Research Centers

Research on Africa and in Africa at Sciences Po involves teams of researchers from various disciplines affiliated with different research centers, schools, and departments.

Centre for International Studies (CERI)

At the Centre for International Studies (CERI), a dozen permanent researchers and nearly twenty doctoral students study the African continent from various perspectives: political, security-related, urban, citizen-oriented, historiographical, social, economic, etc. These researches intersect comparative politics and international relations.

A monthly seminar (research group "Africa: Citizenship, Violence, and Politics") is held there under the coordination of Richard Banégas, Laurent Fourchard, Roland Marchal, and Sandrine Perrot.

• Permanent faculty conducting research in Sub-Saharan Africa: Adam Baczko, Richard Banégas, Laurent Fouchard, Roland Marchal, Luis Martinez, Sandrine Perrot, Chiara Ruffa, and Hélène Thiollet.
• Permanent faculty conducting research in North Africa: Jean-Pierre Filiu, Béatrice Hibou, Thomas Lacroix, Luis Martinez, Nadia Marzouki, Eric Verdeil.
• Doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers: Amr Abdelrahim, Joel Ansah, Gabriel André, Julien Argoud, Ayrton Aubry, Eddine Bouyahi, Michaël Bourdon, Jeanne Bouyat, Léonard Colomba Petteng, Romane Da Cunha Dupuy, Fatoumata Diallo, Kamina Diallo, Dora Lkasmi, Ronan Jacquin, Shreya Parikh, Juliette Refle, Samia Sahloul, Virginie Troit.

On the map below, it is possible to identify the researchers and doctoral students of CERI and access information about their research topics, disciplinary fields according to geographical areas or countries studied. https://www.sciencespo.fr/ceri/en/research_mapping.html

Centre for History at Sciences Po (CHSP)

At the Centre for History at Sciences Po, Florence Bernault works on Sub-Saharan Africa (especially Central Africa) and the colonial question, while M’Hamed Oualdi studies the Maghreb and slavery in Muslim worlds.

Doctoral students at the Centre for History: Maëlle Gélin (African diasporas, Black Atlantic), Esther Ginestet (East Africa), Ebunoluwa Iyamu (West Africa), Anna Osterlow

Médialab

At Medialab, Guillaume Lachenal works on planetary health, the history of medicine, and the anthropology of epidemics. He has notably published "The Drug That Was Meant to Save Africa" (La découverte, 2014) and "The Doctor Who Wanted to Be King" (Seuil, 2017). Camille Chanial conducts research in Congo (Brazzaville) on public space and its reconfigurations in the digital age (democracy, media, disinformation). Work is being conducted on epidemics in the Anthropocene, at the intersection of epidemiology, biological data, and social sciences, with Gaëtan Thomas on the history of HIV and Franco-African medical relations (ANRS Archiv project), Jules Villa on Ebola in DRC, and Camille Besombes (epidemiological physician and postdoctoral fellow, Latour Fund laureate) on monkeypox. Guillaume Lachenal has notably published "The Drug That Was Meant to Save Africa" (La découverte, 2014). Mathilde Emeriau conducts research on discriminations and migrations.

Law School

At the Law School, Jeremy Perelman conducts research at the intersection of human rights, sustainable development, and economic globalization. He has, among other works, co-directed with Lucie White "Stones of Hope: How African Activists Reclaim Human Rights to Challenge Global Poverty" (Stanford University Press, November 2010), an original collaboration bringing together academics and African social-economic rights activists around innovative advocacy strategies for social justice and poverty alleviation. Francis Akali Oloo, a lawyer at the High Court of Kenya, is pursuing his doctoral research at Sciences Po on human rights.

Urban School

At the  Urban School, Laurent Fourchard coordinates research on urbanities in Africa, particularly within the Research track he leads. Research is ongoing by several postdocs and doctoral students: Côme Salvaire (sociology of popular autonomies in megacities), Fatoumata Diallo (on transport policies with the case of rapid bus transit), Juliette Reflé (on actor configurations, political and social practices facing coastal erosion in Lagos and Cotonou), and Joel Ansah (comparative exploration of experiences, contestations, and mobilizations of inhabitants of flood-prone cities along the Gulf of Guinea).