic modeling and generative AI. At Columbia, I will apply these concepts to guided diffusion models for protein design, working under the mentorship of Dr. Aaron Zweig, Dr. Mingxuan Zhang, and Prof. Elham Azizi. I’m excited to learn from an interdisciplinary research environment and to contribute to methods that connect generative modeling with biological sequence design.

I’m excited to explore how diffusion models can be adapted for biological system design, especially in protein engineering. I’m also looking forward to learning from my mentors and contributing to an interdisciplinary research team.

Sogol Edriss Abadi is a Ph.D. candidate in International and European Law at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, and her dissertation is on “The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iranian Nuclear Issue in the Light of International Law”. Her dissertation aims to analyze this complex agreement called JCPOA, which was endorsed by the Security Council, and to determine its legal nature, as well as its implementation, which has been called into question since May 8, 2018, following the Trump administration’s announcement to end the United States’ participation in the JCPOA.

She received her Bachelor’s degree in Law from the University of Science and Culture in Tehran (in Persian: Daneshgah Elm va Farhang). She then came to France in order to continue her studies in international law and obtained a Master’s degree in International Law and International Relations from the University of Jean-Moulin (Lyon 3). In addition to her academic activities, during which she was a teaching assistant and tutor-librarian at the Universities of Paris 1 and Paris 2, respectively, she completed a three-year internship at Shearman & Sterling LLP in Paris, where she was in charge of enriching the Doctrinal database.

Sean Treacy is a Ph.D. student in Chemistry at Columbia University where he conducts research on the photocatalytic functionalization of C-H bonds in the Rovis Group. His research has focused the remote functionalization of aliphatic amines through nickel-photoredox catalysis and the intermolecular alkylation of feedstock alkanes with electron deficient olefins via copper catalysis. He received his BA from Princeton University in 2016 in Chemistry along with a certificate in Materials Science and Engineering.

Rotem Gerstel is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice encompasses sculpture, video, installation, drawing, and sound. Born in Israel in 1988, she currently lives and works in Paris. Gerstel holds a BFA from Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem, a post-diploma in Arts in Sound from the European Postgraduate Program at KASK Academy of Art in Ghent, and a master’s degree from Paris 8 University. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in creative research at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, where her research investigates the concept of audio-visual flux through the lens of new materialism. 

Gerstel has participated in a variety of artist residencies, including the Cité Internationale des Arts and DOC! in Paris, as well as Werkraum Warteck PP in Basel. Since 2020, she has been part of the Poush residency in Paris, where she continues to develop her artistic practice. She has exhibited in numerous group shows across Europe, including at Galerie Bertrand Grimont and Galerie Charraudeau in Paris, as well as KIOSK in Ghent. In 2018, Gerstel co-founded THE REAL, a traveling radio station with artist Simone Etter, which broadcasts the artistic activities and projects emerging from artists' residencies. 

Alongside her creative and academic pursuits, Gerstel has established a strong path in art education. She holds an Art Teaching Certificate for Secondary School from Kibbutzim College in Tel Aviv. She has worked in art mediation in Paris for the past seven years, collaborating with prestigious institutions such as the Palais de Tokyo, Bourse de Commerce, and the Centre Pompidou. Gerstel has also lectured at the Open University of Israel, the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv, and Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem.

Rosanne Craveia holds a Master’s Degree in International Law and International Organizations from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University and a LLM in International Human Rights Law from Oxford Brookes University (UK).

She is now a Ph.D. candidate in International Law at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University where she conducts her research on extractive industries and human rights, under the supervision of Professors Laurence Dubin and Evelyne Lagrange. Her thesis focuses on issues of responsibility and is based on the in-depth study of rigorously selected real cases in which human rights violations are alleged.

Rosanne was also a teaching assistant at the Sorbonne Law School for three and a half years: she has taught Public International Law, International Economic Law, International Relations, Administrative Law and Fundamental Rights.

Robert is a PhD candidate in Development Economics at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon- Sorbonne. He focuses in his research predominantly on climate risk and disaster adaptation in a development context. Hereby, instead of solely spotlighting the macro dimension of the international finance-climate nexus, he chiefly centers his research around local economic impacts of (climate) disasters in developing countries measured, amongst others, by high resolution satellite imagery. To improve his understanding of applied disaster models, he has spent part of his PhD as a Visiting Scientist at the United Nations University in the Institute of Environment and Human Security in Germany.

Before joining the PhD program in 2021, he obtained a MSc in Economics and a MPhil in Development Economics from Paris 1 after completion of his undergraduate studies in Germany.

Renée Ramona Robinson is a Jamaican-American, but French trained lawyer. She matriculated from Johns Hopkins university for her undergraduate, before continuing to on to graduate cum laude and with merit from Sciences Po and Queen Mary Law School respectively. She will receive her LL.M from Harvard Law School in May 2025. She is a current third-year PhD candidate at Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne in the School of Law. Her research centers on the paradoxical schism of public and private international law impacting the global value chain in the fashion and textile industry, and conversely, how the fashion industry informs the legal processes that construct it. It is focused on the elements of worker rights, environmental litigation, and consumer behaviour, and how these are molded by property rights and analyzed by strands of feminist legal theory. She has previously presented at the London College of Fashion Symposium on “Multiple Experiences in Fashion,” as well as at Tampere University, in Tampere, Finland on fashion related to the climate emergency. 
 

Mrs. Raoudha Sammoudi is a senior magistrate with a long and distinguished career in the Tunisian courts. She has presided over the civil and commercial chamber at first instance and has held the position of advisor to the Tunis Court of Appeal and bankruptcy judge. 

She is in charge of standards compliance monitoring at the Ministry of Justice and is the Ministry's focal point for several projects, including the processing of non-performing loans financed by the World Bank. She has also chaired working groups in charge of drafting legislation on distressed companies, civil and commercial procedures, and mediation. 

She has been a member of several governmental commissions for the elaboration of reforms related to the improvement of the business climate.

Mrs. Sammoudi also has an important experience in negotiating international agreements, leadership and communication. 

She currently teaches at the University of Tunis Carthage and was a trainer at Tunisia's Higher Institute of Magistrates. Mrs. Sammoudi also holds an international TOT (trainer of trainee) and mediation certificate.

Racha Radja is currently a Ph.D candidate in Private International Law at Sorbonne Law School, entering her third year, under the supervision of Professor Pascal de Vareilles-Sommières. Racha holds two master’s degrees, one in European Economic Law and one in Private International Law and International Commercial Law, both from Paris 1 University.

Racha's thesis challenges the dogma of the neutrality of Private International Law, which is very much rooted in the French doctrine, by focusing on the existence of policies underlying the connecting factors of choice of law rules and rules of jurisdiction. She has a strong interest in comparative law, she decided to include European Union Law and American Conflict of Laws in her thesis.

Alongside her Ph.D, Racha is a teaching assistant, She teaches Private International Law and Human rights. She is also the President of the Lex Association, an association of students and alumni of the master’s degree in Private International Law and International Commercial Law.

Quentin Couvreur is a PhD candidate in International Relations at Sciences Po’s Center of International Studies (CERI), where he works under the supervision of Professor Frédéric Ramel. His research focuses on China’s approach to multilateralism and global governance, through the study of China’s policies across the United Nations Development System. He is a member of the Research Group on Multilateral Action (GRAM), funded by the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).

Quentin Couvreur holds a Master degree in Political Science from Sciences Po (2022). He has also taught various courses to undergraduate students from Sciences Po’s campus in Le Havre, including Comparative Politics and Political Science.

Pauline Bozo is currently a PhD candidate in law at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University under the supervision of Marta Torre-Schaub. Her research focuses on the jurisdictional treatment of climate change, and more precisely before the French administrative courts. During her stay at Columbia’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, she aims to carry out a comparative study of renewable energy litigation on both sides of the Atlantic.
Prior to beginning her Ph.D., she completed a master’s in public law (Université Paris Nanterre) and one in environmental law (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne). Alongside her research, she teaches and regularly takes part in scientific events on environmental and climate law as part of the Climalex program.

Paul Audinet is a PhD candidate in contemporary history at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, supervised by Professors Frédéric Tristram and Pierre Vermeren. After two years in a classe préparatoire in Paris, he joined ESCP Business School, where he earned a Master in Management, while simultaneously completing a law degree and a Master’s in economic history at Paris 1. Before devoting himself more fully to his research, he worked in economic diplomacy abroad.

He is preparing a dissertation on the history of Algerian oil from the first discoveries of deposits in the north of the country in 1872 to the nationalisation of hydrocarbons in 1971. He analyses how the French state progressively equipped itself with a powerful oil apparatus by relying on Algeria as a key territorial and legal space - through mining legislation, fiscal and regulatory instruments, and public bodies such as SN REPAL - and how these arrangements, particularly in the period from 1956 to the early 1970s, made Algeria central to French energy security. He then examines how Algerian authorities reappropriated and transformed the inherited structures, leading up to the 1971 nationalisation, which redefined the relationship between France and Algeria and anchored the country’s position in global oil politics.

Patrick is a PhD candidate in economics at Columbia University studying trade, urban economics, and industrial development. He holds an MPA from Princeton University and completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to starting his PhD he worked in Yangon, Myanmar as government relations and political risk consultant and for the Asian Development Bank in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Oliver Durnan is a Ph.D. candidate in the Columbia Lab for Unconventional Electronics (CLUE) at Columbia University. He obtained his M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia and his B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering from McGill University. His research focus is the integration of thin-film metal oxide electronics with microLED devices for displays and illumination.

