THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
The Scientific Committee of the Rivesaltes Camp Memorial comprises renowned figures from academic institutions in France and abroad. Its work is aligned with the project of the EPCC (French Public Institution for Cultural Cooperation), focusing on the consolidation of historical research into the population groups that were accommodated at the camp. It employs different disciplines to shed light on the history and memory of the site: ethnology, anthropology, sociolinguistics, political science, philosophy, sociology, neuroscience, practices in memorial heritage and media coverage of conflicts.
DENIS PESCHANSKI PRESIDENT OF THE SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE OF THE MEMORIAL
Denis Peschanski is a historian and head of research at the French Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), specialising in the occupation of France, the Vichy regime and the Resistance. A few years ago, he established a new transdisciplinary work site to address memorial heritage issues. Mr Peschanski is a member of the European Centre for Sociology and Political Science, having served as a member of the Institute of History of the Present Time (IHTP), and of the Centre for Social History of the 20th Century. His many responsibilities include serving as President of the Scientific Committee of the Memorial of Caen.
He has published various books and articles on the 1930-1940 period and is a co-writer of three films, namely “La Traque de l’Affiche rouge” (2007), “La propagande de Vichy” (2008) and “La France des camps” (2010), all of which were co-produced and broadcast by France 2.
Denis Peschanski heads the government-supported programme MATRICE for research into individual and social memory, and co-directs the 13-Novembre Programme on the memory of the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris.
COMPOSITION OF THE SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
Olivier ABEL
Philosophe et professeur de philosophie et d'éthique à la faculté de théologie protestante de Montpellier. Il soutient sa thèse de doctorat de philosophie sous la direction de Paul Ricœur sur « Le Statut phénoménologique de la rêverie chez Gaston Bachelard », à l'université Paris-Nanterre, puis un mémoire d'habilitation en philosophie intitulé « L'Intervalle du temps éthique entre le courage et le pardon », à l'université d'Amiens.
Michel AGIER
Michel Agier is an anthropologist, Emeritus Director of Research at the French Research Institute for Development (IRD) and part-time lecturer at the School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS). He studies the relationship between globalisation, migration and the creation of cities, focusing in particular on camps and contemporary camps. He has published Gérer les indésirables. Des camps de réfugiés au gouvernement humanitaire (Flammarion, 2008) and Un monde de camps (dir., La Découverte, 2014). From 2016 to 2019, he was in charge of the Babels programme “La ville comme frontière” (French National Research Agency), through which he coordinated a group research project on the Calais camp: La Jungle de Calais. Les migrants, la frontière et le camp (PUF, 2018).
Johanna BARASZ
Johanna Barasz is a historian and graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Studies (IEP). She has mainly worked on the “Vichysto-Resistants” during the 1940-1944 period. She has also taught at the IEP and was a member of the cabinet of Vincent Peillon, the former French Minister for Education. She worked for a long period as an assistant delegate and educational consultant at the Inter-ministerial Commission for the Fight against Racism, Anti-Semitism and Anti-LGBT Hate (DILCRAH), before joining France Stratégie in 2021.
Jean François BERDAH
Jean-François Berdah is a senior lecturer in contemporary history at the University of Toulose - Mirail, specialising in contemporary Spain and international European political relations. He is a member of the Jean Monnet Institute and an expert in Spanish history, specialising in Spanish foreign policy during the Second Republic and the Spanish Civil War, the great powers, the exile of Spanish Republicans in France, and the notions of borders (migratory, transitory, imaginary).
Fatima BESNACI LANCOU
Fatima Besnaci Lancou holds a PhD in contemporary history and specialises in the Algerian War, in particular the internment, accommodation and refugee camps located in Morocco and Tunisia. She is the author of several publications, including Prisons et camps d’internement en Algérie – Les missions du CICR dans la guerre d’indépendance – 1955/1962 (Éditions du Croquant, 2018) and Harkis au camp de Rivesaltes, La relégation des familles, septembre 1962 - décembre 1964 (Éditions Loubatières / Mémorial du Camp de Rivesaltes, 2019). She was also the director of the special 2011 publication “Les harkis - 1962-2012 - Les mythes et les faits” of Les Temps Modernes journal. Dr Besnaci Lancou is a member of the jury of the Seligmann Award (literature) against Racism- Chancellerie de la Sorbonne.
Henri BOYER
Henri Boyer is a lecturer in language sciences (sociolinguistics) at University Montpellier III. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Spanish, Linguistics and French Language and Literature, along with a PhD in Humanities. He has mainly worked on the conflictual contact between languages and linguistic politics, the representation of language and issues surrounding the identity of linguistic groups and communities.
