Back to Campus: 3 Unexpected Facts About the Poitiers Campus

On Thursday, 7 September, 152 first-year students started the new academic year on the Poitiers campus in the presence of Mathias Vicherat, President of Sciences Po, Jeanne Lazarus, new Dean of the Undergraduate College, Pascale Leclercq, Campus Director, Noëlle Duport, Vice-President of Education at the University of Poitiers, Léonore Moncond'huy, Mayor of Poitiers, Alain Rousset, President of the regional council for the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region and Bénédicte Robert, Rector of the Académie de Poitiers. The inaugural lecture, entitled "Women and Men in Responsibility within the State", was given by Gwénola Joly-Coz, the first woman President of the Poitiers Court of Appeal and committed to advancing the cause of women. Her book Femmes de justice (women in law, in English) was published and presented last February by Éditions Enrick B.

The Poitiers campus and its Latin America-Caribbean minor, which moved to new premises in 2019 thanks to the support of the local actors and communities, is celebrating its 22nd anniversary this year. The new intake of students represents 20 different nationalities, including 11 from Latin America. Students are invited to study the languages of the geographical minor, Spanish and Portuguese, during their bachelor's degree.

Discover 3 unexpected facts about the Poitiers campus:

1. The campus roof is shaped like the inverted hull of a Viking ship (a drakkar).
2. The Poitiers campus is located in a place of learning that dates back to the Middle Ages: first it was a Jacobins convent, then a school, barracks, a prison, an hospital, before becoming a teaching establishment (ESC Poitiers, now ESCEM) until Sciences Po moved in.
3. The Latin American-Caribbean flavour of the campus is reflected in the names of the different areas (the large Gabriela Mistral amphitheatre pays tribute to the Chilean writer) and in the choice of its faculty members. Two Brazilian teachers and researchers, Malena Rehbein Rodrigues and André André Rehbein Sathler, are welcomed in 2023/2024. Having witnessed the presidential elections in autumn 2022 and the riots in January 2023, which had worldwide repercussions, they will be teaching a course - in Portuguese and French - on democracy in Brazil and Latin America.

And to dig deeper, here's a video presenting the campus: