PhD candidate

I recruit two PhD candidates (starting October 2024, 36 months), fully funded by the MEDiverSEAty EU Horizon Europe grant on two topics related to the representation of the sea and sea life in the Mediterranean context:

(1) A broadly operationalizable notion of (marine) biodiversity

(2) Representation of Biodiversity in coastal and non-coastal populations

(Please follow the links to obtain more information about each profile and for applying.)

 I welcome applications from candidates with a background in philosophy of science and/or marine biology (profile 1) and in social studies/sociology (profile 2), with an interest to cross disciplinary boundaries and a strong interest in marine conservation issues. Candidates can be of any nationality. We strongly encourage applications from under-represented groups.

 The selected candidates will be part of the Marie Curie Training network MEDiverSEAty. In quest of the human dimensions of MEDiterranean Marine Biodiversity, together with other 8 PhD candidates recruited at various Mediterranean universities (IT, ES, FR, EL, ME, MT).

An attractive stipend is offered, along with a family and mobility allowance package.

The work will be based in Paris, with planned secondments at some of the partner Universities and at partner NGOs. The candidates will be enrolled in the Doctoral School Law, Political Studies and Philosophy of EHESS.

 In Paris, I run the Navigations team of the Institut Jean Nicod, and I am a member of the Environment: Concepts and Norms team directed by Sacha Bourgeois-Gironde. The two teams together comprise about 15 among PhD students, MA students, and post-docs of many different nationalities working on issues related to the reconceptualization of the environment. 

It’s a vibrant research group: currently students andresearchers work on topics such as the role of science in the CCAMLAR, on marine citizen science in the framework of the Plankton Planet initiative, on alternatives to MPAs, on the valuation of ecosystem services, on the Nagoya protocol, on ontologies for watery entities, on remediation to climate anxiety, among other subjects.

 We are members of the OMER Research Cluster of CNRS, and we benefit from various research contracts, among which BiOcean5D. We organize yearly retreats in places of naturalistic interest (the last one was in Procida, Italy, on a sailboat.) My own teaching includes the class Climate Change and Changing Behavior at PSL/EHESS, and the seminar on Representations of the Ocean at EHESS/PSL. Two of my recent publications are the anthology The Sailing Mind and the monograph Philosophie de l’Océan.