CURRENT PROJECTS
ICEBRIDGE (Biodiversa+, 2026-2029)
Socioecological and multispecies studies of Arctic sea ice decline
In collaboration with Eduard Ariza Solé (UAB).
The research will examine how sea ice loss and geoengineering interventions impact Arctic biodiversity, with a focus on marine mammals and broader ecosystem dynamics. Multi-annual datasets (2011–2024) will be used to examine how sea ice loss and geoengineering interventions, such as ice thickening and albedo enhancement, influence marine food webs, species distributions, and alter species distributions, ecological interactions, and habitat stability. The postdoc will assess both short- and long-term effects of these interventions, identifying potential ecological risks and informing conservation and management strategies. The drivers motivating geoengineering will be identified, such as climate mitigation and ecosystem preservation, examining interventions methods like ice thickening and surface albedo modification. Pressures will encompass changes in thermal regimes, ocean circulation, and nutrient cycling triggered by these interventions. Impacts will be assessed in terms of biodiversity loss, ecosystem resilience, and implications for Indigenous subsistence practices. Fieldwork in a selected Arctic case-study site (e.g., Cambridge Bay, Nunavut) may complement existing ecological datasets by integrating local observations, Indigenous Knowledge, and contextual information on marine mammal distribution and ecosystem change. The field component will support validation of biodiversity assessments, identification of species and habitat vulnerabilities, and evaluation of how potential geoengineering interventions may interact with existing ecological and social pressures. This approach ensures that WP5 incorporates multiple knowledge systems and supports a multispecies justice perspective in Arctic biodiversity governance (in relation to WP3). The research will examine how justice concerns extend beyond human communities to encompass broader ecological systems.
UAR ExCHANGES “Pollutions & Habitabilité” (2026-2027)
Cohabiting with rats in Paris and Marseille
In collaboration with Réjane Sénac (CNRS), Emilie Dardenne (Rennes University), Anne-Laure Legendre (UVSQ) and Louise-Marie Jouault (independant).
In the mud there are rats/In the sewers there are rats/Rats are everywhere/They’re the people of Marseille! This chant, sung by PSG fans, does not merely express sporting hostility toward OM; it also alludes to the idea of an invasive presence of rats (or brown rats) in Marseille, as in many large cities, including Paris. Intended as an insult directed at the human residents of Marseille, this chant relies on animalization—a process of disqualification, inferiorization, and racialization of certain human groups. What makes this process effective is the very disqualification of the rat, which is relegated to a lower status on the scale established in social psychology, and whose image is associated with filth and sewers, contagion, and danger—in fact, it is a “pest,” inherently “bad,” an undesirable presence in our living spaces. However, even though rat control is considered a public service, Rattus norvegicus is not included on the list of Species Likely to Cause Damage (ESOD). Some authors use the term “synanthropic species” to describe the fact that rats’ habitats overlap with those of humans, while others propose the term “liminal animal” to refer to these creatures that inhabit urban spaces and form interdependent relationships with humans. The reciprocal nature of this relationship is rarely emphasized. Yet rats play a major—albeit invisible—role, providing a form of urban ecosystem service from within the sewers by breaking down waste. The increase in the rat population—driven by milder climatic conditions, urban development, and ever-easier access to abundant food resources on the one hand, and close proximity to humans on the other—raises the question of how we coexist and how we can build an interspecies collective.
PREFER (ERC AdG 2021, 2023-2027)
Reimagining justice in the face of species extinction (2025-2027)
Lead by Jean-Paul Vanderlinden.
When threats of such magnitude that humanity’s future is in balance are at play, what are the values that drive the need to act? Where do these values originate? How can the hazards that need to be addressed be prioritized? How can a particular mitigation solution be chosen above others? What are the criteria that apply when humanity is facing unspeakable disaster and seeks a way out?
These questions are currently being debated in academia and in the broader world, yet they are often viewed through a narrow range of ethical theories (i.e., professional ethicists) and with a narrow cultural (i.e., Western) focus. It is urgent that we change this mindset and, to this end, the aim of the PREFER project is to move significantly beyond these limitations. Threats to the future of humanity require comprehensive scientific deliberations that consider a diversity of value systems, including those of lay people. Lay ethics (the ethics of ordinary people) must be factored into discussions on this important topic. The narratives of the narwhal’s extinction or absence emerged from my ethnographic experience, as my research was rooted in a collective project on local manifestations of existential risks. However, neither an interpretation through the lens of existential risk nor that of species extinction, as presented in this paper, seemed adequate: how can we broaden the debate on existential risks by redefining what gives existence value beyond the species?
