Curriculum Vitae
As I shortly mentioned in the front page, I am currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Université de Montréal (Canada). In 2008-2009 I was Max Weber fellow at the European University Institute of Florence (Italy). I completed my BA, MA, and PhD (all in Political Science) at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques of Grenoble, France. I also spent some fruitful years studying in Germany: I completed the first year of my Master’s degree in Political Science at the Friedrich-Wilhem Universität of Bonn and was a visiting scholar at the Centre Marc Bloch of Berlin and the Franco-German Institute of Ludwigsburg.
As many people, the work I am the most proud of is my PhD dissertation. It was entitled De la réconciliation franco-allemande à la ‘guerre des dieux’. Analyse cognitive et discursive d’une politique publique d’éducation à la cause de la paix : l’Office franco-allemand pour la jeunesse. The examination committee - which included Pierre Muller, Christine Musselin, Henry Rousso, Guy Saez and Yves Surel – awarded me the « Félicitations du jury à l’unanimité ». This comprehensive work (790 pages) is currently under revision and should led to the publication of two books in 2010.
So far I have mostly published in French journals including the Revue Française de Science Politique, Politique Européenne, Allemagne d’aujourd’hui and Les Cahiers d'Histoire. Revue d'Histoire Critique. My interest for Epistemology of social sciences also recently led me to edit a book on Rational Choice Theory (Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2009).
I define myself as a "social scientist", and more precisely as a “political scientist, working on historical topics with a sociological approach and openning to econometrics.” In my PhD dissertation, on the Franco-German Reconciliation, I investigated how the processes of rapprochement took root in the 1930’s and developed during the 1950’s and 1960’s. This focus helped me to deconstruct, from a socio-historical perspective, the institution of the Franco-German reconciliation political liturgy. Although not part of my PhD framework, I am also interested in econometrics. In a book I have recently edited, I explore the use of rational choice theory in political issues (Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2009, co-edited with S. Saurugger and D. Deschaux-Beaumes). While this might appear as theoretical eclecticism, it is actually a meditated choice. I believe that although specialization is necessary for the advancement of modern sciences, this can lead to knowledge fragmentation. A well-balanced researcher should therefore be a specialist in his/her field while at the same time possessing a certain knowledge – and practice – of rivalling paradigms and methodologies.
