Meet Nils Lagrève, a Dual Degree Student in Global Urban Development With the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in India

After high school, I was able to join the Sciences Po Undergraduate College as part of the North America minor offered on the Reims campus. After completing the Political Humanities major, I decided to study some of these subjects in greater depth during my third year as an exchange student in Bogota, Colombia. At the University of Los Andes, I had the opportunity to take courses in philosophy, decolonial political ecology and anthropology.

Most of my year in Colombia was spent working on a research project with one of my anthropology teachers and three other students. The aim of the project was to study the dynamics of resistance in Cañaverales, an Afro-Colombian community threatened by a coal mine project. The experience enabled me to better understand the neocolonial extractions affecting so many territories in Colombia and elsewhere in the world. Taking part in the international conference on land grabbing in Bogotá in March 2024 and living in a megacity like Bogotá convinced me to join the Urban School to develop these thoughts and my understanding of the urban world.

My exchange year in Bogotá was decisive in my choice of further study. I realised in Colombia that to study or work in a place, you must be able to engage intellectually and emotionally with the reality of a city, a region, or a country. Following this logic, I was convinced that the dual degree would allow me to re-engage in a different context to broaden my understanding of the urban world.

Studying as part of a dual degree between Sciences Po and TISS represents an opportunity to study both in Paris, considered to be a model of excellence in the Western world, and in Mumbai, a city that is part of the Global South. 

I'm looking forward to the forthcoming programme in India, which will likely focus on fieldwork and observations. The first semester will be an opportunity to study in an informal settlement next to the university. The second semester will see us studying outside the city to understand how Mumbai relates to its hinterland.

Although my first years of study were primarily focused on research, I have no plans to continue along this path. Studying in India and taking this dual degree is a great opportunity for me. It could provide me with the experience and knowledge needed to work on adapting our lifestyles in the face of ecological crises at a local level.