What researchers have to say

Pr Samantha Besson's comments

june 17, 2020

Inviting her audiences to look at the world differently, Prof. Samantha Besson, holder of the International Law of Institutions Chair, gives some news about her chair after a brief introduction. She looks back on some of the research work she was able to complete, carry out or even launch during the confinement and in connection with international institutional news, before explaining how she will take the current health and social crisis into account in her teaching program for the coming year.

A word from Prof. Claudine Tiercelin - 2

june 11, 2020

A few keys to orienting our thinking in times of pandemic.

In this second video, Prof. Claudine Tiercelin, Chair of Metaphysics and Philosophy of Knowledge, reminds us that the philosopher is no better equipped than the average person to respond to vitally important issues such as those posed by the current pandemic, and that he or she must always, in general, guard against the twin temptations of seeking to "organize souls" and saying more than he or she knows. Nevertheless, the situation we're living through does offer the philosopher - and for once, it's not unusual - a number of themes for reflection, borrowed as appropriate from the philosophy of perception, knowledge, science, the mind, or even metaphysics. Prof. Tiercelin has singled out at least six that are worth examining, and which she will be analyzing in the weeks and months to come, to keep in touch with her audience. The aim is not, of course, to propose a new "guide for the lost", but simply to suggest a few "keys", at a time when we're all feeling a little "disoriented", to help us orientate or rather "re-orientate" ourselves in our thinking.

Pr Jean-Luc Fournet's comments

june 10, 2020

This message from Prof. Jean-Luc Fournet, holder of the Chair in Late Antiquity and Byzantine Papyrology, to his audiences presents the latest news from his chair: after briefly outlining the program for next year's lectures, reorganized following their interruption last March, he demonstrates a new paleography tutorial, Multipal(http://multipal.fr/), which will enable everyone to learn how to decipher papyri, among other things, in a fun way - pending the resumption of seminars next year. Last but not least, he presents the project for an exhibition entitled "Le papyrus dans tous ses États de Cléopâtre à Clovis" (Papyrus in all its states from Cleopatra to Clovis), which was due to take place at the Collège de France this autumn, but which current events mean will have to be postponed until next year. To this end, he proposes a focus on two of the pieces in this exhibition, which set the geographical scene and take the public, far from Egypt, on a journey from Hellenistic Afghanistan to Roman Brittany.

Pr Claudine Tiercelin's comments

june 9, 2020

Message to the public attending her lecture on "Semiotics and Ontology".

In this first video, Prof. Claudine Tiercelin, holder of the Chair of Metaphysics and Philosophy of Knowledge, gives news of the "Semiotics and Ontology" lecture, which she has had to put on hold, and of the activities of the two research groups ("Groupe de recherche en Epistémologie" and "Groupe d'Etudes en métaphysique") which have continued during the period of confinement. She also announces how she intends to keep in touch with her audiences by offering reflections on her experiences of the pandemic over the coming weeks and months. These analyses will be borrowed not so much from moral philosophy - where the philosopher is always spontaneously expected to be - as from the philosophies of perception, knowledge, science and metaphysics. For it is in these areas that the philosopher, for once, has much to say.

Professor Bénédicte Savoy's comments

june 8, 2020

Prof. Bénédicte Savoy, holder of the International Chair in Cultural History of Artistic Heritages in Europe, XVIIIᵉ-XXᵉ century, shares with us the small collection of artistic misappropriations of great masters that she put together during the pandemic.

A word from Adèle Peugeot

june 5, 2020

Adèle Peugeot, a doctoral student at the Chemistry of Biological Processes Chair, talks to us today about a research project involving an innovative, plant-inspired process for recycling our carbon emissions and turning them into energy sources.

The words of Professor Emeritus Pierre Rosanvallon

june 4, 2020

Prof. Emeritus Pierre Rosanvallon, holder of the former Chair in Modern and Contemporary History of Politics (2001-2018), discusses the articles related to the current pandemic published by the website La vie des idées, for which he is responsible, and takes stock of his ongoing research work.

Frédéric Keck's comments

june 3, 2020

Anthropologist Frédéric Keck, Director of the Laboratoire d'anthropologie sociale (Collège de France, EHESS, CNRS), presents his work on pandemic sentinels in Asia, which sheds new light on the coronavirus crisis, and announces two new research projects linked to the epidemic context.