Alain CHATRIOT
Alain Chatriot is a lecturer in history at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, where he graduated. He also holds a PhD in History from the School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS). Dr Chatriot specialises in the history of the state, institutions and public policies in France and on the issue of the institutional representation of civil society.
Marc CREPON
Marc Crepon is a philosopher, Head of Research at the French Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Director of the Philosophy Department at the École Normale Supérieure. His work encompasses different fields of research: how to think in the presence of wars and massacres; how questions related to memorial heritage and their relationship to collective history can be re-examined today to create a common space rather than a public one; questioning cultures that do not eradicate violence, etc. At the ENS, he also created a programme to explore how students can articulate the history of philosophy in order to engage in reflections on major contemporary issues.
Geneviève DREYFUS ARMAND
Geneviève Dreyfus Armand holds a PhD in History. She is the Honorary General Conservator for Libraries, a former Director of France’s Library of Contemporary International Documentation (BDIC) and of the Contemporary History Museum, and President of the Centre for Studies and Research on Iberian Migrations (CERMI). Dr Dreyfus Armand specialises in the exile of Spanish Republicans in France and coordinates the publication of the journal Exils et Migrations Ibériques au XXe Siècle.
Jacqueline EIDELMAN
Jacqueline Eidelman, General Conservator of Heritage, headed the Department of Public Policy of the Heritage Branch of the French Ministry of Culture until December 2015. In 2016, she was appointed head of the “Museums of the 21st Century” working group, whose report was released in March 2017 and has appeared in La Documentation Française. She was a researcher at the CNRS until 2009 (Cerlis, UMR 8070) and PhD advisor at the University Paris-Descartes. Dr Eidelman is a PhD holder and is authorised to head doctoral research in social sciences (Paris Sorbonne). As a sociologist of public policy and museums, she teaches on the International Museology Doctorate programme (UAPV- University of Avignon and Pays de Vaucluse /École du Louvre/UQAM- University of Quebec in Montreal), heads the Musées-Monde collection at La Documentation Française, and is a member of the editorial board of the Culture and Museums journal (UAPV/Actes Sud). She is involved in the creation of a Society Memorial Museum to challenge terrorism.
Francis EUSTACHE
The neuropsychologist Francis Eustache is a professor at the École Pratique des Hautes Études and at the University of Caen-Basse Normandie. He is the director of the only French research unit exclusively dedicated to the study of human memory. As a neuropsychologist, he focuses on the relationship between the brain and behaviour, in particular memory and memory disorders, heading research into the latter and into the early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases. His work, which associates neuropsychology and cerebral neuroimaging, has made significant contributions to the fields of neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience of human memory, helping to improve the early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases thanks to the creation and validation of automated procedures for processing images. He codirects the 13-Novembre Programme with Denis Peschanski.
Peggy FRANKSTON
Peggy Frankston is the French correspondent of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. She has worked for many years on forging the scientific partnership between the two institutions.
Anne GRYNBERG
Anne Grynberg is an Emeritus professor in contemporary history, a researcher associated with the Institute of History and the Present Time (CNRS), and the Scientific Director of the History Committee of the Commission for the Compensation of Victims of Spoliation Resulting from the Anti-Semitic Legislation in Force during the Occupation (CIVS).
In 1989, she defended her PhD dissertation on the Jewish internees in internment camps in Southern France (University Paris I - Panthéon Sorbonne).
Nicolas MARTY
Nicolas Marty is a senior lecturer in history and Dean of the Faculty of Human Sciences of the University of Perpignan. His work focuses on the economic and social history of the French Languedoc Roussillon region.
Abderahmen MOUMEN
Abderahmen Moumen holds a PhD in history and is a researcher attached to the Centre for Historical Research on Mediterranean Societies, a part-time lecturer at University Lyon 22, and head of a working group on issues related to the memory of the Algerian War for the French National Office for Veterans and Victims of War (ONAC/VG). His work focuses on the history of population groups in Algeria, the Algerian War and migratory movements between Algeria and France; more specifically, political migrations.
Anne MUXEL
Anne Muxel is a sociologist, PhD holder and adviser in political science at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), in association with the Centre for Political Research of the Paris Institute of Political Studies (CEVIPOF). She specialises in the study of the role of memory in the intergenerational transmission of behaviour and knowledge, working in the area of political attitudes and behaviours by focusing on electoral sociology, and on the phenomena of political socialisation, intergenerational transmission and the construction of memory. She also focuses on the relationship between young people and politics. Her work in the field of sociology focuses on understanding the types of relationships individuals have with politics: new forms of expression and political participation, analysis of electoral behaviour, and the meaning behind abstention. She has also led various research projects on the relationship between young people and politics in France and within a comparative context in Europe.
Brigitte SION
Brigitte Sion holds a PhD in Performance Studies at New York University. She is a teacher, writer, translator and academic expert in memorial practices, public memory and post-genocidal memory, particularly regarding commemorations and artistic feedback. She also focuses on tourism, the media and communications related to memorials (her most recent publication is about tourism of mass graves). She is a task officer at the Rothschild Foundation for Europe
Jacques WALTER
Jacques Walter is the Director of the Research Centre on Mediation of the University of Lorraine, specialising in media coverage on war and memorial mediation, and in the sociology of information and communication practices. He has worked with witnesses of conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries, and is Co-Director of the “Qualitative Analysis of Militant Violence and Radicalisation Processes” division for a project on Violence and Militant Radicals in France funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR).
Olivier ABEL
Philosophe et professeur de philosophie et d'éthique à la faculté de théologie protestante de Montpellier. Il soutient sa thèse de doctorat de philosophie sous la direction de Paul Ricœur sur « Le Statut phénoménologique de la rêverie chez Gaston Bachelard », à l'université Paris-Nanterre, puis un mémoire d'habilitation en philosophie intitulé « L'Intervalle du temps éthique entre le courage et le pardon », à l'université d'Amiens.
Michel AGIER
Michel Agier is an anthropologist, Emeritus Director of Research at the French Research Institute for Development (IRD) and part-time lecturer at the School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS). He studies the relationship between globalisation, migration and the creation of cities, focusing in particular on camps and contemporary camps. He has published Gérer les indésirables. Des camps de réfugiés au gouvernement humanitaire (Flammarion, 2008) and Un monde de camps (dir., La Découverte, 2014). From 2016 to 2019, he was in charge of the Babels programme “La ville comme frontière” (French National Research Agency), through which he coordinated a group research project on the Calais camp: La Jungle de Calais. Les migrants, la frontière et le camp (PUF, 2018).
Johanna BARASZ
Johanna Barasz is a historian and graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Studies (IEP). She has mainly worked on the “Vichysto-Resistants” during the 1940-1944 period. She has also taught at the IEP and was a member of the cabinet of Vincent Peillon, the former French Minister for Education. She worked for a long period as an assistant delegate and educational consultant at the Inter-ministerial Commission for the Fight against Racism, Anti-Semitism and Anti-LGBT Hate (DILCRAH), before joining France Stratégie in 2021.
Jean François BERDAH
Jean-François Berdah is a senior lecturer in contemporary history at the University of Toulose - Mirail, specialising in contemporary Spain and international European political relations. He is a member of the Jean Monnet Institute and an expert in Spanish history, specialising in Spanish foreign policy during the Second Republic and the Spanish Civil War, the great powers, the exile of Spanish Republicans in France, and the notions of borders (migratory, transitory, imaginary).
Fatima BESNACI LANCOU
Fatima Besnaci Lancou holds a PhD in contemporary history and specialises in the Algerian War, in particular the internment, accommodation and refugee camps located in Morocco and Tunisia. She is the author of several publications, including Prisons et camps d’internement en Algérie – Les missions du CICR dans la guerre d’indépendance – 1955/1962 (Éditions du Croquant, 2018) and Harkis au camp de Rivesaltes, La relégation des familles, septembre 1962 - décembre 1964 (Éditions Loubatières / Mémorial du Camp de Rivesaltes, 2019). She was also the director of the special 2011 publication “Les harkis - 1962-2012 - Les mythes et les faits” of Les Temps Modernes journal. Dr Besnaci Lancou is a member of the jury of the Seligmann Award (literature) against Racism- Chancellerie de la Sorbonne.
Henri BOYER
Henri Boyer is a lecturer in language sciences (sociolinguistics) at University Montpellier III. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Spanish, Linguistics and French Language and Literature, along with a PhD in Humanities. He has mainly worked on the conflictual contact between languages and linguistic politics, the representation of language and issues surrounding the identity of linguistic groups and communities.
Alain CHATRIOT
Alain Chatriot is a lecturer in history at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, where he graduated. He also holds a PhD in History from the School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS). Dr Chatriot specialises in the history of the state, institutions and public policies in France and on the issue of the institutional representation of civil society.
Marc CREPON
Marc Crepon is a philosopher, Head of Research at the French Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Director of the Philosophy Department at the École Normale Supérieure. His work encompasses different fields of research: how to think in the presence of wars and massacres; how questions related to memorial heritage and their relationship to collective history can be re-examined today to create a common space rather than a public one; questioning cultures that do not eradicate violence, etc. At the ENS, he also created a programme to explore how students can articulate the history of philosophy in order to engage in reflections on major contemporary issues.