Occitane Lacurie is a PhD student in arts and visual studies at the École des Arts de la Sorbonne (Université Paris 1 – Panthéon-Sorbonne) under the supervision of Olivier Schefer and Christa Blümlinger (Université Paris 8 – Vincennes-Saint-Denis). Her doctoral research aims to enlighten the regimes of visibility and the modes rationality generated by ghostly apparitions and their scientific study. From a history of spectral sciences and an anthropology of techniques aiming at observing or reproducing ghostly phenomena, her dissertation proposes an archaeology of audiovisual media drawing on these paradoxical rationalities and an investigation of the artistic forms derived from them that still haunt our visual culture. At Université Paris 1 and Université Paris 8, she works as a teaching assistant in film studies and in philosophy of art. Prior to her doctorate, she completed two Master’s degrees in film studies and in arts at the ENS de Lyon and the EHESS.

Occitane is also a film critique for the French cinema journal Débordements and the cultural podcast of the newspaper Mediapart. She programs Débordements’ film club in the Saint- André-des-Arts cinema in Paris.

Nitouche Anthoussi is a PhD candidate in Fine Arts and Art Sciences at the Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, under the supervision of Professor Jean-Marie Dallet. Her doctoral research is about the appropriation of space in asylums, psychiatric hospitals, prisons, and the world of metaverse, from an artistic, philosophical, and anthropological approach.

At the Columbia University she will be working in residence at the Justice in Education Initiative under the supervision of Professor Neni Panourgiá (Academic Adviser at JIE Initiative). She will be developing a project on comparative carcerality between Ellis Island and Leros (Greece).

Nitouche having previously completed a Master 2 at the same university in Fine Arts and Contemporary Creation. She has also graduated from the School of Fine Arts of the University of Ioannina, Greece. From her great love mathematics, she finds herself in art. She is the first Erasmus international student to have been accepted by the Centre Culturel Georges Pompidou in Paris as a photographer for the main art collection and has participated in several artistic exhibitions in Athens, Paris, Milan, Ioannina and Corinth. In her spare time, Nitouche sails with the Paris 1 university team.

Niklas Schoch is a PhD candidate in economics interested in the interplay of climate policy interventions and firms’ technology choices. In his thesis, he evaluates the incentives of firms to adopt green technology in response to carbon pricing schemes in varying competition environments. To do so, he is estimating a structural model of dynamic imperfect competition, using data on fuel consumption and green investments of industrial installations in France. Prior to joining Sciences Po, he obtained a master’s degree in economics from the University of Mannheim and worked on energy policy as a consultant at the Institute of Energy Economics at the University of Cologne and the International Energy Agency.

I'm Ness, a French student currently enrolled in a Biomedical Engineering master's program at École Polytechnique. Passionate about healthcare, I'm specializing in Computer science and Artificial Intelligence. Outside of work, I love hanging out with friends, traveling, and reading! I'm beyond excited to discover Columbia and New York City!

I’m honored to join the IICD, under the mentorship of Khanh Dinh and Simon Tavaré. This opportunity will allow me to actively contribute to research advancing our understanding of cancer evolution.

Nathaniel Butler Blondel is a PhD candidate in Economics at Sciences Po Paris. His research examines how fiscal policy, monetary policy, and financial stability interact and constrain one another, with a particular focus on the interplay between central banks and the financial sector. Prior to his PhD, Nathaniel worked as a research assistant at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research and as a trainee at the European Central Bank. During his doctorate, he has held research internships at the Bank of England and the International Monetary Fund. He holds a Masters in Economics from Sciences Po and an undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of Glasgow.

Natalie Yang is a PhD candidate in Economics at Columbia University. She conducts research in urban economics, with a particular interest in studying urban transportation infrastructure and policies. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Yale University in 2018, majoring in Applied Mathematics and English.

Monica Seiceanu is a PhD candidate at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, affiliated with the HiCSA Research Laboratory (Cultural and Social History of Art). With a Master's degree in Contemporary Art History from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy, she is specializing in 20th century textile art, particularly in the new tapestry during the Cold War. Her Master’s theses, entitled “The Emergence of Three-Dimensional Textile Works in Europe in the Second Half of the 1960s: Contributions of Magdalena Abakanowicz and Jagoda Buić” and “The Reception of Lenore Tawney’s “Woven Forms” and the Place of Textiles in New York Art in the Second Half of the 20th Century” are available for consultation at the HiCSA Documentation Center at the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art. In addition to academic research, she is an art critic and also developing an independent curatorial practice.
 

Michaël Bourdon is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the Center for International Studies (CERI) of Sciences Po Paris. His research focuses on the transformations of the state, development, and elites correlated with the diffusion of the start-up entrepreneurship model in West Africa, specifically in Togo and Ghana. He is a graduate of the École Normale Supérieure de Paris where he obtained a master's degree in Social Sciences. He is also an associate member of the project African Trust Infrastructure, led by Keith Breckenridge at Wits University in Johannesburg.
 

Meryl Lavenant is a PhD candidate at the History department in Paris I – Panthéon Sorbonne University in France. She is an alumnus of the École Normale Supérieure, and studied Russian language at Inalco (Paris). She is passionate with foreign languages and masters French, English, Italian, Spanish and Russian.

Her research deals with the Russian southern expansion and the maritime aspects of the imperial project developed in the Black Sea region from 1774 to the late nineteenth century. Meryl proposes a work at the crossroads of imperial and maritime History, paying special attention to the importance of space in imperial dynamics and representations. She is particularly interested in reflecting on methodological challenges, in a context of difficult access to archives in Ukraine and Russia.

Apart from her research activity, Meryl teaches in the Sorbonne and would like to explore the various and innovative ways in which historical research can be publicized.

I’m Merwan, a third-year Applied Mathematics student at Polytechnique. I’m passionate about using math to tackle real-world problems, and I became especially interested in biology after discovering the opportunities at the crossroads of quantitative methods and the life sciences. In the long run, I aim to work in AI for biology & health to help speed up research and discovery. I’m also a sports enthusiast: I competed in triathlon for ten years and played midfield for Polytechnique’s soccer team. I also love traveling and have previously worked in London and Singapore. Now I’m thrilled to experience Columbia’s research environment in the U.S!

I’m excited to learn from an experienced research team and deepen my understanding of AI and the power of transcriptomic methods. I’m also thrilled to discover New York City along the way!

Meltem Yildiz is a PhD candidate at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, pursuing her studies in arts, aesthetics and sciences of arts. Her academic journey includes an MA in Visual Arts and Contemporary Creation from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, as well as an MA in Visual Arts from the University of Bordeaux-Montaigne. She kickstarted her academic pursuits with a BA in Graphic Design from the University of Haliç (Istanbul), which notably featured an Erasmus student exchange program at the Academia di Belle Arti of L'Aquila in Italy. With a diverse educational background, she brings a wealth of experiences to her research and academic endeavours. Her professional journey includes serving as a mediator at the Sorbonne Art Gallery, where she actively engaged with artistic expression and curation. Currently, she leverages her expertise by delivering lectures on professional English applied to fine arts. A member of the Institut Acte (Art, Creation, Theory, Aesthetic), she actively participates in various exhibitions and seminars in Paris, Istanbul, Berlin, Athens and L’Aquila, contributing to the vibrant discourse surrounding art and its intersections with society. Her research transcends disciplinary boundaries, exploring the nexus of arts, sociology, geopolitics, and political sciences. Her work in participatory arts seeks to harness the theories, experiences, and approaches of social sciences as an artistic medium. By creating spaces for viewers to question and confront socio-politically imposed behaviours and modes of thought, her research aims to provoke critical dialogue and societal reflection.

Maya Wilson-Sánchez is a curator and a current PhD Candidate in Art History and Archeology at Columbia University. Her work centers on the development, movement, and exchange of art across the Americas. Wilson-Sánchez’s writing can be found in various publications including The Senses and Society Journal, The Journal of Visual Culture, Contemporary HUM, PUBLIC Journal, and the book Other Places: Reflections on Media Arts in Canada. Wilson-Sánchez was an Editorial Resident at Canadian Art, a Curatorial Resident at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, and an Associate Editor at C Magazine. They were the 2020 recipient of the Middlebrook Prize for Young Canadian Curators and a 2021 participant at the Tate Intensive in London, UK. She curated Intra-Action: Live Performance Art (2016, 2017) at Xpace Cultural Centre, Living Room (2017) at the Royal Ontario Museum, and Grounding (2020) at the Art Gallery of Guelph. Most recently, she served as one of the main curators for Toronto’s Year of Public Art, curating the 2021-2022 exhibition series I am Land, and the 2023-2024 show Replicas and Reunions: Ancient and Contemporary Ceramics from Ecuador at the Gardiner Museum.

Maya Chehade is a French-Syrian second-year Ph.D. student at Sciences Po Paris. Maya has worked for several years in the private sector with Syrian refugees in the Middle East, before starting her doctoral research at Sciences Po on the topic of “the impact of the private sector on Syrian refugees in Jordan”. During the Alliance Doctoral Mobility, she will work with ASPIRE, a Columbia University Research Project on Syrian refugees that include researchers and partners at local universities, governmental agencies, NGOs, and the UN in Jordan. Her doctoral mobility at Columbia aims to capitalize on data collected by ASPIRE in 2016 and 2018 to help the progress of her dissertation in a context of difficulty of access to the fieldwork due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Matylda Borcuch is a Ph.D. student at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University under the supervision of Professor Pierre Wat. She holds a Master’s degree in Art History from the Fine Arts Academy in Warsaw and in French Modern Letters from the University of Warsaw. Specializing in the field of Polish Artists in France in the 20th century, her Master’s thesis on the exhibition Autour de Bourdelle: Paris et les artistes polonais. 1900-1918 received distinction in the competition held by the National Art Gallery Zachęta in Warsaw and the Gessel Foundation.

Currently, she is focusing on her thesis dedicated to the Polish-Jewish painter Alice Halicka (1889-1974), who lived and created in France upon 1912. During her stay at Columbia, Matylda Borcuch will explore the lesser-known American chapter of Halicka’s career in the 1930s, including research in archives of different institutions, among others: MoMA, The New York Public Library for Performing Arts, Yale University Art Gallery. A stay at the American institution will be also an opportunity to enrich her research with new methods and examine the reception of Halicka’s art in the US.

In addition to her doctoral dissertation, Matylda Borcuch works in the cultural field between France and Poland and has collaborated with different institutions such as Bourdelle Museum or Polish Institute in Paris.

Matthew Easton is a PhD candidate in economics at Columbia University. His current research interests are primarily in the fields of urban and spatial economics. In particular, he is studying urban growth and decay in the U.S. and France, and also is working on understanding how networks of cities can grow and succeed in developed and developing countries. Prior to beginning graduate work at Columbia in 2019, he graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 2016 and then worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Mathilde De Sloovere is completing her fourth year in the PhD program at the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, working under the supervision of Professor Loiseau.

Mathilde holds a Master’s degree in Employment and Labor Law from Paris I Panthéon-  Sorbonne University. She is also graduate in Work Psychology from Paris II Panthéon-Assas. Her doctoral thesis focuses on the question of sick leave through the following subject: « L’arrêt de  travail, symptôme d’un mal-être ou syndrome précontentieux» (i.e. in English : Does the use of  sick leave illustrate a malaise at work or an abusive behavior ?). She has a comparative approach.

In the meantime, Mathilde taught as a teaching fellow and worked as a lawyer for three years in a  law firm.

Mathilde  has  chosen  an  interdisciplinary  approach  that  establishes  a dialogue  between law, psychology, medical, and sociology.
 

Martina Olivero is currently a Ph.D. Candidate and ATER in Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art at the Sorbonne School of Arts, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, where she is a member of the Institut Acte (Aesthetics and Critical Theories of Culture). She holds both BA and MA in Philosophy from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Milan), with a focus on Existentialism and Psychoanalysis. She then specializes in German Philosophy (XVIII-XX century) and Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School. Her doctoral dissertation questions, with a critical approach, the role of the medium from ancient to contemporary artistic practices and mass culture by dealing with the acknowledgment of original devices, narratives, and representations in a late aesthetics of tragedy.

Martin Barnay is a Ph.D. candidate and Paul F. Lazarsfeld Fellow in the Department of Sociology at Columbia University. His doctoral dissertation deals with loneliness and social isolation in old age. He uses large, multi-country data sets from the telecare industry to explore the social nature of loneliness.

Martin has MA degrees in Sociology and History, and a BA degree in History and Economics. Prior to joining Columbia, he worked as a researcher at the Centre de Sociologie Européenne in Paris, France

Martial Manet is a Ph.D. candidate in law at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne under the supervision of Professor Jean Matringe. He is a graduate in philosophy, political science and law from the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Based mainly on the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, his research attempts to identify past and present legal figurations – understood as representations that make a concept legally perceptible and operational – of the notion of people, as given and constructed by drafters, interpreters, and all actors in African human rights law.

Martial has chosen an interdisciplinary approach that establishes a dialogue between law, history, anthropology and sociology. These disciplines mobilized and articulated in a coherent manner, make it possible to move away from the law in its positive form by “historicizing” it, socializing it, and reintegrating it into the historical, social, and political environments of its emergence and contemporary practice.

Marie Tiberghien is a Ph.D. candidate in Law at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Her dissertation, “Criminal Law and Lobbying”, examines how criminal law and the criminal justice system address lobbying-related conduct in France and the United States. She holds a Master’s degree in Criminal Law from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and a Master’s degree in History of Philosophy from ENS Ulm and EHESS. She has passed the French Bar Exam and previously served as a Law Clerk at the Paris Judicial Court. Alongside her research, she teaches Constitutional Law and Criminal Law to undergraduate students.

Marie Robin is a third-year Ph.D. student in French colonial history at Columbia University where she studies the intersectionality of gender, race, sexuality, and military culture in the 20th-century French Empire. Her dissertation, tentatively entitled, “Managing Sex Overseas in the French Army: Bordel Militaire de Campagne (Mobile Field Brothels), Sexual Violence and Decolonization in Algeria and Vietnam (c. 1940-1960s),” provides the first comprehensive analysis of the strategies, policies, and practices employed by the French military to regulate and control sexual behavior and relationships among its troops during the First Indochina War (1946-1954) and the Algerian War (1954-1962) and the impact of these policies on broader processes of decolonization.

Prior to starting her Ph.D. at Columbia, Marie graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BA in History and Middle-Eastern Studies from the American University of Paris (2017) and completed her MA in History at Durham University (2018). Marie writes public-facing history for the Synapsis: A Health Humanities Journal on military prostitution and has translated chapters of the forthcoming Cambridge History of the Vietnam War, vol. 1 & 3.

Marie Ferri is a PhD candidate in history at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne under the supervision of Peter Hallama and Laurence Badel at the Institute for the History of International Relations and Contemporary European History (SIRICE). Her PhD project « Male Domestic Violence: Feminist Engagement and International Organizations (1970–2000)» examines the emergence of domestic violence as an international issue, with a particular focus on the United Nations. Her research explores transnational exchanges and networks among feminist organizations and other actors engaged in combating violence against women and children.

Marie Ferri also teaches an undergraduate course on the history of families in France since the French Revolution at Université Paris Nanterre. She holds a master’s degree in European Studies from the Global Studies Institute in Geneva (Switzerland), where she wrote a thesis on the evolution of the recognition of intimate femicides in Europe since 1976, as well as a bachelor’s degree in history and art history from the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) and Sorbonne University (Paris, France).

Mariana Silva Porto obtained a first-class joint degree in Classics and Archaeology from the University of Glasgow in 2010 and an MPhil in Classics from the University of Cambridge in 2011. In 2021, after a break in her studies, she obtained a Masters in Heritage and Museums from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. She is currently doing her PhD as a cotutelle between Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne and the Humbolt-Universität in Berlin, where she is part of the Landscape Archaeology and Architecture program of the Berlin Graduate School of Ancient Studies. The title of her dissertation is ‘The Archaeology of Pre-Classical Attica: Space, Politics, and Society’ and she is supported by a scholarship from the German Foreign Exchange Service (DAAD). 

Mariana Katz is a PhD candidate in History at Columbia University. Her dissertation explores the relationship between state formation and regimes of unfree labor in postcolonial Latin America, with a focus on nineteenth-century Paraguay. Her research, funded by the Social Science Research Council, lies at the intersection of the history of popular politics, the social history of labor, comparative slavery studies, and the scholarship on state making. Prior to starting her graduate studies, Mariana studied history at the University of Buenos Aires, in Argentina, and conducted research on the history of workers and artisans in nineteenth-century Buenos Aires. She has been involved in different public history initiatives, including working as a researcher and exhibition curator at the Museo Nacional del Cabildo in Buenos Aires and co-creating the podcast series The Sounds of Calibán: A History of Latin America through Music. At Columbia, she collaborates with with Separated: An Oral History Project, which documents the experiences of families separated by the Trump Administration’s Zero Tolerance Policy.

Marco Santoro is a Private and Comparative Law PhD candidate and teaching assistant at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University. He conducts his research on the Europeanisation of maritime law and is member of the editorial committee of the Sorbonne Doctoral Law Review. Prior to starting his PhD, he graduated summa cum laude in Transport Law at the University of Messina and was awarded the Italian 2021 Degree Prize “Prof. Romanelli” in Maritime Law. He also completed the Master program in Diplomacy at the Istituto per gli studi di politica internazionale (ISPI) of Milan. Alongside his studies, Marco conducted a research project on organized crime in the maritime sector, founded by the Fondazione Falcone of Palermo, and published several articles related to his topics of research.

Mame Mor Ndiaye is a first-year PhD Candidate in the Department of Philosophy at Paris 1 Pantheon- Sorbonne University (ISJPS). I am writing a dissertation on “Western universalism and African philosophy: From the universal as principle to the achievement of its effectivity through the common prism of human rights”, under the supervision of the professor Magali Bessone. His research interests lie at the intersection of African philosophies, postcolonial studies and the decolonial approach, both of which are linked to Western philosophical theories.

Mame Mor received the first part of his academic education in Senegal up to the baccalaureate before joining the University of Lille in 2017, where he completed his undergraduate degree. Mame Mor obtained his Bachelor in philosophy (2018), before leaving for Sorbonne University for his first year of research master (2019). The following year, he returned to Lille University where he obtained a master degree in moral and political philosophy (2021), writing a Master thesis on the following topic: "Civil liberty and political liberty in Rousseau's thought", (passed with honors) under the supervision of Pr. Gabrielle Radica. After his master in philosophy, Mame Mor decided to do a second master in business administration at Sorbonne University thanks to an apprenticeship program with Paris City Hall which he obtained last year (2022). However, this year of transition made him feel how much he missed research and that this is what suits him best. Mame Mor decided to prepare a thesis project and to register for a PhD at Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne University.

Maialen Salcedo Berrueta is a third-year PhD student in History of Art at the HiCSA laboratory of the Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. Under the supervision of Prof. Pascal Rousseau (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) and Prof. Xosé Manoel Núñez Seixas (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela), she studies the role of Spanish haute couture in the process of nation-building in Franco’s Spain (1939-1975). This project is generously supported by a doctoral studentship awarded by the Collège des Écoles Doctorales of the Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Fellow of the Casa de Velázquez, she has been a doctoral visiting researcher at the Department of History of Thought and Social and Political Movements at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, under the guidance of Prof. Javier Moreno Luzón, and at the Museo del Traje in Madrid.
Her long-standing interest in the history of Spanish fashion and its links with the contemporary history of Spain has led her to participate in various seminars and conferences in both Spanish and French universities. In line with this commitment, she also serves as secretary of SARTORIA, the Association for Fashion and Art History Research, where she co-organises a monthly doctoral seminar that aims to broaden fashion studies towards an interdisciplinary approach, confronting them with current debates in Art History, such as the decolonial perspective, visual culture, and transcultural history.

Maëlle Gélin is currently a Ph.D. candidate in history at Sciences Po Paris. Her work is at the crossroad of literature, intellectual history, and political history. Her Ph.D. dissertation focuses on the complex transatlantic circulations of the Négritude movement from the 1940s to the present day. Maëlle also teaches an undergraduate course on the history of the 20th and 21st centuries and she works as a teaching assistant for a graduate course on the intertwined relations between literature, history, and social sciences. Prior to joining the Center for History at Sciences Po, Maëlle completed a master’s degree in history at Sciences Po and taught history and geography in the secondary education.

Madeline Woker is a PhD student in International and Global History at Columbia University in New York. In June 2014, she obtained an MPhil in Modern European History from the University of Cambridge. She holds also a Double Master in European Affairs from London School of Economics and Political Science and Sciences Po Paris. Her dissertation project examines the politics of taxation in the French colonial empire.

Luz Colpa is a fourth-year doctoral student in African history at Columbia University. Her interests include the history of household, family, and gender in twentieth-century West Africa and late-imperial France. Her dissertation is a history of out-marriage or marriage between individuals from different natal communities (1939-1980). From 2017-2018 She served as the Co-President of the Columbia Graduate History association.

Prior to starting her Ph.D. at Columbia, Luz graduated Summa cum Laude with a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies from SUNY Stony Brook with Minors in Post-Colonial History and Literature. Luz then served as an ESL teacher in Peace Corps Azerbaijan (2012-2014). In 2016 she completed an M.A. in History and Literature at the Columbia Reid Hall Program in Paris. In 2017 she completed an M.A. in History and Civilization at the EHESS in Paris.

Lukas Wahden is a PhD candidate at Sciences Po Paris (CERI) and an Associate Fellow with the Russia Program at George Washington University. His research examines Russian foreign and security policy, with a particular focus on Russia’s approach to the governance of international ‘frontier’ domains, including the polar regions, the deep sea, and outer space. Lukas has held research positions at the Institut de Recherche Stratégique de l'École Militaire in Paris and the German Association for East European Studies in Berlin, and was a Yenching Scholar at Peking University. He speaks English, German, French, Russian, and Mandarin Chinese, and is the editor of 66° North, a monthly newsletter on Arctic security and politics.

Lucile Dehouck is a PhD candidate working at the intersection of environment, development, and migration economics. In her thesis project entitled “Climate-induced forced migration”, she aims to contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between migration and climate. To this end, Lucile uses econometric techniques and data science tools to provide new empirical evidence in those fields. She likes using satellite data and remote sensing products to help answer policy questions. As an applied development economist, she is also aiming to directly contribute to the knowledge of the impact of climate change in the Global South.

Before coming to Columbia, Lucile obtained a master’s degree in economics from the Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay and Polytechnique.

I am a French student at École Polytechnique (Class of 2027), where I major in computer science and biology with a strong interest in computational approaches to complex biomedical questions. I previously completed the highly selective Classes Préparatoires at Lycée Stanislas in physics and chemistry, and was selected to be part of the French team at the 2022 International Chemistry Olympiad. Before that, I obtained my French Baccalauréat with highest honors at Lycée Fénelon Sainte‑Marie, with a focus on mathematics and physics.

My research experience spans cancer genomics, RNA biology, and applied machine learning. At Columbia University, I will work on developing an inference algorithm to cluster mutational site frequency spectra in cancer, under the supervision of Prof. Tavaré. At ESPCI and École Polytechnique, I work on synthetic RNA design, modeling RNA conformational dynamics, and sequence–structure relationships using molecular simulations and AI‑based analysis. I am also involved in a project at the BIOC laboratory and Institut Curie on collective breast cancer cell migration, combining microscopy, knockout analysis, and computational modeling to understand cytoskeletal regulation.

Beyond academia, I have worked on AI deployment in industry at McKinsey, contributed to an AI‑based voice and acoustic analysis system to help triage emergency medical calls for the French SAMU. Outside of research, I am a black belt in Shotokan karate, an experienced high‑altitude trekker, and a long‑time violinist.

I look forward to working with the team to develop and test new statistical and machine learning approaches on real cancer genomic data.

Lison Le Guen is currently a third-year PhD student in Art History at the HiCSA laboratory of the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and she is also part of the doctoral program “Theories and Practices of fashion” between Institut Français de la mode and Université Paris 1 Panthéon- Sorbonne. She is writing a thesis entitled “Hubert de Givenchy, a French couturier in the United States (1952-1995)”, under the supervision of Prof. Pascal Rousseau and with the support of the Heritage department of Givenchy (LVMH). Her research focuses on the presence and the influence strategy of one of the most important French couturiers of the second half of the 20th century, and transatlantic ties in fashion in the aftermath of World War II. Combining cultural history, global history and material culture, this study is supported by two-month research stays in the United States which enabled her to collaborate with numerous American institutions. In addition, her long standing interest in the history of French Haute couture and its links with the American context has enabled her to participate in several conferences and academic workshop in French Universities. Moreover, she is also secretary of SARTORIA, a research association in Fashion and Art History, where she was able to manage the communications and social media division, write articles about the different seminars, and organize events such as the major performance evening “Défaire les censures” (Undoing Censorship), which took place in May 2025 at the French Institute of Art History.

Leonardo Endrizzi is a PhD candidate at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and the Paris School of Economics, supervised by Tobias Broer and Riccardo Cioffi. His research is in macroeconomics and finance, with a particular focus on the role of inequality in shaping monetary and fiscal policy.

He holds a BA in Economics and a BSc in Mathematics from the University of Trento, an M1 in Economics from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and an M2 in Economics from the Paris School of Economics.

Léo Denis is a PhD candidate at the Management Research Center (CRG-i3) of École Polytechnique since 2022. His research lies at the intersection of the Finance and Strategic Management fields. It focuses on the development of sustainable finance and impact investing strategies in the private markets, as well as their performance and legitimacy. Before joining CRG, he graduated from École Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay and worked in private equity firms for several years.

Lélia Roche is a PhD student in History at Columbia University, where she studies International and Global History as a Richard Hofstadter Fellow. Her research explores the history of policy planning and forecasting during the Cold War and post-Cold War periods. More specifically, she studies the elaboration, circulation, and competition of West European and American visions of the future of the international system during the 1980s and 1990s.

Prior to starting her PhD at Columbia, Lélia completed an M.A. in History (cum laude) and a B.A. in Politics and Government (summa cum laude) at Sciences Po Paris. She also studied history and international relations at the London School of Economics.

Lélia’s contributions to research include co-organizing Columbia University’s “International History Workshop” and serving as a Research Assistant at Columbia’s “History Lab.” Her work has or will be published in the Revue d’histoire diplomatique and Cold War History, and has been supported by New York University’s Consortium for Cultural and Intellectual History, the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs, and the Transatlantic Studies Association.

Lélia Roche is a PhD student in History at Columbia University, where she studies International and Global History as a Richard Hofstadter Fellow. Her research explores the history of policy planning and forecasting during the Cold War and post-Cold War periods. More specifically, she studies the elaboration, circulation, and competition of West European and American visions of the future of the international system during the 1980s and 1990s. Prior to starting her PhD at Columbia, Lélia completed an M.A. in History (cum laude) and a B.A. in Politics and Government (summa cum laude) at Sciences Po Paris. She also studied history and international relations at the London School of Economics. Lélia’s contributions to research include co-organizing Columbia University’s “International History Workshop” and serving as a Research Assistant at Columbia’s “History Lab.” Her work has or will be published in the Revue d’histoire diplomatique and Cold War History, and has been supported by the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs and the Transatlantic Studies Association.
 

Léa Dousset is a Ph.D. candidate at the Université Paris 1 – Panthéon Sorbonne, Paris School of Economics under the supervision of Julien Grenet. Her research is in the field of the economics of education, with a particular focus on the under-representation of female students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) studies and careers in France.

She holds a dual B.A. from Sciences Po Paris in social sciences and in applied mathematics from Université Paris 1 – Panthéon Sorbonne, and a M.A. in economics from the EHESS, Paris School of Economics. Prior to starting her Ph.D. at the Université Paris 1 – Panthéon Sorbonne, she worked as a research professional at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business for Rebecca Dizon-Ross and Manasi Desphande.

Laurence Cuny is a human rights lawyer and researcher. Following her studies in international law at the Geneva Graduate Institute, she was teaching assistant in international public law at this institute for three years. She then joined the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) as program manager of the Observatory for the protection of human rights defenders. Between 2008 and 2018 she provided support in evaluation and training for the EU and for NGOs human rights programmes. Since 2011, her work focuses on cultural rights and artistic freedom. She collaborates on a regular basis with the mandate of the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights (artistic freedom, marketing practices and cultural rights, cultural rights and public spaces, cultural rights and migration). She has been a member of the UNESCO expert group on the 2005 Cultural Diversity Convention since 2018. In this capacity she authored the report Freedom & Creativity: Defending art, Defending diversity in 2020 and has helped the Secretariat develop a training programme on artistic freedom in the digital environment. As a researcher she is currently doing her PhD at Paris I Sorbonne and the UNESCO Chair on the diversity of cultural expressions at the Faculty of Law, Université Laval in Québec. Her recent publications focus on relocation of artists at risk in Latin America (Ifa, 2020), working conditions and status of the artist (IFACCA, 2022), artistic freedom in the digital environment (Lex Electronica, 2023), Art and Human rights (Elgar, 2023). In 2023 she joined the group of experts of Columbia University Global Freedom of Expression Programme.