Hervé Gonzalez's comments

june 2, 2020

Hervé Gonzalez, research engineer at The Hebrew Bible and its Contexts, asks an important question for understanding the birth of the Bible: Why does the story told in the Jewish Bible stop at the Persian period?

A word from Perig Pitrou

may 29, 2020

Perig Pitrou, Director of Research at the CNRS, outlines the project of the "Anthropologie de la vie" team he heads up at the Laboratoire d'anthropologie sociale (Collège de France / EHESS). While emphasizing the specificity of the anthropological approach, he gives an example of the interdisciplinary dialogue established by Claude Lévi-Strauss and François Jacob around the notion of bricolage.

Pr Alain Fischer's comments

may 28, 2020

Prof. Alain Fischer, Chair of Experimental Medicine, discusses the immune system's surveillance of cancers and introduces his lecture this year, which will be recorded without an audience and available on the Internet in June.

The words of Professor Emeritus Michel Zink

may 27, 2020

Professor Emeritus Michel Zink, former Chair of "Literatures de la France médiévale (1995-2016)", today discusses the rich correspondence between Gaston Paris and Paul Meyer, two eminent French Romanist philologists of the late 19th century, reflecting their scientific lives, their private lives and their involvement in the life of their times, from the 1870 war to the Dreyfus affair.

The words of Professor Emeritus Alain Prochiantz

may 26, 2020

Alain Prochiantz, Professor Emeritus and holder (2007-2019) of the "Morphogenetic Processes" Chair, describes how the emotional and social environment of the first years of life can have lasting, even permanent, consequences on the rest of life, and the unexpected role that the microbiota - the billions of bacteria that populate the intestine - could play in the onset of psychiatric and neurological illnesses.

The words of Professor Emeritus John Scheid

may 25, 2020

Professor Emeritus John Scheid gives us an update on his research and his former chair Religion, Institutions and Society in Ancient Rome, then shares his inspiring observations from the current pandemic.

Pr Edhem Eldem's comments

may 22, 2020

Professor Edhem Eldem, holder of the International Chair in Turkish and Ottoman History, studies the particular case of the cholera epidemic that claimed some 30,000 victims in Istanbul in July and August 1865. He takes the opportunity to analyze a medal issued on this occasion, the reverse of which depicts the incomprehensible "Dream of Osman", one of the founding myths of the Ottoman dynasty.

The words of Pr Lluis Quintana-Murci

may 20, 2020

Prof. Lluis Quintana-Murci, Chair of Human Genomics and Evolution, discusses the ambivalent relationship between pathogens and man since his appearance, and how studying the molecular imprint of pathogens on our genome that has resulted from natural selection can help us identify the genes that play a key role in the never-ending war against infectious diseases.

Jalila Sbaï's comments

may 19, 2020

In this video, Jalila Sbaï, a research engineer at the Collège de France and member of the Contemporary History of the Arab World Chair, presents her research program on the writing of the history, sociology and Islamology of Arab-Muslim societies by French Orientalists from the 19th century to the present day.

Professor Stéphane Mallat's comments

may 18, 2020

Prof. Stéphane Mallat, holder of the Data Science Chair, talks to us today about data-driven prediction of complex phenomena. From the evolution of epidemics to the recognition and analysis of a wide variety of data. He tells us how to discover this field or deepen our knowledge, by taking part in challenges posed by public services, companies or laboratories, on the challengedata.ens.fr website

Laura Battini's comments

may 15, 2020

Laura Battini, research fellow in the PROCLAC research unit (UMR 7192 - CNRS/Collège de France/EPHE), talks to us today about the experience of illness in the Ancient Near East.

In every age, illness, whether individual or collective (epidemics), is and has been perceived as a problem: why me/us? In the Ancient Near East, the origin of illness was thought to be divine, caused by human error. All kinds of remedies, both practical and magical, were used: some to alleviate pain rather than to heal; others to appease the divinity and thus make the evil disappear.

Pr Patrick Boucheron's comments

may 14, 2020

In this video, Prof. Patrick Boucheron, holder of the History of Powers in Western Europe, ^13th to 16th^Centuries Chair, talks about how the current event is changing his research project on the history of the Black Death, which he has been working on for several years. It's also an opportunity to reflect on the relationship between experience and narrative, in line with his lectures this year, but also, more generally, on the experience of history.

Prof. Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge's comments

may 13, 2020

Prof. Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge, holder of the Chair of Religion, History and Society in the Ancient Greek World, has chosen to reread passages from theOdyssey to evoke some of the fundamental traits of our humanity at a time when it is being severely tested.

Prof. Pierre-Michel Menger's comments

may 12, 2020

In his video, Prof. Pierre-Michel Menger, holder of the Sociology of Creative Work chair, shares with us some of his thoughts on the pandemic we are currently experiencing: its global aspect, the omnipresent uncertainty, the so different reactions of states against the virus, its historical character..

Prof. Luigi Rizzi's comments

may 11, 2020

In this video, Prof. Luigi Rizzi, holder of the General Linguistics chair, talks about the fundamental research activities he is continuing during this period of confinement, and in particular the mapping of syntactic structures.

About Pr Dario Mantovani

may 8, 2020

Prof. Dario Mantovani offers news from the Chair of Law, Culture and Society in Ancient Rome, in the form of a mirror turned towards the public.

The experience of distancing shows us the value of resonance: that of the public, whose lack the teacher feels; that which is established with a book you discover in your library and have never read before, and with which you fall in love. It's the same with historical research: it's our present concerns and hopes that transform the past into something that interests us. At the heart of the lecture to be repeated next year were equity and the Roman history of the desire for justice: how can resonance with the present make us better understand what it means to be in the same boat and make us act in the common interest?

Pr Dominique Charpin's comments

may 7, 2020

Prof. Dominique Charpin, Chair of Mesopotamian Civilization, explains what it's like to work as an Assyriologist in a period of confinement, and describes his team's many activities and current projects.

Pr Denis Duboule's comments

may 6, 2020

Prof. Denis Duboule, International Chair in Evolution of Development and Genomes, talks about how our genes are controlled during embryonic development and everyday life, in particular by DNA sequences known as enhancers, which are true molecular switches that can activate and modulate gene expression. His lecture, given in the form of "webinars", will be devoted to the history and study of these particular DNA sequences. To be followed live on the Internet from May 12, 2020.

Nicolas Vatin's comments

may 5, 2020

The Centre d'études ottomanes (Institut des civilisations) of the Collège de France is taking part in the inventory of the archives of the Bay of Venice (Archivio di Stato di Venezia). From this rich documentation, its director, Nicolas Vatin, has drawn a small dossier that gives a concrete picture of relations between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of the Peace of Karlowitz (1699), when both parties were striving to re-establish peaceful relations based on trust.

A word from Prof. Stanislas Dehaene

may 4, 2020

Prof. Stanislas Dehaene, Chair of Experimental Cognitive Psychology, summarizes some recent findings on how learning to read changes the organization of the brain. New experimental studies show how this learning process can be facilitated, in children, by the use of a playful software program: Kalulu.

Prof. William Marx

may 1, 2020

From Saint Jerome to Paul Valéry and Don Quixote, Prof. William Marx shares some news from his chair of Comparative Literatures in times of confinement.

Pr François Recanati's comments

april 30, 2020

Speaking to his audiences, Prof. François Recanati, holder of the Philosophy of Language and Mind Chair, explains his intentions regarding the continuation of the "Dossiers mentaux" lecture, interrupted by the closure of the Collège de France.

Prof. Barbara Romanowicz

april 29, 2020

Prof. Barbara Romanowicz, Chair of Physics of the Earth's Interior, talks about a topical issue in her field of research: the effect of Covid-19 confinement on seismic records.

Pr Antoine Compagnon's comments

april 28, 2020

On April 21 at 4:30 p.m., Prof. Antoine Compagnon, holder of the Chair in Modern and Contemporary French Literature: History, Criticism, Theory, was due to give his final lesson. On the day and at the time in question, he suggests how he would have ended his lecture on "The End of Literature".

Prof. Françoise Combes' comments

april 27, 2020

In this video, Prof. Françoise Combes, Chair of Galaxies and Cosmology, talks about one of the latest research results from the Event Horizon Telescope. This network of terrestrial radio telescopes has just obtained images of unprecedented precision of a black hole, quasar 3C279, which show that the plasma jet it emits has an unexpected shape, which would be the manifestation of the precession of its accretion disk.

Professor Thomas Römer

april 24, 2020

Prof. Thomas Römer, Administrator and Chair of The Hebrew Bible and its Contexts, inaugurates this series and talks about his teaching and research.