Nuit des idées 2021 at the Collège de France

The Collège de France, in partnership with Radio France Internationale, is once again taking part in the Nuit des idées in 2021 .

On January 28, live from 8pm to 11pm from the Marguerite de Navarre amphitheatre at the Collège de France, three round tables hosted by RFI journalists Assane Diop, Caroline Lachowsky and Pascal Paradou explore the theme of the 2021 edition of the Night of Ideas: Close.

Who, or what, can we call "close" in a year when the term "distancing" has come to the fore on every continent? What immediately comes to mind is the urgent need to forge closer ties, to re-establish or create new solidarities in the face of divisions of all kinds, and the ideas and tools needed to do so, as a counterweight to the dissolution of ties and individualist or nationalist withdrawal. But this requirement must be accompanied by a reflection on the very idea of distance, on its perceptive, cognitive and mathematical foundations, and on its extraordinary use, both theoretical and practical, in the multiplication of maps that cover our world, tracing its borders and limits but also enabling us to model it, understand it and act on it. Finally, we need to know whether there is a "right distance", a point of view that is neither too far nor too close, from which we can better understand, appreciate and love ourselves, others, objects and the world's cultures This question also applies to researchers, journalists, cultural mediators, and all those whose job it is to create mediation, to build links for a common world where differences are articulated rather than opposed.

With the participation of :

• Samantha Besson, jurist, specialist in international public law and European law, professor at Collège de France in the International Law of Institutions chair.
• François Héran, sociologist and demographer, Professor at the Collège de France's Migrations and Societies Chair.
• Momar Nguer, Franco-Senegalese entrepreneur and Chairman of the Africa Committee of Medef International.
• Nathalie Péré-Marzano, Managing Director of Emmaüs International.
• Françoise Combes, astrophysicist, Professor of Galaxies and Cosmology at the Collège de France, researcher at the Observatoire de Paris.
• Christian Grataloup, geohistorian, professor emeritus at Paris Diderot University.
• Sabrina Krief, veterinarian and ecologist, specialist in great apes, professor at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle.
• Stéphane Mallat, mathematician, Professor of Data Science at the Collège de France.
• N'Goné Fall, exhibition curator and cultural engineering consultant, general curator of the Africa2020 Season.
• William Marx, writer, essayist, critic and literary historian, Professor of Comparative Literatures at the Collège de France.
• Olivia Rosenthal, writer, playwright and performer, co-director of the master's degree in literary creation at Université Paris 8.
• Hugues de Thé, physician and biologist, Professor of Cellular and Molecular Oncology at the Collège de France.