2022 News & Events
what is the landscape after the bighorn fire?
November 21, 2022
Today we went on a walk with Ben Wilder, Director and co-founder of Next Generation Sonoran Desert Researchers, who talked about the research going on at Catalina State Park on the study of the flora following the 2020 Bighorn Fire which lasted for over 2 months following a lightning strike.
The project marked out plots, in the grassland and in the desert section, and has been observing the evolution since: did the invasive non-native species (buffelgrass) cause the spread? What native plants vs. non-native are growing? How did the saguaros deal with it?
CNRS Journalist in Tucson
November 15, 2022
Sonia Collavizza, video journalist for CNRS, braved the early morning cold weather at Catalina State Park to get video images of the region. She came to Tucson to film the CNRS researchers working on different projects in the area and will be putting together a documentary on it.
WORKSHOP on health and environmental change: pushing research boundaries through arizona-france cooperation
A workshop organized by the International Research Lab iGLOBES and the France-Arizona Institute as part of CNRS' Health-Environment Global Grand Challenge, with the support of CNRS' MITI (Mission for transverse and interdisciplinary initiatives).
Date: November 16, 2022
Time: 8:30am to 4:15pm, followed by light reception
Where: Health Science Innovation Building (HSIB), 1670 E. Drachman St. room 567 (5th floor)
Or via zoom : link will be sent automatically after registration
Registration is free, but mandatory
As global changes hit environments and societies, human health faces new challenges. While health & the environment is a research area of exceptional strength at the University of Arizona, France's National Center for Scientific Research is making of it one of his top priorities for interdisciplinary global science. To identify their strongest synergies and outline a common research agenda for unique achievements at global scale, UArizona and CNRS co-convene a workshop on November 16th in a hybrid format (in-person meeting in Tucson Arizona, and online participation via Zoom). The program will include five sessions followed by a general discussion:
- The OneHealth perspective
- Climate change and governance for resilience
- Environmental contaminants and health impacts
- Climate change and health equity
- Climate change and infectious diseases
See the appended PDF for a full version of the program, including the list of contributors and their bios with the link to register, as well as the flyer. Any questions, contact Ruth Gosset or Morgane Noel.
VICTOR CAMPOLO receives a research grant
Congratulations to Victor Campolo who just received a research grant from the doctoral program Savoirs en Sociétés after getting a master’s in Environmental Studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) for his doctoral thesis “Heal the body and save the soul. A history of colonial contact through the prism of healthcare: French Guiana (1930-1969)”. Victor did an internship with the GUYINT project in 2021 and was financed by iGlobes to further his research during his stay in the Spring of 2022. Now a member of the Centre Alexandre Koyré (EHESS-CNRS-National Museum of Natural History), he will work on his thesis under the supervision of Anne Rasmussen, a historian and Director of studies at EHESS, and Claire Fredj, a historian and Associate Professor in Contemporary History at the University Paris-Nanterre.
OHMI PIMA COUNTY workshop
October 24, 2022
The annual OHMI Pima County workshop took place on October 24 from 8-11am (17-20pm France).
Nine projects were presented:
- Phytoextracton research (L. Novo, T. Wlodarczyk, A. Babst-Kostecka)
- Contamination by ammunitions, a comparison between Pays de Bitche and Pima County (K. Dontsova)
- Exploring the media environment in Pima County (B. Juanals, J-L. Minel)
- Actions in the Cienega watershed (A. Zuniga, L. Fisher)
- Cowboy ecology (F. Poupeau)
- Tipping points and sentinels (D. Blanchon)
- Hunting in Pima County (S. Roux)
- Connection, disconnection and reconnection in hydrosystems (A-L. Boyer)
- Energy transition in Pima County (F-M. Le Tourneau
Predicting the impact of climate change on microbes in the environment
October 15, 2022
Experts believe a warming climate could see microbes evolve to more effectively feed the soil. iGLOBES Director and UA biology Professor, Regis Ferriere, is developing mathematical models predicting the effects of climate change. He warns how the process might produce more carbon dioxide and put it back into the atmosphere.
FIELD OBSERVATION at the atomic bomb testing site
October 15, 2022
On Saturday October 15, Marine Bobin along with Amandine Reist and Sebastien Roux, went to the open house at the Trinity military site in New Mexico. This event, which takes place for two days every year, gives the public access to the place where the very first atomic bomb was tested, July 16, 1945 (three weeks before the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings).
