“Winning the battle of ideas in Europe. Production and circulation of ideas on Ukraine in a war context (France and Czechia)”

Contact: brivejosephine(@)gmail.com

Research area 1 : Displacements, “dépaysement”, discrepancies

My thesis investigates the upheaval caused by the large-scale invasion of Ukraine for Central and Eastern European specialists in academic, cultural and media circles in France and the Czech Republic.

The aim is to understand how the large-scale war led French and Czech researchers, cultural professionals and journalists working on Ukraine to rethink their personal and professional practices.

We’ll be conducting a sociology of the intellectual work of Central and Eastern European specialists from three professional spheres (research, culture and journalism), to uncover the major questions, controversies and discussions that drive them, as well as the reorganizations triggered by February 24, 2022. By studying the evolution of objects, categories of thought and working methods through fieldwork in France and the Czech Republic, we will analyze what the configurations and intensity of the shifts we observe owe to the social, political, cultural and academic histories of these countries, as well as to their past and present relations with the USSR and Russia.

The project is part of CEFRES research axis 1 – Displacements, dépaysements and discrepancies: people, knowledge and practices. It aims to study the symbolic displacement of cultural or discursive objects in Ukraine, as well as the physical displacement of the actors who carry them, in a transnational space of circulation of ideas and their producers in Europe. This research will also take into account the national and transnational contexts of reception, as well as the shift at work since 2022 in the way we understand and report on Ukraine, its past and the ongoing war.

Drawing on the work of the social history of ideas and the sociologies of the professions, intellectuals, culture and journalism, this research aims to analyze the major shift at work in the field of intellectual work, on a continental scale, in the context of a war between two independent states in Europe.

CV

• 2020-2023: Master en Affaires Internationales et Espaces Post-Soviétiques, Sciences Po Bordeaux, France.
• 2017-2020: Premier cycle du diplôme de Sciences Po Lyon, France.

Projets de recherche

Depuis 2023 : Participation à la recherche collective “Les couloirs de l’asile en France” – CORRIREF (CNRS).