Geneviève DREYFUS ARMAND
Geneviève Dreyfus Armand holds a PhD in History. She is the Honorary General Conservator for Libraries, a former Director of France’s Library of Contemporary International Documentation (BDIC) and of the Contemporary History Museum, and President of the Centre for Studies and Research on Iberian Migrations (CERMI). Dr Dreyfus Armand specialises in the exile of Spanish Republicans in France and coordinates the publication of the journal Exils et Migrations Ibériques au XXe Siècle.
Jacqueline EIDELMAN
Jacqueline Eidelman, General Conservator of Heritage, headed the Department of Public Policy of the Heritage Branch of the French Ministry of Culture until December 2015. In 2016, she was appointed head of the “Museums of the 21st Century” working group, whose report was released in March 2017 and has appeared in La Documentation Française. She was a researcher at the CNRS until 2009 (Cerlis, UMR 8070) and PhD advisor at the University Paris-Descartes. Dr Eidelman is a PhD holder and is authorised to head doctoral research in social sciences (Paris Sorbonne). As a sociologist of public policy and museums, she teaches on the International Museology Doctorate programme (UAPV- University of Avignon and Pays de Vaucluse /École du Louvre/UQAM- University of Quebec in Montreal), heads the Musées-Monde collection at La Documentation Française, and is a member of the editorial board of the Culture and Museums journal (UAPV/Actes Sud). She is involved in the creation of a Society Memorial Museum to challenge terrorism.
Francis EUSTACHE
The neuropsychologist Francis Eustache is a professor at the École Pratique des Hautes Études and at the University of Caen-Basse Normandie. He is the director of the only French research unit exclusively dedicated to the study of human memory. As a neuropsychologist, he focuses on the relationship between the brain and behaviour, in particular memory and memory disorders, heading research into the latter and into the early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases. His work, which associates neuropsychology and cerebral neuroimaging, has made significant contributions to the fields of neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience of human memory, helping to improve the early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases thanks to the creation and validation of automated procedures for processing images. He codirects the 13-Novembre Programme with Denis Peschanski.
Peggy FRANKSTON
Peggy Frankston is the French correspondent of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. She has worked for many years on forging the scientific partnership between the two institutions.
Anne GRYNBERG
Anne Grynberg is an Emeritus professor in contemporary history, a researcher associated with the Institute of History and the Present Time (CNRS), and the Scientific Director of the History Committee of the Commission for the Compensation of Victims of Spoliation Resulting from the Anti-Semitic Legislation in Force during the Occupation (CIVS).
In 1989, she defended her PhD dissertation on the Jewish internees in internment camps in Southern France (University Paris I - Panthéon Sorbonne).
Nicolas MARTY
Nicolas Marty is a senior lecturer in history and Dean of the Faculty of Human Sciences of the University of Perpignan. His work focuses on the economic and social history of the French Languedoc Roussillon region.
Abderahmen MOUMEN
Abderahmen Moumen holds a PhD in history and is a researcher attached to the Centre for Historical Research on Mediterranean Societies, a part-time lecturer at University Lyon 22, and head of a working group on issues related to the memory of the Algerian War for the French National Office for Veterans and Victims of War (ONAC/VG). His work focuses on the history of population groups in Algeria, the Algerian War and migratory movements between Algeria and France; more specifically, political migrations.
Anne MUXEL
Anne Muxel is a sociologist, PhD holder and adviser in political science at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), in association with the Centre for Political Research of the Paris Institute of Political Studies (CEVIPOF). She specialises in the study of the role of memory in the intergenerational transmission of behaviour and knowledge, working in the area of political attitudes and behaviours by focusing on electoral sociology, and on the phenomena of political socialisation, intergenerational transmission and the construction of memory. She also focuses on the relationship between young people and politics. Her work in the field of sociology focuses on understanding the types of relationships individuals have with politics: new forms of expression and political participation, analysis of electoral behaviour, and the meaning behind abstention. She has also led various research projects on the relationship between young people and politics in France and within a comparative context in Europe.
Brigitte SION
Brigitte Sion holds a PhD in Performance Studies at New York University. She is a teacher, writer, translator and academic expert in memorial practices, public memory and post-genocidal memory, particularly regarding commemorations and artistic feedback. She also focuses on tourism, the media and communications related to memorials (her most recent publication is about tourism of mass graves). She is a task officer at the Rothschild Foundation for Europe
Jacques WALTER
Jacques Walter is the Director of the Research Centre on Mediation of the University of Lorraine, specialising in media coverage on war and memorial mediation, and in the sociology of information and communication practices. He has worked with witnesses of conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries, and is Co-Director of the “Qualitative Analysis of Militant Violence and Radicalisation Processes” division for a project on Violence and Militant Radicals in France funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR).