Portraits

Deputy Dean for the past year, Sébastien Pimont is now officially taking over from Christophe Jamin as Dean of the Law School at the start of the September 2020 academic year. This succession, although prepared over a long period of time, is occurring during an unprecedented educational context. However, that doesn’t scare this university professor who sees an even greater opportunity to pursue continuous educational innovation, a trademark of the Law School. Interview.

Noa Levy Baron graduated in May 2020 from the Dual BA Program Between Sciences Po and Columbia University. A Human Rights Major with a specialisation in Psychology, she wrote a research essay entitled “Art Therapy with Refugees: Overcoming Processes of Pathologization and Fostering Social Integration”, which won the Human Rights Institute of Columbia Essay Contest. Interview.

With the death of Jacques Chirac in September 2019, a light goes out on a chapter of French political history and on one of Sciences Po’s most illustrious alumni. During his three years at the Institut d’études politiques, from 1951 to 1954, France’s former president would take his first strides into the dazzling career that was to follow.

Wesley Lainé graduated from the Sciences Po Law School in 2016. We caught up with him to talk about his remarkable academic and professional journey, from the beginning of his studies to what he is doing now.

At Sciences Po, all third-year undergraduate students spend a mandatory year abroad studying at one of our 478 partner universities or pursuing an internship. After two years on our Paris campus, Flora Cerda chose to spend her third year at the Universidad Católica Argentina in Buenos Aires. In this video, she tells us about her experience and how it helped reinforce her passion and interests, and better define her choice of Master’s and future career goals.

Aditi Chatradhi, originally from California, is a student in the dual BA program between Sciences Po and Columbia University. In spring 2020, she was awarded the Henri de Castries scholarship, which is open to students in the dual BA degrees between Sciences Po and Columbia University or UC Berkeley. Below is an excerpt from one of her personal statements about her transition to France and her experience in the program.

This article was originally published in 2020. Zina Akrout is a graduate student in the Master’s of Public Policy at the School of Public Affairs and has been awarded the Max Lazard Prize to carry out her project “Berbers of Tunisia”. Interview on her journey so far, distinctive for her unbounded curiosity and in its strong international dimension.

One is dedicated to ridding it of plastic, the other to replanting its corals: two Sciences Po graduates explain how and why they have created a business devoted to protecting the oceans. In the context of the first Ecological Transition Careers Fair, we spoke to Marie Le Texier, Founder of ConsultantSeas, a consulting firm, and Anne-Sophie Roux, Founder of Tenaka.

Sciences Po undergraduate student Xiaorui Zhou is one of the four Chinese students to become a 2020 Rhodes scholar. This prestigious scholarship allows outstanding students to spend two years at the University of Oxford pursuing a postgraduate degree. Xiaorui is currently completing her double degree with Sciences Po and the National University of Singapore (NUS), majoring in History and Middle Eastern studies. She aspires to pursue two Master’s degrees at Oxford next year: one in Women’s Studies, and one in Contemporary Chinese Studies. Interview.

On 18 November 2019, award-winning journalist and alumna Hala Gorani was the Sciences Po American Foundation’s special guest for its 10th Anniversary Gala in New York, along with honoree Nicolas Sarkozy, former French President.

In November 2019, Christophe Jaffrelot, CNRS Senior researcher at Sciences Po, CERI, was elected member of the prestigious French Académie des sciences morales et politiques. He accepted to answer our questions on his career as a researcher and teacher at Sciences Po. This interview was conducted by Miriam Perier.

Sciences Po student Lamis Al Jasem was born in Raqqa, Syria. Tired of the onslaught of images of destruction that have characterised Raqqa in the media since its capture by the Islamic State in 2013, Lamis decided to show the world her hometown as she once knew it. While completing a Master’s in Human Rights and Humanitarian Action, Lamis launched See My Raqqa, a social media project that shares positive photography of the Syrian city, both before the invasion and today. Now See My Raqqa has become a community, a place for Syrians to exchange stories and memories, transforming rubble back into the monuments that existed before. Lamis told us about her mission.

Memphis Blue is a student in the dual degree programme between Sciences Po and the University of Sydney. At the beginning of 2019, she was awarded the Davis Projects for Peace, which she used to launch the initiative “A Different View” in New South Wales, Australia. In this interview, she tells us about the project and her plans to expand it further.

Paul Claudel, French poet and dramatist, brother of the sculptor Camille Claudel, and member of the Académie Française, is also a Sciences Po alumnus.

Since its opening in 1872, Sciences Po has welcomed thousands of British students from neighbouring universities across the Channel. Among the very first Brits to enrol at the university was Sir Austen Chamberlain, an ambitious Cambridge graduate with a brilliant future in European diplomacy. Best known for his role negotiating the Locarno Treaties, for which he was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Chamberlain held the position of Foreign Secretary in the inter-war years from 1924 – 1929. What did he take away from his time as the only British student in Sciences Po’s Class of 1886, and how was that to shape his policy during such a pivotal period in Europe’s history?

The Sciences Po American Foundation awarded Maëlle Gavet its annual alumni award during a reception earlier in May. Gavet is a 2002 graduate of the Sciences Po master's program, and Chief Operating Officer of Compass, a real estate technology company building an end-to-end platform for agents and their clients.

In honour of World Oceans Day and Oceans Week at Sciences Po, read this interview of Eve Isambourg, a Sciences Po student and oceans activist. Eve spent her third year abroad raising awareness on oceanic issues around the world, and spoke at the United Nations in New York defending our planet's oceans. (Interview originally published in 2018).

Gregoire Medina is pursuing a Master’s in Communication at Sciences Po Executive Education. After ten years of professional experience, he decided it was time to “take some time”, not necessarily to acquire news skills, but to reflect on his profession and industry. In the course of the Master’s, students go on a learning expedition. Gregoire tells us about his experience.

Arturo is a 2nd year undergraduate student studying on the Poitiers campus. He was born in France but has lived the majority of his life in Mexico. He got his baccalaureate from a Franco-Mexican school, and he chose Sciences Po because social engagement is an important part of the curriculum. Read the interview with Arturo who is engaged and committed, well beyond the confines of the campus, to mental health issues...

Charlotte Nørlund-Matthiessen did her undergraduate studies on the Dijon campus, which hosts the European specialisation programme with a focus on Central and Eastern Europe, before enrolling in the European Affairs Master’s programme at Sciences Po. Since graduating in 2012, she has worked on multiple projects inspired by her drive to build a stronger Europe. Today she works as a Parliamentary Assistant for a French MEP at the European Parliament in Brussels.