GT Hautes Latitudes Funding (2026-2027)
Observatory of Narratices in the Arctic
In collaboration with Simon Boulcourt (UVSQ) and Jeanne Gherardi (UVSQ)
International scientific interest with Kalaallit Nunaat has expanded significantly in recent years, driven by the global importance of Arctic climate processes and renewed geopolitical attention. Nowadays, several hundred projects are launched each year, and Indigenous authorities are increasingly calling for these projects to be carried out in genuine, Kalaallit-centered partnership. This has created opportunities for collaboration between international researchers, researchers from Kalaallit Nunaat, and non-Western knowledge holders, while also raising ethical and practical questions about how such collaborations are structured and how knowledge is fairly produced, interpreted, and communicated. In Kalaallit Nunaat, these dynamics are particularly visible: despite increased participation of Kalaallit researchers, much of the literature remains framed through external analytical traditions and infrastructures. Recent scholarship reframes Kalaallit Nunaat as an epistemic and political terrain in transformation. Contributions from Kalaallit scholars – from analyses of knowledge asymmetries (Lynge 2006) to work on narrative authority (Graugaard 2020) – have established a robust field. This is reinforced by Kalaallit-led publications (Bjerre et al. 2025) and Arctic initiatives such as the Roadmap to Decolonial Arctic Research (Herrmann et al. 2023), promoting Indigenous-led frameworks. The project will contribute to the overview of research practices in the Arctic and the questions that this research raises among researchers. Its methodology is divided into two steps: 1) a quantitative and qualitative questionnaire administered from November 2026 to the French researchers in the region; 2) A collective workshop designed to analyze collegially the survey and create a space for collective reflexivity to provide recommendations to the research community to build more equitable practices for impactful French research.
OLD PROJECTS
SeMPER-Arctic: Resilience in the Arctic (Belmont Forum, 2020-2024)
Led by Jeanne Gherardi (UVSQ).
The SeMPER-Arctic project collected and analysed local narratives of environmental and social changes in Arctic communities in Greenland and Russia to understand resilience from a place-based and interdisciplinary perspective; its findings aim to inform strategies for enhancing community resilience and guide regional policymakers at various levels in the context of global environmental change. The local narratives of resilience were gathered in three Arctic communities: Uummannaq in Western Greenland, Ittoqqortoormiit in Eastern Greenland and Tiksi in Yakutsk, Russia. Two external types of stories were collected: regional development and public policy narratives and environmental science narratives. The purpose was to analyse how the two external narratives interact with local narratives of resilience in order to assess their impacts. The objective was to develop a narrative centred, locally rooted, place-based understanding of resilience within arctic communities. As such resilience and narrative analysis were the central framework in SeMPER-Arctic which contribute to the understanding global environmental change through locally guided enquiry of what it means to be a resilient arctic community in the 21st century.
Cyclope: Local Stories of Changes in Europe (2020)
From May to November 2020, we cycled almost 8,000 kilometers to Kiruna, Sápmi, in northern Sweden. Along the way, we encountered a multitude of landscapes and people to whom we gave a voice. We filmed some of our exchanges, and spent our time chatting as we went. We asked everyone to tell us what was important to them, what changes were taking place in the places where they lived, and how they saw their future in the territories we visited. Is climate change visible, threatening, important? What other changes are people concerned about? How can we make the world a different place?
Arctic Week: Bridging Indigenous and Scientific Knowledge (2018-2019)
Created in 2018, Arctic Week is a week-long international conference that provides transdisciplinary approaches to climate and environmental changes in the Arctic. It aims to offer an overview of different challenges in the Arctic regions, as understood by Arctic peoples and researchers. Seeking to pursue the interdisciplinary approach to environmental and climate changes, the Arctic Week 2019, coordinated by Alexandra Lavrillier, Tanguy Sandré and Jean-Michel Huctin, was hosted from 9 to 13 December 2019 at the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs (Paris), under the patronnage of the Ambassador for the Arctic and Antarctic, Ségolène Royal. The idea of the Arctic Week is to create synergies between social and environmental scientists and between scientists and Arctic Indigenous Peoples while also engaging students and youth in these projects. It is also very important to hold public events and photography exhibitions in order to raise public awareness in France about Arctic climate change and biodiversity issues.