Laure Colin joined the Centre de Recherche en Gestion of l'École Polytechnique in September 2021 after working in a Parisian consulting firm.

Her thesis focuses on the management of defense innovation projects and the functioning of the French public defense innovation agency.

I’m Khalid, an engineering student at École Polytechnique specializing in Artificial Intelligence. I grew up in Rabat, Morocco, before moving to Paris to pursue rigorous scientific training in competitive exam preparation classes. This experience strengthened my interest in mathematics and analytical thinking, ultimately leading me to École Polytechnique.

During my studies, I have explored a wide range of disciplines, including applied mathematics, quantum physics, biology, and economics. Among these, I became particularly passionate about statistics and machine learning, fascinated by their ability to model complex systems and generate meaningful insights from data. Over time, this interest evolved into a clear motivation to use AI to improve healthcare and contribute to more efficient, accessible, and innovative health systems. I am especially interested in how machine learning and deep learning can support medical research, health analysis, and decision-making in clinical settings.

At Columbia, I am excited to work with Professor Shalmali Joshi’s team in the Department of Biomedical Informatics, where I hope to deepen my technical skills while contributing to impactful research at the intersection of AI and mental health.

Outside of academics, I am a passionate sports enthusiast. I have always played and followed soccer, and more recently I have taken up tennis, which I find both challenging and rewarding. I also enjoy cooking and experimenting with new techniques and recipes, an interest that has only grown since arriving in France, a country renowned for its culinary culture.

I am thrilled to join Professor Shalmali Joshi’s team at Columbia to work on deep learning approaches that can shed new light on mental health. I’m eager to learn, contribute, and experience the vibrant energy of New York.

Keïsha Corantin is a PhD candidate in geography at University Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne
under the joint supervision of Professor Antonine Ribardière and Professor Géraud Magrin. Her dissertation focuses on the role of armed groups in the informal urban production in Medellín (Colombia). Rooted in political geography, her research is part of a novel approach that addresses the influential role of organized crime in urban planning and organization. She holds a Bachelor's degree in law and another in geography, both from the University Paris1 Panthéon Sorbonne, where she also completed her Master's degree in geography. In 2022,
Keïsha was awarded a research grant from the prestigious Doctoral School of Geography of Paris She also teaches undergraduate courses of Urban geography and Geographic information systems GIS)

Justine Brisson is currently a Ph.D. candidate in political theory at Sciences Po Paris. She holds a MA in Modern Literature from the Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle, a MA in Political Philosophy (first year) from the École Normale Supérieure, and a MA in Political Theory from Sciences Po. She has taught literature and the history of political ideas at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and at Sciences Po. She is a member of the Editorial Board of Fabula-LhT. Littérature, histoire, théorie. Her research is at the crossroads of literature, philosophy, and political theory. More precisely, she studies the relations between politics and literature in mid-twentieth century France, focusing on the theme of the “neutral” in the works of Maurice Blanchot, Roland Barthes, and Emil Cioran. She aims to question the ethical meaning of the temptation to withdraw from the political. Before joining Columbia, she was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard, where she worked on Blanchot’s archives at the Houghton Library. She has published articles on Michel Foucault, Georges Bataille, Jean-Luc Nancy, Guillaume Dustan and Pascal Quignard.

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Julius is a PhD candidate at Paris School of Economics and Université Paris 1. His research examines alternative peer-to-peer sharing platforms that limit the use of money. He investigates how these restrictions affect user behavior and what they imply for the market design of these platforms. A large part of his dissertation focuses on a popular online platform for trading holiday homes with token money. These tokens are earned by hosting others and can only be spent on visiting other platform users. Using economics theory and econometric techniques for causal inference, Julius studies the design of prices with token money and the impact of interactions with people of different backgrounds on users’ trust. He is also interested in how prices and users’ dual role as hosts and guests shape norms of behavior. Recently, he has started exploring related questions on BlaBlaCar.

Julius holds a MA in Economics and a BA in Philosophy and Economics. Prior to his Master's, he worked at the Center for Impact Evaluations (C4ED), where he evaluated public policies in his field, and at the digital economy department of the Center for European Economic Research (ZEW), where he studied e-commerce and online ratings.

Julien Mabille is currently in the third year of PhD at University Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne under the supervision of Grégoire Loiseau. He studies the means of legal actions Labor Unions have at their disposal. His research puts em hasis on field work, especially in Labor Unions. He studied at Paris 1, where he graduated with a Masters in Labor Law, after a License in Law and Philosophy.

Julia Tomasson is a PhD candidate in the History Department at Columbia University studying the history of science, mathematics, knowledge and material culture, focused on early modern Mediterranean textual cultures. Her research explores how our current standards of proof and persuasion came to be and how other forms and ideals developed and came to be thinkable and unthinkable in different contexts. Her graduate work at Columbia University has been supported by numerous fellowships, including a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and two Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships (Classical Arabic). Tomasson holds an A.B. from the University of Chicago and an M.A. and M.Phil. from Columbia University.

Jhon Jairo Ocampo Cantillo holds a law degree and two master’s degrees, one in Latin American Studies and the other in Development Studies. He is currently pursuing a Joint PhD in Sociology and Environmental Sciences at the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and the University of São Paulo. His research focuses on the relationship between the global coordination of SDG 4 and the local implementation of Target 4.7 in the cities of São Paulo and Bogotá. 

Since February 2019, he has been serving as a policy officer at the Permanent Delegation of Chile to UNESCO. Previously, he held various positions related to UNESCO, including roles at the Buenos Aires Regional Office of the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP/UNESCO), the Permanent Delegation of Peru to UNESCO, and the Section of Education for Sustainable Development. 

Additionally, he serves as an associate editor for the Ambiente & Sociedade journal and volunteers with the Actions for Latin America and Africa Association (ALMAA).

Jeanne-Louise Roellinger is pursuing a PhD in political science at CERI under the supervision of Ariel Colonomos. She is a recipient of a Higher Education Pact doctoral grant by the Directorate General for International Relations and Strategy (DGRIS) of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces. Her dissertation focuses on how states approach uncertainty in cyberspace and the role of national technical communities in producing knowledge about cybersecurity. She holds a research master's in Political Science with a major in International Relations and a bachelor's degree with a major in politics and government from Sciences Po. Her previous work has examined cyber norms negotiations, cyber diplomacy, and expert negotiations at the United Nations. In the fall of 2024, she was a visiting fellow at The Hague Program on International Cyber Security.

After two years of intensive studies in biology, chemistry, and mathematics, I entered École Polytechnique to focus on computer science, applied mathematics, and biology. My goal is to develop quantitative methods that can meaningfully improve healthcare.

A formative experience was my military internship with the Paris Fire Brigade, where I observed frontline medical decision-making under real constraints. It strengthened my desire to work on problems with direct clinical relevance.

Since then, I have pursued projects at the intersection of artificial intelligence and medicine, including modeling biophysical random walks, clustering patient trajectories to better understand disease progression, and estimating treatment effects in precision medicine. Across these experiences, I have focused on building interpretable methods capable of translating complex biomedical data into actionable insights.

I am now particularly drawn to statistical genomics and cancer research, and I look forward to my upcoming internship with Pr. Tavaré and Dr. Dinh on tumor genome sequencing! I am very grateful for the opportunity to benefit from the stimulating academic environment at Columbia University through the Columbia Alliance Program.

I aim to contribute to research that connects advanced computation with real-world medical impact."

Jean Makhlouta is currently a PhD Candidate in Geography at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne under the supervision of Nadine Cattan and Stéphanie Dadour. His dissertation focuses on queer practices and mobilities in Beirut and their potential to rethink the urban structure of the city. His research  interests lie at the intersection of Urban studies, Middle Eastern studies, and Gender studies.

Jean is affiliated to research units Géographie-cités (CNRS, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Université Paris Cité, EHESS) and Architecture, Culture, Société (CNRS, École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris-Malaquais). He also serves as a teaching assistant at the Department of Geography at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Prior to starting his PhD, Jean completed an MA in Architecture at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris-Malaquais where he graduated with distinction.

Janina S. Santer is a Ph.D. student and Richard Hofstadter Fellow in the History Department at Columbia University, researching the history of the Lebanese state in the 1940s-1950s. Before moving to New York, she completed a MA in Middle Eastern Studies at the American University of Beirut (AUB), and her work has been published in Arabic translation in Bidayat °28-29/2020 (Nashʿat al-qiṭāʿ al-siyāḥī wa namūdhaj “lubnān swīsrā al-sharq”). Her interests include the social and cultural history of modern Lebanon, and she is currently developing a public history project about Radio al-Sharq (1930s 1960s) in collaboration with UMAM Center for Documentation and Research.

Idriss Fofana is a Ph.D. candidate in international and global history at Columbia University and a recent graduate of Yale Law School. He specializes in the history of international law and other forms of inter-polity order in Asia and Africa since the eighteenth century. He is especially interested in historical and contemporary attempts to regulate migration. His work spans the fields of modern Chinese history, the modern history of Atlantic Africa as well as the history of twentieth-century anti-colonial and Third World movements.

His dissertation is titled “The ‘Chinese Solution’ to the Labor Question in Africa: Chinese Workers, African Railroads & the International Regulation of Labor Migration, 1860-1935.” It investigates how European colonial administrations’ long-held ambition to use Chinese labor to exploit resources in tropical Africa gave way to a series of novel experiments in the regulation of labor and migration in southern China, Senegambia, and the Congo basin during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Hugo Logez is a PhD student in African History at Columbia University. His research examines the formation of modern elites and the evolution of reverse diaspora in West Africa, focusing on the study of coastal families in colonial Dahomey (present-day Benin). Before joining Columbia, Hugo graduated from the École Normale Supérieure de Paris, where he completed a master's degree in transnational history. He has conducted archival research in Benin and Nigeria, and his teaching experience includes courses in the French Department at Rutgers University.

I am Hubert Leroux, an officer cadet at Ecole polytechnique. I am currently in my third year of study there, specializing in applied mathematics in which I have a strong interest for its beauty, its power, especially when enhanced with computational tools and its interdisciplinary nature.

This interdisciplinarity is in fact what I particularly enjoy at my school, as it allows me to explore a wide range of subjects, always with a strong mathematical perspective.

This is why I am excited to work on mathematical modeling of biological systems during my time at Columbia.

During my free time, I enjoy playing classical flute, reading and hiking.

I am excited to apply my mathematical skills to understand complex biological systems and contribute to meaningful research at Columbia. This internship will allow me to bridge my passion for mathematics with real-world applications in biology.

Heath Rojas is a PhD candidate in early modern European history at Columbia University. His research focuses on the political and intellectual transformations of eighteenth-century France, especially the development of deism during the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. He holds a B.A. in history and a B.A. in French from Stanford University, where he graduated with Honors and Distinction. Under the guidance of Professors Dan Edelstein and Keith Baker, Heath wrote an Honors Thesis entitled “The Power of the Executive: Redefining Monarchical Authority in the First Three Years of the French Revolution,” which was awarded the Robert M. Golden Medal for excellence in the humanities and the creative arts. In 2018, he was awarded the Raymond J. Cunningham Prize by the American Historical Association for the best article published in a journal written by an undergraduate student. In 2020, he was the recipient of the Jerrold Siegel Fellowship from The Consortium for Intellectual and Cultural History.

Hamza CHERFAOUI is a PhD candidate at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, where he conducts doctoral research on “The Impact of Insolvency on Arbitration” under the supervision of Professor François-Xavier Lucas. He also serves as a teaching assistant at the Sorbonne Law School, teaching Private International Law and Insolvency Law.

He holds a Master’s degree (Master 2) in Business Law from the Sorbonne Law School, graduating top of his class with honors, completed within the Sorbonne Master’s Program in Fez (Morocco). He also earned prior Master’s degrees in Business Law from Casablanca Ain Chock University. His academic training is further enriched by advanced coursework in arbitration, corporate restructuring, international corporate law, and business law.

Hamza has gained solid professional experience in both private practice and in-house legal departments. He notably completed an internship at ad-avocats in Paris and worked as a company lawyer in Casablanca, where he was involved in legal research, contract drafting, dispute management, and due diligence.

He has also taken part in several prestigious arbitration and restructuring events and competitions, including the Serge Lazareff Arbitration Competition and the Sports Arbitration Moot. In addition, he has received specialized training in competition law.

Giulio Piumelli is a Ph.D. candidate in Global History and Governance at the Scuola Superiore Meridionale (Naples, Italy) and the Center for History at Sciences Po (Paris, France) under the supervision of Professor Mario Del Pero. His doctoral research investigates the origins and implementation of the Washington Consensus (1979-1995). The term refers to a set of macroeconomic policies promoted by the U.S. Treasury Department, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank (all based in Washington, D.C.) in the 1980s and 1990s to stabilize countries facing balance-of-payments crises. His research argues that the Washington Consensus serves as a lens to examine the systemic transformations of the 1980s and early 1990s, including the end of the Cold War, the so-called neoliberal turn, the U.S. role in shaping the global economic and political order, and the power dynamics between creditor and debtor nations. This research builds on his undergraduate thesis, which analyzed the role of the Washington Consensus in shaping the U.S. unipolar moment in the 1990s. At Sciences Po, Giulio also works as a teaching assistant for a graduate course on the history of globalization and teaches methodology classes for an undergraduate course on 20th - and 21st -century history. Before joining the Research School, Giulio earned a master’s degree in European and International Studies from the University of Trento, writing his thesis on Jimmy Carter’s human rights policy toward Poland based on recently declassified material from the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.

France Orain is a PhD candidate in Islamic Art History at Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, supervised by Prof. Jean-Pierre Van Staëvel and Prof. Sandra Aube Lorain. She is affiliated with UMR 8167 Orient et Méditerranée and CeRMI, UMR 8041. France’s dissertation focuses on the wooden art that adorned and furnished Timurid monuments (r. 1370-1506) across Iran and Central Asia, from a technical, structural, and socio-cultural perspective. Her doctoral research sheds new light on the sociocultural history of the Timurids, by exploring the variety of techniques and ornamental repertoire in the wooden arts, and by reconstructing the networks of artisans and patrons involved in their production. France is a member of the Young Researchers Board (BJC) of the GIS MOMM (Groupement d’intérêt scientifique - Moyen Orient et Mondes Musulmans) and is a member of the research department at APAMI (Association for the Promotion of Islamic Art).

Florian Cafiero is currently a Ph.D. student at Sciences Po Medialab, under the supervision of Prof. Jean-Philippe Cointet. His thesis focuses on the debate between pro- and anti-vaccine activists and its reception by the public. An Ecole Normale Supérieure - Paris-Saclay alumnus, he holds an MPhil. in Digital Humanities from Ecole Nationale des Chartes - Paris Sciences et Lettres Université (PSL). He has taught quantitative methods applied to social sciences and the humanities at the Geneva University, Ecole Nationale des Chartes (PSL), and Université d’Orléans. His works in computational social science and quantitative linguistics have been published in journals such as Science Advances, Social Networks, or Social Science and Medicine.

Filippo Soramel holds an MPhil in History (British and European History 1700-1850) from Oxford University (Mansfield College) and a BA in Russian and History from UCL (SSEES), and is now a PhD candidate in History at the universities of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and Vienna (Austria). His doctoral research focuses on the patriotic strand of 18th- and early-19th-century Euro-Atlantic economic reformism, as observable through the activity of contemporary agricultural associations in the Austro-Venetian Alpine border regions. As a University Assistant (praedoc) at the Department of Economic and Social History at the University of Vienna, he also teaches undergraduate courses on early modern socio-economic history and thought. He has already held research positions internationally, including as Marietta Blau Fellow in Paris for Austria’s Agency for Education and Internationalisation, GO.INVESTIGATIO Fellow in Ljubljana (Slovenia) for the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and Research Assistant at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice (Italy).

Felipe Lauritzen is a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at Sciences Po Paris, since 2022. Alongside his doctoral studies, he holds affiliations as a researcher with the National Observatory of Women in Politics at the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies and serves as a research assistant for the CEPR Media Plurality Research and Policy Network (RPN). He is a recipient of a Young Researcher grant from the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Evaluation of Public Policies (LIEPP).
His research focuses on electoral finance and representation policies, with a particular emphasis on empirical analysis within the context of Brazil. He is also engaged in investigations regarding media plurality, regulation, and their intricate connections with democracy in emerging economies. In these academic pursuits, he is supervised by Professor Julia Cagé.
Besides this, Felipe has a policy career in international development organisations, comprising +6 years at OECD, UNESCO, UNDP, and AFD. In 2019, he co-founded the non-profit association Pour le Brésil, which advocates for economic, social, and environmental justice in Brazil.

Fatima-Ezzahrae Touilila is a doctoral candidate and a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies and the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University. Prior
to this, she completed a dual degree in Law and Political Science at Sciences Po (Paris) and Columbia University and was a Research Fellow at the Institute of Religion, Culture and Public Life (New York). Her research interests include Critical Theory, the epistemological ruptures in the making of Modernity, tradition, and memory, Judeo-Islamic syncretism in Morocco.

Her current project investigates the intellectual history and political theory that buttressed French colonization in Northwest Africa. 

Farah is a Ph.D. candidate in Public International Law at Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne under the supervision of Professor Paolo Palchetti. Farah is a graduate of Economics and Political Science from McGill University, a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Law in London, and a holder of two master’s degrees: a master’s in Public International & International Organizations’ Law from Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne and a master’s in International Studies and Diplomacy from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, University of London). She is also a New York State Attorney.

Farah’s research focuses on the duty of non-recognition and attempts to understand its relevance in contemporary international law as a collective and solidary enforcement mechanism by States, its ever-growing place in the effectivity versus legality dichotomy as well as its application in other areas of international law beyond territorial acquisitions, such as within treaty law, immunity law and humanitarian law, in addition to its application to other actors such as international corporations.

Between her undergraduate and graduate years, Farah worked as a management consultant for EY in Abu Dhabi, an Analyst for the United Nations Resident Coordinator Office in Bahrain and a Consultant for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris working closely with various sovereign states.

Evan Grégoire is a dual Ph.D. candidate specializing in political theory at Columbia University and Sciences Po, working with Nadia Urbinati (Columbia) and Bernard Reber (Sciences Po). His dissertation seeks to answer the question, “under what conditions can deliberation work?" paying particular attention to the collegial and deliberative governance of professional service firms.

Evan Grégoire is a 2022-2023 Fulbright recipient. Prior to enrolling at Columbia, Mr. Grégoire received four master’s degrees with distinction from the École Normale Supérieure Ulm (in philosophy, with a concentration in contemporary philosophy), Paris Sciences et Lettres, Sciences Po (in political science, with a concentration in political theory) and HEC Paris (in management, with a concentration in sustainability and social innovation). He was a visiting student at Scuola Superiori Sant’Anna (Italy), Scuola di Studi Superiori "Ferdinando Rossi"(Italy), and Trinity College Dublin (Ireland). As part of his Ph.D., Mr. Grégoire taught courses in political science and management both at Sciences Po and Columbia University
and participated in the grading of graduate-level exams (notably, at the School of Management and Impact, the Paris School of International Affairs and Columbia School of Professional Studies).

Mr. Grégoire is a French citizen with fluency and international work experience in English and French. He also worked for leading companies including Mazars (the largest French consultancy) and Carrefour (the largest European food retailer), as well as top universities including the University of Bristol and ESCP Business School and international organisations (UNESCO). He speaks fluent French and Spanish which helped him conduct foresight analysis, write policy briefs and recommendations, as well as lead stakeholder engagement tasks.

Erica Ceola is from Italy. She began her studies in 2013 at Trento’s University, in Italy, where she obtained a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations in 2016. Then she majored in History with a Master’s degree at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, in Italy, with the final grade of 110/110 with honors (4.0 G.P.A.). After studying for one year at the University of Paris Sorbonne as an Erasmus student, Erica decided to pursue an academic path at the Panthéon Sorbonne Graduate School of History, in Paris. She started her Ph. D. during the academic year 2019-2020 with a doctoral thesis on Italian Migration history concerning mass emigration from the north of Italy to Arkansas, between the 1880s and the 1950s. Despite the sanitary situation, during the first year of her Ph.D., Erica conducted primary source research in Italy, especially through the scholarship that the École Française de Rome attributed to her in September 2020. Since May 2020, Erica has had the honor of being accepted as a fellow at the Institut Convergences Migrations, a partner institution of College de France and Sorbonne Universities, which are associated through common researches topics, such as international migrations. 

Emma De Andreis is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, under the co-supervision of Delphine Dulong and Sophie Pochic. After completing a Bachelor's degree in History and Political Science, she decided to specialize in Political Science and Sociology, focusing on women’s mobilizations for gender equality within the public and private sectors, through a Master's in Social Sciences at Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales and l’École Normale Supérieure (Paris). She is now working on gender quota policies in the French public administration, at the intersection of the sociology of administration, policy instruments, gender studies, and organizations.
 

Specializing in the intersection of law and environmental issues, Emma Bursztejn is a
doctoral candidate in law at the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne under the
supervision of Professor Sophie Robin Olivier. She is also the director of the Law and
Economics Seminar at the College de France. Her research focuses on the impact of climate
change on European competition law. In the spring of 2023, Emma expanded her
interdisciplinary expertise as a visiting scholar at Princeton University's Center for Policy
Research on Energy and the Environment. Highly motivated and bilingual in English and
French, Emma thrives in dynamic, research-intensive environments.

Emma Bonutti D’Agostini is a PhD Candidate in Sociology at l’Institut Polytechnique de Paris and at Sciences Po Paris. She works under the joint supervision of Etienne Ollion (CREST, Institut Polytechnique de Paris) and Sylvain Parasie (médialab, Sciences Po Paris). Before, she completed a Research Master in Sociology at Sciences Po Paris, and a Bachelor Degree in Political Sciences at Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies (Pisa, Italy). 

In her doctoral dissertation, she studies how French and Italian legacy media grant visibility and legitimacy to political groups by giving them a voice, borrowing tools from computational social science (CSS) and natural language processing (NLP), which she combines with qualitative sociological methodologies.

Elya Assayag is a history PhD student at Columbia University. Elya studies the seams between legal systems and society during the colonial period in Morocco (1912-1956), in addition to studying physical seams in the history of Moroccan embroidery. Through diverse methodologies, she tries to follow the day-to-day lives of women in colonial Morocco, that are absent from textual archives. Besides trying to figure out her academic path, she volunteers with refugees and asylum seekers, and tries to do something useful with the law degree she obtained a few years ago.

Elias Brugidou is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Sciences Po’s Center of International Studies (CERI), where he works under the supervision of Professor Frédéric Ramel. His current research focuses on the construction of the ‘information threat’ as an issue of expertise and security in the United States and France. In doing so, he pays particular attention to actors and forms of knowledge that cross the boundaries of the field of security professionals.

Elias holds a Master's degree in Political Science from Sciences Po. His previous work examined the conversion of imagination and countercultural aesthetics into legitimate security knowledge in the United States and Western Europe.

Ekaterina Oger Grivnova is currently a lawyer with Allen & Overy Paris office. She has experience advising on commercial and investment arbitration cases from a broad spectrum of sectors conducted under various arbitration rules.

Ekaterina holds a Master’s degree in Arbitration and International Business Law from the University of Versailles and pursues her PhD degree at Sorbonne Law School. Her thesis is focused on Inadmissibility of Claims in International Arbitration.

She also teaches International Arbitration at Paris Bar School, intervenes as a guest lecturer in other institutions and coaches student teams for various moot courts.

Ekaterina is an Editorial Board Member of Arbitration.ru, arbitration journal in English and Russian by Russian Arbitration Association, Co-chair of Paris Very Young Arbitration Practitioners (PVYAP) and administrator of MetaverseLegal, decentralised community dedicated to legal implications of the Metaverse and Web3.

A former student of the École Normale Supérieure and holder of an agrégation in philosophy, Edgard Darrobers is completing his PhD in philosophy at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University and the University of Geneva on the subject of “What is Being Moved?” His work lies at the intersection of philosophy of emotion, moral philosophy, and aesthetics.

Costantino Romeo is a PhD candidate in Management and Social Sciences at the Centre de Recherche en Gestion–i3 (CRG–i3), École Polytechnique. His research examines inter- organizational dynamics associated with collaborative workspaces, with particular attention to the conditions under which international collaboration emerges and becomes institutionalized. He investigates how collective action is structured within meta-organizations and how these organizational settings evolve into shared decision- making and social orders, particularly through the production of soft norms in the creative and cultural industries.

Coline Saintherant is a Ph.D. candidate at the History department at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University in France. Her thesis is on the Russian women authors exiled in France after the Russian Revolution of 1917 and she works under the supervision of Professor Marie-Pierre Rey. She is also studying Russian language at Inalco (Paris). Her research aims to offer a fresh outlook on the intellectual history of Russian emigration by taking a nuanced perspective through the lens of gender history and women's experiences. Specifically, she embarks on a prosopography exploration of these women, seeking to document their place and role within the intellectual networks of Russian exile. Her project delves into the lives and contributions of these Russian female authors, shedding light on their literary activities, intellectual pursuits, and the challenges they faced, as women, within the diasporic context. By examining their roles in intellectual networks, she seeks to illuminate the broader historical context of Russian emigration, demonstrating how these women played integral roles in shaping the intellectual landscape of their time. Beyond her role as a researcher, she is also a teacher in secondary education. This dual perspective allows her to witness firsthand the transformative power of historical knowledge in shaping young minds. She believes in the importance of integrating her research findings into educational practices. She believes that a nuanced understanding of history is crucial for cultivating critical thinking skills and promoting a more inclusive and informed society.

Cloé Artaut is a Ph.D. candidate in political theory at Sciences Po, Paris. She holds a Masters in Modern Literature from the Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle and a Masters in Political Theory from Sciences Po. Her doctoral research explores how references to the Third Republic (1870-1940) have shaped discourses on France's national identity since the end of the Vichy Regime, employing an intellectual history approach. More broadly, her research interests include nationalism, republicanism, political imaginaries, and the colonial legacy 20th- and 21st-century France. In addition to her research, she teaches Political Humanities at Sciences Po and has served as a teaching assistant for various undergraduate and postgraduate courses. 

Since childhood, I have been fascinated by the study of physical phenomena and the living world. This passion developed when I was competing in windsurfing competitions and felt the force of the elements every day through my arms as I held the sail.

I then turned to general scientific studies, initially because I wanted to gain a general understanding of the physical world around me. It was a vast project. Obviously too vast.

While studying biology and certain aspects of physics, I became fascinated by reflections on phenomena whose consequences are found at higher levels than those of the actions that originate from the collective phenomena that caused them. But this seemingly barbaric passion does not replace my attraction to meeting people, exchanging ideas, and above all, sporting challenges in different disciplines.

I believe that travel and major sporting events are the best ways to engage in sincere exchanges with people from different backgrounds. I am particularly interested in meeting people who have a different perspective on the subjects I believe in. I am therefore doubly delighted to be able to come and study at Columbia in the United States this semester, and I hope that this period will be as rich in scientific learning as it is in shared wonder and smiles.

This internship is a rare opportunity for me to explore, at the molecular level, how simple physical mechanisms can produce robust and universal performance.

I look forward to transforming these ideas into measurement tools that are truly useful in biomedicine.

Clélia Lacam is a second-year Ph.D. candidate in African History at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University. Her research, under the supervision of Anne Hugon, focuses on women and missions in colonial Gabon (1842-1961), through a connected study of Catholic nuns, Protestant missionary women and converted African women. By considering religious archives, “propaganda” literature and iconographic collections, she examines how the missionary experience reshaped gender relations and paved the way to a new female agency.

Clélia Lacam received her M.Phil. in African History from the same university, and she was awarded the 2021 Mnémosyne Prize for the best French masters dissertation on women’s and gender history. Thanks to this prize, she published her first book in 2023 (Le Bleu et le Noir. Jeux de pouvoirs dans une mission catholique féminine, Gabon, 1911-1955). In addition to her research, she teaches Modern European History at Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne University. She plans to visit Columbia University to conduct documentary research in Protestant missionary archives in New York City and Philadelphia.

Christina Kalogeropoulou is a PhD candidate in philosophy at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, under the supervision of Professor Emmanuel Picavet. Her doctoral dissertation, L’artificialisation de l’interaction : le dialogue entre nouvelles technologies et institutions, examines how emerging technologies, and particularly artificial intelligence, reshape institutional decision-making processes.

She holds an MA in Philosophie et Société from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, an MSc in Science and Technology Studies, and a BA in Philosophy, Education, and Psychology from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, where she graduated top of her class (valedictorian). Her doctoral research is funded by the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation. She previously received two Konrad- Adenauer-Stiftung scholarships during her graduate studies (Greece/Cyprus and France).

Beyond academia, she has professional experience in marketing and science communication. From 2019 to 2021, she served as Digital Editor-in-Chief of a science communication non-governmental organization. She has also worked as a research intern at the Fédération Nationale des Coopératives de Consommateurs and at the Centre Internet et Société of the CNRS in Paris.

Her interests extend to digital governance and policymaking processes. She currently serves on the Executive Committee of Digital World Summit Greece, a national initiative of the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF), and is a co-founder of Digital Dialogues, a non-governmental organization dedicated to fostering democratic dialogue on digital technologies.

Charles Steinman is a PhD Candidate in the Department of History at Columbia University, where he works on the experience of power and jurisdiction in medieval societies. His dissertation, “Embodiment of Jurisdiction: Petty Officialdom and Enforcement in the Lower Rhône Valley, c. 1200-1350,” supervised by Professor Adam Kosto, explores the changing role of official and quasi/unofficial enforcers in the assertion, maintenance, and disruption of jurisdictional lordship in the shadow of state-building campaigns in the medieval Bas-Languedoc and Provence. Charles is also interested in Jewish communal government in the medieval Midi, and is currently preparing a French-language article on the synagogue of 14th-century Arles as a political space.

Charles Bodon is a second-year Ph.D. Candidate and Teaching Fellow in contemporary philosophy at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne under the supervision of Pr. Jocelyn Benoist. He is conducting a thesis titled “The Web of Reality: New Realism Facing the Virtuality of the Web” which explores the conceptual problems that digital environments like virtual reality, deepfakes, and social networks raise. 

He holds a double master's degree in philosophy of science (2020) and contemporary philosophy (2021) from the University of Paris 1, and is also an independent expert member of the Digital College France 2030 of the French Secretary General for Investment since 2023. 

His research focuses on the new types of realism to which the Web's digital devices subject users. The whole challenge of his thesis consists of a conceptual analysis of the notion of “connection”: what does “connect” and “being connected” to someone, a machine, a network, a virtual space mean? In this, he tries to define the Web no longer, as tradition dictates, as being the place of a conflict between virtuality and reality, but, on the contrary, as a set of practices allowing a renewal of the relationship with others and with reality. 

Parallelly to his activity of research and teaching Charles is passionate about learning new languages and is currently learning Japanese and Italian. Also, as an amateur musician, he plays piano and pipe organ whenever he can. His favorite composers are Buxtehude and Rachmaninoff. 

Camille Toussaint is a Ph.D. student from the Interdisciplinary Institute for Innovation and the Management Research Center (École Polytechnique, France) since 2019. She is also an assistant professor at the Management of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Department of the École Polytechnique. Her Ph.D. research focuses on global collective action problems, and more specifically on the management of space debris. She is interested as well in commons theory, public-private partnerships, standardization, and market creation processes.

Camille Braune is currently in the second year of her Ph.D thesis at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, under the joint supervision of Professor Sandra Laugier and Professor Isabelle Alfandary, which is titled: “For a new ethics of attention to language. From the work of the British novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch (1919-1999)”.

Her research is part of the continuity, renewal and improvement of Franco-British studies on Iris Murdoch to date, in a common literary, philosophical, and ethical movement. My thesis intends to propound a new ethics of attention to language as a singular moral project, which Iris Murdoch intuited in her first writings, based on the one hand on a very specific idea of what it is to be attentive to language and on the other hand on the new form of attention to
ordinary life defined by literature, as an authentic experience which change moral thought and enrich our different forms of life.

In Fall 2022, Camille has been the recipient of two British fellowships: the Barbara Stevens Heusel Research Fund for Early-Career Scholars awarded by the Iris Murdoch Society, and the “Monthly Scholarship” awarded by the Maison Française of Oxford.

In addition to her doctoral dissertation, Camille has worked for two French publishing houses, Esprit magazine and CNRS Éditions, as she is very passionate about editing.

I’m a third-year engineering student at École Polytechnique in France, working at the intersection of biology and computer science. Outside of work, I love playing volleyball and discovering new spots whether it’s for photography or food (I am open to recommendations for New York as I will be visiting for the first time the city). 

I am really excited to join the Irving Institute of Cancer and to work with you all on spatial transcriptomics of brains' RNAs. 

Bartholomew Konechni is a PhD candidate at Sciences Po based within the Centre de Recherche sur les Inégalités Sociales (CRIS). His main work revolves around the adoption of new health behaviours during crises, with a particular focus on the COVID-19 pandemic.

After a bachelor degree in political sciences specialized in transition studies in Central and Eastern Europe, Aude-Cécile Monnot spent a year in Prague at Charles University. There, she nurtured her curiosity for Post-Soviet studies and the history of the Soviet Union. After studying Russian during her first academic years, she graduated from the National Institute of Language and Oriental Civilization in Paris, with a major in Farsi.

In 2013 Aude-Cécile started a Ph.D. on the history of Soviet Central Asia, focusing on issues of justice and legal practices at the local level. This everyday history of justice lies at the cross-road of different specialties such as state building, practices of power, legal history and colonial studies. Therefore Aude-Cécile uses a research framework that borrows from other disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, and political sciences. 

Arnaud Maurel is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science at Columbia University. He specializes in comparative politics, political economy, and political methodology, with a regional focus on Western Europe. His research primarily investigates the micro and institutional foundations of public debt crises. His dissertation explores how voters’ preferences, politicians’ strategies, and fiscal institutions shape the routine use of public debt. Other projects include a formal model of strategic sovereign default and an empirical study of the impact of tax evasion scandals on preferences for redistribution.

Arnaud Maurel received his B.A. (Cum Laude) and his M.A. in Political Science (Summa Cum Laude) from Sciences Po Paris. Prior to coming to Columbia, he worked as a Postgraduate Fellow at New York University, and as a statistical analyst at the O.E.C.D.

After completing a Franco-German double degree in law at the Universities of Cologne in Germany and Paris 1 in France, I specialized in intellectual property and digital law through a Master's degree. 

Since November 2023, I have been a PhD student in digital law at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, under the supervision of Professor Célia Zolynski in law and the codirection of Camille Salinesi in computer science. I'm interested in the legal and IT issues surrounding post-mortem avatars, and more specifically post-mortem conversational agents. My PhD thesis aims to define an appropriate legal and technical framework for emerging technologies such as deadbots/griefbots. 

Anna Safronova is a Ph.D. candidate at the History department at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University in France. Her thesis is on the history of the cooperative movement in Russia: actors, practices, and institutions, 1861-1932, and she works under the supervision of Professor Marie-Pierre Rey. Anna specializes in the social, political, and economic history of the late Russian Empire and early Soviet period. Although Anna hasn't finished her thesis yet, she already has experience organizing scientific conferences and research seminars with the researchers from her home institution as well as professors from other institutions as well. Anna believes that working with specialists from different institutions, the cooperation between scholars of different universities is a rich source of insights that are fruitful for research. Anna is the author of several articles in French journals. Her most recent publication is a book chapter in an edited collection on the history of cooperatives.

In addition to her research subject on cooperatives, she is particularly interested in the research of material history, the way the ordinary objects conserve traces of their usage, the biography of objects. In the future, she would like to organize a research seminar on the material history of soviet objects and to strengthen the connections that she hopes to build during her doctoral mobility.

Anna Demetriou is a PhD candidate in Cultural Heritage, pursuing a cotutelle between the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and the University of Bologna. Her research, entitled “UNESCO and Cultural Heritage in Conflict: Dispersion, Restitution, and Protection of Cypriot Cultural Heritage (19th– 21st century)”, examines the circulation, protection, and restitution of Cypriot cultural heritage, with a focus on the aftermath of the 1974 conflict. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history of art and archaeology from the University of Western Brittany in Quimper and a master’s in museum history of museums and cultural heritage from Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne. During her first year of the PhD, she completed the “Delphine Lévy University Diploma: Access to Art and Heritage – Tools and Research.” Her postgraduate work includes studies on the restitution of Cypriot cultural goods, including three religious artefacts, and on the effectiveness of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee, illustrated through the Bogazkoy Sphinx and the Parthenon Sculptures.

Alice Lasvergnas is a Ph.D. candidate in political theory at Sciences Po Paris. She specializes in democratic theory, the history of ideas, the philosophy of social science and the sociology of quantification. Her main topic of interest is the redefinition of democratic participation in mass societies.

Her research currently investigates the influence of methodological debates in American political science in the 1940s on the redefinition of democratic ideals in the 1960s. Her goal is to contrast different approaches of individual action based on scientific practices to then confront early definitions of participatory democracy.

Ms Lasvergnas holds a Master’s degree in political theory from Sciences Po Paris and a Bachelor’s degree in philosophy and history.

Julie Louws holds a Master’s degree in International private Law and international Business (Paris 1
University) and two Bachelor's degrees in Philosophy and law.

Julie is a Ph.D. candidate in International Private Law at Sorbonne Law School, entering her third year under the supervision of Professor Pascal de Vareilles-Sommières. Julie's thesis is about the power of the judge concerning foreign law enforcement in France. She is trying to understand how foreign law is researched, interpreted, and analyzed by the judge. In the French legal system, the judge is conceived as being passive, he is not an actor. This representation of the judge is incrementally changing due to the new prevailing role of international jurisdiction which tends to give more power to national judges. This « realistic » approach needs to be compared with
the American legal system. Julie also is a teaching assistant, she has taught International Private Law and International Arbitration. This year she will teach Contract Law and Civil Procedure.