“Creating opportunities for international research within the University will generate benefits for all involved,” said Sylvain Charbonneau, uOttawa vice-president, research and innovation. “A program like the Francophone Mobility Chairs plays a crucial role in raising the profile of our university beyond Canada’s borders.”
E.-Martin Meunier, director of the CCRMF said, “Hosting researchers recognized in their fields will foster the excellence of the Collège within the French-speaking world. Our support for the Francophone Mobility Chairs helps secure and develop our strategic positioning on research in French. It’s wonderful to host them and have the entire University community benefit!”
Francophone Mobility Chair holders
Ferdulis Zita Odome Angone of Université Cheikh Anta Diop (Senegal) is a leading figure in the research scene in Senegal and throughout Africa. Having made a name for herself studying topics such as the representation of African women, coloniality and structural minorities in the francophone university system in sub-Saharan Africa, she brings expertise and an original perspective on African feminism.
Mehdi Lahlou is an associate professor at Université Mohammed V, in Rabat, Morocco. The Francophone Mobility Chair will allow him to share his multidisciplinary expertise in migration dynamics in French Africa and their links to international development, socioeconomic inequality, and health care and climate change-related issues, as part of a collaboration with University of Ottawa researchers.
Céline Béraud, a sociologist of religion, serves as research supervisor at the Centre d’études en sciences sociales du religieux of the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris. The Francophone Mobility Chair will allow her to undertake an ambitious project on the sociology of religion in francophone spaces with uOttawa’s E.-Martin Meunier, a professor of sociology and anthropology. The two professors will do a comparative study of the transformations of “national churches” in France and Canada in light of significant institutional “trauma.”
Arriving from the Université de Lyon, Professor Michel Lussault will tackle the urban Anthropocene. His research, conducted with hosts at uOttawa’s School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies, will look at the approaches of the French intelligentsia regarding urban issues, as well as these issues’ relationship to the climate crisis.