The parking lot was already full when we arrived around 9:00am. Arizona, Texas, Wyoming, the license plates show us that visitors sometimes come from very far for this event. They crowd around the obelisk erected on the exact spot of the first atomic bomb explosion and the selfies follow one after another in front of a (disarmed) bomb that is identical to Fat Man, the one that exploded at Hiroshima. Between 3,000 and 5,000 people are expected throughout the day; for some it’s a family outing, with their children and their dog. Many wander with their heads down, scanning the ground in search of trinitite, the vitrified rock that was formed following the explosion. Once the famous mineral has been found, some, Geiger counter in hand, have fun measuring its radioactivity (rather low). Visitors can also take a shuttle bus to the ranch where scientists assembled the bomb's plutonium core. On the way back to the car lot, a long queue has now formed to buy a souvenir: a t-shirt, mug or key ring.
When leaving the site, downwinders tirelessly try to stop the cars. These local residents were the first victims of the atomic bomb and were never recognized by the Federal government. They demand justice and try to alert visitors of their situation, as well as other nuclear-related damage in the region, notably the abandoned uranium mines in Diné territory.
Hosted at iGlobes for a month, this excursion was part of a field observation for Marine's postdoctoral research project on environmental conflicts in the US Southwest. Photos taken by Marine Bobin.
A TALK BY FRANCOIS-mICHEL lE TOURNEAU, CNRS SENIOR RESEARCHER
October 14, 2022 at 3:30 pm (snacks at 3) in ENR2 S-107
François-Michel Le Tourneau will be giving a talk at the School of Geography's colloquium on the topic of "Sparsely populated areas as a specific geographical environment: a global theory and its application to Arizona".
François-Michel spent his early career researching in the Brazilian Amazon, working on issues like deforestation, Indigenous peoples and their territories or illegal gold mining, which he still works on today. He then broadened his research to the question of sparsely populated areas around the world, trying to establish if common patterns can be found "where humans are scarcer than square miles". As a geographer, he considers fieldwork and the physical interaction with the places that he studies as a cornerstone of his research. He has lived about half his career in CNRS overseas positions, five years in Brazil as a researcher at the University of Brasilia and five years in Arizona as a researcher at UA and former Deputy Director of iGLOBES. He was also involved in dozens of fieldwork missions in the Brazilian Amazon and in other places like Arizona and, most recently, Sweden. He was the scientific coordinator and organizer of five expeditions in the Amazon and in French Guiana, some of them having been recorded in documentary films. He is the author of five books (the most recent about illegal gold mining in French Guiana) and the author of over 100 papers published in major geography journals like Journal of Rural Studies, The Annals of American Geographers, Geojournal or Cybergeo.
TRIBUTE TO THOMAS MEixner
Thursday (10/13/22), we lost our colleague Professor Thomas Meixner in a horrible shooting.
Tom was the Head of the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences. He was an exceptionally strong leader, a world star in his field, and incredibly generous of his time and ideas with colleagues and students. He was a strong collaborator, very involved in the iGLOBES’ water research projects, working with Franck Poupeau and subsequently François-Michel le Tourneau, Anne-Lise Boyer and David Blanchon. He was an important resource in the current HYDECO project funded by the OHMI, notably for the research of the 5 Master students who came this past Spring; with François-Michel, Anne-Lise and David, he was getting ready to advise the next interns who were coming to work on the project.
The iGLOBES team is deeply shocked by this tragedy. We offer our deepest condolences to Tom’s family, friends and colleagues.
a visit of biosphere 2
October 7, 2022
UA's research facility Biosphere 2 is an interesting place to discover, from the history behind this unusual architecture, its original intended purpose, to the current research being pursued in its various biodomes.
French visiting scholars Marine Bobin, Amandine Reist and Boris Wieczorek, along with the iGLOBES team, took the main audio tour and then went into the bowels of the structure to observe the lung.
iGLOBES DEPUTY DIRECTOR GIVEN CNRS' HIGHEST SCIENTIFIC RANK
October 5, 2022
Sebastien Roux became Senior Researcher ("Research Director") on October 1st, 2022. As a Senior Researcher, he joins the highest scientific rank given by CNRS following an intensely competitive yearly national application. He was tied in first place in section 36 “Sociology and Law Sciences”. Congratulations for this excellent result! An additional boost for the continuing research done at iGlobes in environmental social sciences.
workshop on the hydeco project
June 24, 2022
Today's worshop which will take place at the Campus Condorcet in Aubervilliers, France, will focus on "Making visible the invisible: Tipping points, early warning systems and sentinel. Follow the session remotely:
iGLOBEs members win 2 out of 3 prizes at the driihm conference
June 22, 2022
At the annual DRIIHM symposium which took place in Nantes, France this year, iGLOBES members won 2 out of the 3 poster prizes. Congratulations to Laetitia Balaresque and Gabriela de Carvalho Bezerra for winning the Young Researcher prize and to Fabrice Dubertret for the Scientific Council prize (accepted by François-Michel Le Tourneau)!
DRIIHM annual Symposium 2022
June 20-22, 2022
The annual DRIIHM 2022 symposium will take place in Nantes France from June 20-22. iGLOBES' OHMI project leaders, along with 7 interns will be participating in the event. Find out more about the event...
mutualism between ants and the barrel cactus
Valentin Brochet, a master's student at ENS, talks about the research he did during his Spring 2022 internship at the University of Arizona:
"The Tucson region is home to a unique cactus: the Fishhook barrel cactus, a plant specific to the Sonoran desert region. Its unique feature is the nectar that it produces year-round at the base of its thorns, attracting several species of ants who, on their end, protect the cactus from predators (mostly stink bugs); a quid pro quo that biologists call mutualism".....read more.
Ethnography of gun shooting: framing and modeling of an American cultural practice
Margaux Rolland is a master's student in sociology at the Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Sarclay. She is doing an internship in Tucson on hunting in Arizona, the OHMI Pima County research project HUNT-AZ:
"According to several articles in hunting magazines, there are five typical-ideal stages that a hunter will go through. The first one is the “shooter” stage, where the joy of hunting is in using the gun and getting better at handling it. So, as a novice, I had to do a trip to the shooting range for our ethnographic study of hunters". Read more...
Energy transitions and reconfigurations of socio-ecosystems
Laetitia Balaresque is a master's student at ENS-Lyon and Gabriela de Carvalho at EHESS, and they are both in Tucson as part of the ENERGON project - Energy transitions and reconfigurations of socio-ecosystems.
In speaking with public and private groups and individuals, their goal is to observe and understand the process of local energy transition towards photovoltaic and solar energy. Arizona is known as the state with the most solar potential in the United States. As Tucson Electric Power (TEP), the major utility provider in Pima County, is committed to increasing their share of renewable energy in its electricity production from 20% today to 70% by 2035, questions remain on how this process will develop. As the regional population grows and climate change exerts its effects in an already very arid zone, the electricity consumption is expected to rise. The territorial, economic and social impacts of the expansion of solar energy and its weight in land dynamics will be more and more present and visible. In their fieldwork, they will study both the production of large solar farms and residential installations.
modeling of life in closed spaces
Elie Danziger is a visiting PhD student from the Collège de France who is at iGLOBES from February 20 to May 12, 2022.
"My project focuses on the modelling of life in closed spaces, and I am conducting fieldwork to compare the way scientists and engineers conceive of and fabricate closed systems across different labs such as the Ecotrons in Europe and Biosphere 2 (B2) which I am currently investigating here in the Sonoran desert. My day-to-day ethnographic endeavor consists mostly in helping out and shadowing as many scientists and technicians as possible, in order to get a sense of the choices that are made in the maintenance of ecological systems that are situated on a gradient, from the most to the less closed." Read further...
Last session of iglobes seminar series
May 11, 2022 11am-4pm
The last session of the Spring iGLOBES series will feature:
1) Eugenie Clement, Doctoral student in anthropology on "Anti-capitalism and environmental struggles: water ties in the negotiations, tensions and mobilizations in and around the Navajo Nation”
2) Margaux Rolland and Sebastien Roux on "Hunting, fishing and ecology? Hunting – a challenging practice in Pima County (OHMI HUNTAZ project)
3) Sarah Mazouz, CNRS researcher in sociology on "How to integrate race and gender issues in social sciences' field work"
Learn more about Sarah on her Profile page and her latest publications.
where are we going?
May 9, 2022 at 4pm
In this period of intense geopolitical upheaval in Europe and around the world, Night of Ideas will invite researchers, writers, artist and community leaders to question the theme Where Are We Going? This year, the 250+ speakers and performers, including musician, author, and poet Patti Smith, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, Goncourt Prize-winning Franco-Moroccan novelist Leïla Slimani, French sociologist and anthropologist Bruno Latour, and many more, will participate in a nocturnal marathon of philosophical debates, performances, readings and more, taking place this May in a record-breaking 19 US cities. Learn more...
Night of ideas - Tucson will have a conference-debate on Contemporary Social and Environmental Challenges at the University of Arizona, 1306 E. University Blvd. S107 in ENR2, Tucson , AZ on May 9 at 4pm.
Science and technology studies monthly meeting
May 6, 2022 10am-1pm
ENR2 conference room S107
Elie Danzinger, PhD student in anthropology at EHESS, will be one of the presenters at the Graduate Student Conference on. His research is on "An anthropological approach to the modeling of life in closed systems". Lunch provided! See more...
an anthropological approach to the modeling of life in closed systems
May 4, 2022 12-2pm
Marshall building room 531
The next talk of the Spring iGLOBES series will be given by Elie Danzinger, PhD student in anthropology at EHESS on the topic of "An anthropological approach to the modeling of life in closed systems".
Bring your lunch and we will provide coffee and dessert!
Wednesday SEMINAR: manufacturing the local by placing history
April 27, 2022 11-1 pm
Marshall building room 531
The next talk of the Spring iGLOBES series will be given by Emmanuel Falguieres, PhD student in history on the topic of "Manufacturing the local by placing history: the American historical profession, the local historians and the Great Plains".
Bring your lunch and we will provide coffee and dessert! See list of future talks...
Wednesday SEMINAR: the future of renewable energy in tucson
April 20, 2022 12-2 pm
Marshall building room 531
The next talk of the Spring iGLOBES series will be given by Laetitia Balaresque and Gabriela de Carvalho Bezerra, master's students in environmental studies in France on the ENERGON project, "The future of renewable energy in Tucson: discourses, challenges, realities".
Bring your lunch and we will provide coffee and dessert!
field trip to asarco copper mine
April 14, 2022
The 14 team members of iGLOBES went for a tour of Asarco Copper Mine in Sahuarita. We learned how copper is extracted and partially refined before being sent to Mexico then Texas for the final results. The trucks carrying the earth were impressive (the tires are 12 feet tall) and so was the excavated mine...
Wednesday SEMINAR: constructions, trajectories and uses of geographic knowledge in french guiana and inini
April 13, 2022 11am-1pm
Marshall building room 531
The next talk of the Spring iGLOBES series will be given by Victor Campolo, a master's student in historical anthropology at EHESS in France on "From sky to earth, from field to texts. Constructions, trajectories and uses of geographic knowledge in Guiana and Inini". Presentation will be in French.
Bring your lunch and we will provide coffee and dessert!
FIELD TRIP TO LAS CIENEGAS NATIONAL CONSERVATION AREA
On Thursday, April 7, a group of French interns headed to the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area for a one-day field trip organized by OHMI Pima County co-director Larry Fisher. The first stop was at the Helvetia Lookout to talk about the environmental impact of the Rosemont mine project at the root of the creation of the OHMI Pima County. Students then got the opportunity to learn more about the environmental health of intermittent streams in Southern Arizona. In the Sonoran Desert, intermittent streams are essential for sustaining biodiversity (e.g., riparian forest, Chiricahua frogs, a wide variety of birds, etc.). Affected by strong connection/ disconnection processes, these streams are the heart of the Labex DRIIHM research program HYDECO.
great weather for hiking!
April 4, 2022
The whole iGLOBES team headed out for a hike at Madera Canyon. What a surprise to find a whole different ecosystem...
BBCS Virtual Webinar "Global Prosperity in the Face of Climate Change: In Pursuit of a Sustainable Future"
April 8, 2022 at 8am in Arizona
Bridging Biodiversity and Conservation Science (BBCS) is an interdisciplinary research collaborative of the Arizona Institutes for Resilience at The University of Arizona. This year’s BBCS webinar is intended to approach the issue of global sustainable development in the face of climate change and natural degradation from the standpoint of harmonious co-existence of the natural ecosystems. See list of speakers and register...
A look at the interplay of social & environmental DIMENSIONS of socio-hydrosystems
April 6, 2022 11am-1pm
Marshall building room 531
The first Wednesday talk of the Spring iGLOBES series will be on the Hydeco projet: The relationship between societies and their hydrosystems can be understood as a series of connections and disconnections that occur in all domains and dimensions . The use of watercourses and water resources creates material and symbolic connections which leads water stakeholders to also consider the sociological and political, aesthetic and spiritual dimensions of the socio-hydrosystem. However, the development of physical (e.g, dams) and social infrastructures (e.g, waterbodies are so artificialized that local residents forget about their existence) generates important disconnections.
Bring your lunch and we will provide coffee and dessert!
ENERGON: Energy transitions and socio-ecosystems reconfigurations
The ENERGON research project, funded by the CNRS and INEE through the Labex DRIIHM, is an interdisciplinary and multi-site project, which relies on the network of Human-Environment Observatory (OHM), in place since 2007. Led by the OHM of the Provence Mining Basin, the project’s objective is to question the conditions of energy transitions in 6 different observatories and locations. Learn more...
iGLOBES brown bag series
Wednesdays from 11am-1pm, April 6 to May 18, 2022
Marshall building room 531
Come join us for this new series, organized by Sebastien Roux, CNRS researcher and Deputy Director of iGLOBES. The March 30 session had to be cancelled because of Covid. The sessions will start on April 6 with a presentation on the Hydeco projet. Bring your lunch and we will provide coffee and dessert!
Hunting in the desert: assessing the form and use of kite-like structures in the western Sahara
March 31, 2022
Laetitia Balaresque, a master's student in environmental studies at ENS Lyon and currently doing an internship at iGLOBES, recently published an article:
Barge, O., Balaresque, L., Baudoin, J., Boelke, M., & Derrien, L. (2022). Hunting in the desert: Assessing the form and use of kite-like structures in the western Sahara. Antiquity, 1-8. doi:10.15184/aqy.2022.35
Nearly 500 kite-like structures have recently been discovered in the western Sahara using high resolution satellite images. Although four distinct types with different morphologies have been distinguished, their characteristics, topographical location and orientation in the landscape indicate that they are all most likely hunting traps.
sustainable landscapes expo
March 19, 2022
iGLOBES interns, Laetitia Balaresque, Louise Biville, Manon Delegue and Coline Clergeau Laurans, learn more about land & resource management at the Sustainable Landscapes expo.
the "french in the desert" participate in the 100k strong project
March 15-16, 2022
For two days, the Hydeco project interns, Coline Clergeau Laurans, Manon Delegue and Gregoire Rame, were able to join the Mexican delegation from the University of Sonora, hosted by the University of Arizona as part of the "100K Strong Project" exchange program. Coordinated by Adriana Zuniga, the various speakers addressed the theme of green infrastructure and the solutions it offers in urban environments located in arid areas. Nicknamed "The French in the desert", the interns had the opportunity to follow the delegation to the Heritage and Sweetwater projects, led by Tucson Water, which were studied as part of their research.
PANEL DISCUSSION AT EASA 2022: CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Title : Losing Worlds. On Affectivity in the Time of Environmental Damage and Ecopolitical Resistance
Deadline: March 21, 2022 (6pm EST)
How are those concerned by environmental destruction experiencing loss-related emotions? How are regimes of affectivity related to sadness and despair – but also hope – socially distributed and culturally expressed? And how, and to what extent, do these feelings fuel alternative political action?
Participate in the panel discussion led by Jean Chamel (Université de Lausanne) and Sebastien Roux (CNRS) that will take place at the EASA 2022 conference in Belfast. Learn more and propose a paper.
Frédéric Worms is the new director of ens-psl, one of iglobes' trustees
March 16, 2022
Both a French grande école and a university, the École normale supérieure (ENS) has been training through research senior executives of public administrations, French and European companies, and research professors since 1794 and is ranked internationally in the top 3.
Frédéric Worms is a professor in contemporary philosophy at ENS, where he was Deputy Director since september 2015. He is the Director of the Centre international d'étude de la philosophie française contemporaine and a member of the Comité consultatif national d'éthique. He was nominated by the French government as Director of ENS on March 12, 2022 and will begin his 5 year tenure on March 16. Learn more (in French)...
an outing in the santa catalina mountains
March 12, 2022
Larry Fisher, co-director of the Observatory and Professor at the University of Arizona, took all (eleven!) students currently present at iGLBOES on a hike in the Santa Catalina Mountains, on the Finger Rock Trail. After climbing among the saguaros, they could see the city spread out below and in the foreground, on the west, the Tucson Mountains.
30% by 2030. conserving our shared lands
March 14, 2022 from 6-7:30pm
Location : Desert Laboratory Boat House at the base of Tumamoc Hill
Don't miss out on this great event with leading experts from France and our region who will discuss how to achieve protection of 30% of our land and seas by 2030. Speakers will be:
Dr. Hélène Soubelet, Director of the French Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB)
Mr. Cyrille Barnerias, Director of European and International Relations at the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB)
Dr. Alberto Burquez, Senior Scientist, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Ms. Nicole Fyffe, Assistant to the County Administrator, Pima County
And opening remarks by:
Dr. Stéphane Raud, Attaché for Science and Technology, French Embassy in the U.S.
Dr. Joaquin Ruiz, Vice President of Global Environmental Futures
Dr. Regis Ferriere, Director, Interdisciplinary Global Environmental Studies (iGLOBES)
Dr. Benjamin Wilder, Director, Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill
OHMI PIMA COUNTY WORKSHOP
March 10, 2022
Today's workshop, organized by Anne-Lise Boyer, was focused on the DRIIHM research projects HYDECO and ENERGON. Presentations included:
- Anne-Lise Boyer, HYDECO project - Processes of connections/disconnections in socio-hydrosystems: assessing the visible/invisible interface in the interplay between the social and environmental dimensions of socio-hydrosystems
- Nina Montes de Oca, ENERGON project - Energy transitions and reconfigurations of socio-ecosystems
- Larry Fisher & Adriana Zuniga, Environmental issue in the Santa Cruz River watershed
- Claire Néel, The paradoxes of restoring a dry river in the southwestern US - the case of the Santa Cruz
- Brian O'Neill, An ethnography approach to water issues in the Southwestern US
CNRS' first international research center is based at the university of arizona
February 28 to March 2, 2022
CNRS' first international research center (IRC) was established at the University of Arizona and is called the France-Arizona Institute for Global Grand Challenges. A significant delegation of CNRS, including Chairman and CEO Antoine Petit, came to Tucson to discuss next steps after this first successful year. Read further:
"En Arizona, le premier IRC du CNRS est un succès", Journal du CNRS
THE THOMAS JEFFERSON FUND, CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Deadline: February 24, 2022
Project launch: September/October 2022
Maximum of $20 000 for 2 years per project
The Thomas Jefferson Fund supports cooperation among French and American researchers, and fosters research on the most pressing global challenges. Open to all disciplines and to interdisciplinary STEM-Humanities/Social Sciences projects.
The most innovative projects involving transatlantic mobility, collaborative research activities, organization of joint workshops or conferences, publication of joint articles, and participation of younger researchers (PhDs) will receive the highest priority. Proposals must be jointly submitted by one American researcher and one French researcher, with mid- to longterm positions at a research or higher education institution in the United States or in France (post-doctorate level, assistant or associate professor, maître de conférences or chargé de recherche).
The grant covers travel expenses between France and the US, accommodation costs and a part of the organizational costs of joint conferences or publications. Partner researchers are encouraged to obtain « in kind » and/or « in cash » co-funding from their institutions or from other sources of funding to cover all other types of expenses necessary to the successful implementation of the joint research project. Apply here.
is international adoption a thing of the past?
January 21, 2022
CNRS researcher Sebastien Roux's new book, Sang d’encre. Enquête sur la fin de l’adoption internationale, takes a look at the decline in international adoption.
In France, there were only 244 international adoptions in 2020. Stricter government policies, increase in contraception options, better fertility techniques...different factors come into play. Several scandals have also put a black mark on the history of international adoption. Tragic consequences for the children and their families, but also for future adoptive parents. How does the international adoption procedure work?
Sebastien was interviewed on the French radio station, rfi. Listen to the podcast (in French).
CNRS-UARIZONA JOINT CALL FOR PROPOSALS GRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP & INTERNATIONAL MOBILITY
Deadline: January 24, 2022 at 23:59 Paris time (3:59pm Arizona time).
The French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the University of Arizona are leaders and long-time partners in research addressing grand challenges of global societal relevance. To foster and expand research cooperation, the two institutions are partnering as a new International Research Center: FRANCE-ARIZONA INSTITUTE FOR GLOBAL GRAND CHALLENGES. This 2nd Call for Proposals issued by the IRC program aims at supporting outstanding collaborative projects in all disciplines. Get more details and apply
sebastien roux presents his book on the french radio station FRANCE INTER
January 8, 2022
Sebastien talks about his recently published book, Sang d’encre. Enquête sur la fin de l’adoption internationale, in which he discusses the steady decrease in international adoptions.
Listen to the podcast of the January 8 show at 28:08 minutes (in French).
APPLY FOR QUANTITATIVE BIOLOGY WINTER SCHOOL TO BE HELD IN PARIS
Deadline: January 7
iGLOBES director Regis Ferriere is a Scientific Committee Member for the forthcoming Winter School "Quantitative Viral Dynamics Across Scales", to be held in Paris from March 21-25, 2022.
The deadline for application is approaching: January 7. All information on the school program and application process is HERE. Note that applicants can request funding for travel."
sebastien roux, deputy director of iglobes & cnrs researcher, publishes a book
January 6, 2022
Sebastien's new book, Sang d’encre. Enquête sur la fin de l’adoption internationale, published today by Vendémiaire, takes a look at international adoption.
The rate of children adopted from overseas has decreased by over 90% in France since the middle of the 2000s. Unreported in the news, international adoption is quietly dying. After flourishing at the start of the millennium, with parents wishing for children and overpopulated orphanages, what happened?
Going from local adoption agencies to Ethiopian orphanages, from France to Asia, Sebastien led an investigation for over 10 years among social workers, young adoptees, potential parents, pediatricians, mediators, and also diplomats and NGOs... Shaking our preconceived notions, he brings to light the positions that seem to perversely condemn international adoption, the quest for moralization and the constant focus on the children's well-being. Plunging into the depths of a hidden phenomena, revealing the modern changes in our views on parenting and - with today's heightened recognition of different types of families and the increase in available reproductive technologies - the unexpected importance of blood relations.
Linking acoustic diversity to compositional and configurational heterogeneity in mosaic landscapes
January 4, 2022
There is a long-standing quest in landscape ecology for holistic biodiversity metrics accounting for multi-taxa diversity in heterogeneous habitat mosaics. Passive acoustic monitoring of biodiversity may provide integrative indices allowing to investigate how soundscapes are shaped by compositional and configurational heterogeneity of mosaic landscapes.
There is a long-standing quest in landscape ecology for holistic biodiversity metrics accounting for multi-taxa diversity in heterogeneous habitat mosaics. Passive acoustic monitoring of biodiversity may provide integrative indices allowing to investigate how soundscapes are shaped by compositional and configurational heterogeneity of mosaic landscapes. The effects of dominant habitat and landscape heterogeneity on acoustic diversity indices were tested across a large range of mosaic landscapes from two long-term socio-ecological research areas in Occitanie, France and Arizona, USA.
We found that acoustic diversity was correlated more with configurational than compositional heterogeneity in both regions, with contrasting effects explained by the interplay between biogeography and land use history. We suggest that multiple acoustic indices are needed to properly account for complex responses of soundscapes to large-scale habitat heterogeneity in mosaic landscapes.
The article was published on January 4, 2022 in Landscape Ecology by Springer. Authors: Barbaro, L., Sourdril, A., Froidevaux, J.S.P. et al. Article available here
A GET TOGETHER BETWEEN the university of arizona AND france
January 3, 2022
Another step in solidifying the fruitful collaboration between the University of Arizona and France, thanks to CNRS' presence and investment in the scientific community and the students of both countries. The UA Presidency welcomed the French Ambassador and the General Council to the United States on January 3rd, 2022.
©Matthias Carette - Courtesy of the French Consulate in Los Angeles