Itinéraire(s) 13 - January 2023 - Contents

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Editorial

Our researchers take a different look at current events in Ukraine, and try to raise awareness of this country that France has for a long time, very little and misunderstood, as a terra incognita (Okasana Mitrofanova).

Anne de Tinguy presents her new book Le Géant empêtré, a Russia with strengths but also insurmountable difficulties in many areas, hence its weaknesses in the conflict with Ukraine.

What seems little known, both to Europe and to the Russian adversary, is the advent of Ukrainian national sentiment. Bertrand de Franqueville and Adrien Nonjon develop it from several angles. Their texts shed light on our lack of knowledge in this field.

To conclude this sideways glance, let's open our eyes to Ukrainian cinema and literature.

Presentation of the Europes-Asia Research Center (CREE)

The CREE is a research center with specialists in an area as broad as medieval and Balkan Europe, Russia and Central Asia. Its members have mastered linguistic, historical, social and geopolitical contexts that are little explored elsewhere, and apprehend innovative or little-explored themes by articulating in a transversal way, within the same center, reflection on the long term and reaction to the present.

Within the CREE are two teams working in particular on the area that interests us in this dossier:

The Observatory of Post-Soviet States (OEPS), directed by Catherine Poujol and Taline Ter Minassian, works on research and analysis of regional reorganization processes in the post-Soviet space, media monitoring of political, economic and geopolitical news from post-Soviet states, and the study of heritage and architecture in these states. OEPS coordinates regular scientific activities, publishes works, some of which have become veritable tools for understanding the "post-Soviet transition", and organizes "breakfasts" devoted to the political, economic, geopolitical news of the post-Soviet states.

The Observatory of Contemporary Middle Europe aims to organize debates open to the general public, bringing together specialists (academics, experts, journalists, diplomats...) from the states and societies of Middle Europe, to provide contextualized insights into current issues, and to question the perception of the civilian populations of this region on political and social mutations or phenomena that are the subject of debate. While addressing topical issues, the Observatoire de l'Europe médiane will also focus on societal questions that are part of a longer timeframe (issues linked to internal politics, the socio-economic, cultural or media situation and transformations).

Created on the model of the Observatory of Post-Soviet States, which has been in existence since the 1990s, the Observatory of Contemporary Medieval Europe responds to the need to nurture knowledge, information and debate on a geographical area stretching from Finland to Greece, including the countries of Central and Balkan Europe, but also occasionally, depending on the issues, dealing with its "margins", countries situated between two historical and political spaces, such as the Baltic States (both ex-Soviet and EU members), Ukraine or Belarus (ex-Soviet and Middle Europe).

Ukraine, another view

Open Science

Les "Après-midis des Humanités numériques"

L'Inalco is organizing the 2nd edition of its "Après-midis des Humanités numériques", a quarterly gathering around the theme of digital humanities and areal studies. This session will present various features of the LaCAS (Open Archive in Language and Cultural Area Studies) platform, produced as part of the D-PaRSAS project, to document research on cultural (geographical) and linguistic areas. It is aimed at a public interested in scientific research in SHS.
Monday, March 21, 2022 - 15.00 - Maison de la recherche (Paris 17e) - Auditorium Dumézil / and online

New audiovisual collection: portraits de chercheurs(e)s en études aréales (PEA)

The Digital Paris Research School of Area Studies-D-PaRSAS (Inalco-Université de Paris) institutional project launched in 2020, highlights, through a series of large-format interviews, the academic career and research and teaching work of researchers and teachers specializing in a given cultural area. This new audiovisual collection Portraits de chercheurs(e)s en études aréales joins the multimodal data set (visual, filmic, sound, textual, 3D, ...) offered by the platform Language and Cultural Area Studies - LaCAS.

Discover the meeting with Marie-Christine Bornes-Varol, speci/en/entretiens-pea-portraits-researchers-areal-studiesalist in the Judeo-Spanish area (CERMOM, Inalco).

Research news

Official inauguration 

Official inauguration of the  Institut français d'islamologie (IFI) - Read article 

A look back at a scientific event

The "Oralités du Monde" (ODM) Research Group was founded on November 21, 2019 by members of several Inalco teams and external specialists. It has designed a website: https://oralites-du-monde.huma-num.fr. On December 12, 2022, from 2pm to 6pm, the Group held the scientific event "Rencontre des oralistes" via videoconference. 

Objective and running of the event

The aim of the event was to present and discuss projects carried out by colleagues listed in the Annuaire des oralistes[1], and moreover, to define a joint research program. Despite the busy end of the year, 25 oralists were present, joined by several invited experts, doctoral students and students from INALCO's Master ORALITE. 
Ouverture: The organizers remembered Catherine Servant-Schreiber, Indian scholar (EHESS), founding member of the group and regular contributor to the Master ORALITE; as well as Marcel Courthiade, MCF in Rromani language and civilization (INALCO), a regular contributor to the research group. The ODM will be paying tribute to these two colleagues.
The organizers also welcomed the arrival, over the last two months, of five new oralists, Saly Diémé, Veronica Valencia, Mariléna Papachristophorou, Iyas Hassan and Diyana Kirilova, listed in the Yearbook.
Discussions: Discussions focused on some of the central issues facing orality specialists: transmission and teaching; training oratory specialists and storytellers in particular; research into orality in its universality and cultural diversity[2].

Decisions

  • The Revue des oralités du monde, a biannual scientific and digital journal, is founded this Monday, December 12, 2022. The launch issue will be published in February 2023.
  • The "Panorama des oralités du monde" research program is set in motion (see the ODM website).
    ________________
    [1] https://oralites-du-monde.huma-num.fr/annuaire-des-oralistes/
    [2] Specify topics; summary of discussions on Panorama

BULAC - Training courses for teacher-researchers

BULAC is currently working on enhancing the training offer for teacher-researchers working in foreign fields, including Inalco teacher-researchers. In order to meet the needs of this group, BULAC has drawn up a questionnaire surveying their training needs in terms of access to documentary resources and the use of tools to optimize their research activities. 

Awards and distinctions

International relations

Mobilities

The post-pandemic period is, not surprisingly, quite dense with student applications for exchange mobilities, both incoming and outgoing. In 2022-23, Inalco welcomed 151 students (62 within the Erasmus+ framework and 84 outside this program). In addition, 197 Inalco students are on mobility abroad for a semester or a full year. Outgoing mobility figures are up on the Covid period, but stable overall compared with previous years (until 2019). The recovery has been slowed by the fact that the People's Republic of China, which used to host many of our Chinese students, remained closed until very recently. In addition, the war in Ukraine has led to the cessation of all our exchanges with Russia and Belarus. Wherever possible, Russian-speaking students are redirected to destinations where Russian remains a language studied and often spoken on a daily basis (Lithuania, Armenia, Tajikistan, etc.).

Presidential missions

a) Middle East (Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey)

At the end of October 2022, an Inalco delegation comprising Jean-François Huchet, president, Philippe Advani, president of the Inalco Foundation, Gilles Forlot, vice-president delegate for international relations, Rima Sleiman, Head of International Relations for the Department of Arab Studies and Chantal Verdeil, Head of the Master of Arab Studies, visited Kuwait, Jordan and Lebanon to initiate and develop collaborations with several universities and institutions in the Arab world.
Exchanges with their counterparts were mainly aimed at promoting the mobility of Master's students and strengthening scientific collaborations between teacher-researchers. Discussions also covered other prospects for academic and scientific cooperation (exchanges of professors, development of seminars, courses and even joint degrees, organization of a doctoral school, promotion of our FLE section).
While the Vice President Delegate for International Relations was on a two-day stopover in Istanbul to visit Turkish university partners (Galatasaray University and Marmara University) and to the umifre IFEA, the rest of the delegation, led by President Huchet, took part in meetings in Kuwait from October 18 to 22: (Kuwait University (kulliyat al Adab), Gulf Univ. for Science and Technology (GUST) and American University of Kuwait (AUK). Foundation President M. Advani also met with potential donors on site.
The delegation then travelled to Amman, Jordan. From October 22 to 25, discussions were held at the University of Jordan, the Institut français du Proche-Orient (IFPO, Amman branch) and the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies (RIIFS). As the delegation left for Lebanon, Mr. Forlot concluded his mission by conducting talks at the Yarmouk University, located in Irbid in northern Jordan.
Mr. Huchet, Ms. Sleiman and Ms. Verdeil then visited partners in Lebanon, mainly in Beirut (October 25-28): Université Saint-Joseph (USJ), American University of Beirut (AUB), Université du Saint-Esprit Kaslik (USEK) and also to IFPO (Beirut branch).
Following this mission, inter-university agreements are in preparation.

b) Southeast Asia (Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia)

In November 2022, a delegation - smaller than the one that left for the Middle East - made up of President Huchet and Vice President Delegate for International Relations Gilles Forlot, visited several Southeast Asian countries.
From November 8 to 12, the President and VP IR first visited several Singaporean partners, including the National University of Singapore's new "Elite College", NUS College. Accompanied by Ms Mariana Losada, representative of Inalco, Sciences Po and Université Paris Cité in Singapore, he discussed not only mobility opportunities between NUS College and Inalco, but above all the Global Experience Program (Gex) set up within NUS College for their students to gain a month's preliminary international experience. This program is only available in a few cities around the world, including two in Europe, Paris and Stockholm, and Inalco has been chosen as the Parisian location for training Singaporean students (FLE, diplomacy, cultural activities). This program is set to be renewed annually and could open twice a year.
Further discussions were held at the Faculty of Arts and Social Science, in the presence of the Vice Dean for International Affairs, the Deputy Dean for Academic Affairs, the Chair of the Chinese Studies Department and the Chair of the Southeast Asian Studies Department. The aim is not only to renew our Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with FASS NUS, but also to add a rider concerning the mobility of Master's students, particularly in Chinese and Southeast Asian Studies, to this prestigious university.
The mission continued with a trip to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. The aim was twofold: firstly, in the company of Ms Isabelle Léglise (DR CNRS, SeDyL Inalco) and Mr Dara Non (MCF in the South-East Asia and Pacific Department), to renew the framework agreement concerning the Manusastra Program, housed at the Royal University of Fine Arts, and to discuss the continuation of the ChaS! research center, research center, co-sponsored by UMR SeDyL and housed at the Royal University of Phnom Penh.
In addition, Mr. Huchet, in his capacity as Vice-Chairman of France Universités' International Relations Commission, delivered a plenary lecture at the Research Days organized at the French Institute of Cambodia, and signed the renewal of the framework agreement linking France Universités to the Conference of Rectors of Cambodian Universities.
The mission to Southeast Asia ended on November 17 and 18 with a visit by Vice President RI to Universiti Malaya, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (renewal of the MoU and exchange program and research prospects), while President Huchet joined the official delegation of the President of the Republic visiting Bangkok (Thailand) for the APEC summit.

Protocol receptions

During the first semester of the 2022-2023 academic year, the President and/or the Vice President Delegate for International Relations, the DRI team and departmental representatives received the following visits:
In September 2022: H.E.M. Dae Jong Yoo, South Korean Ambassador to France
In October 2022: H.E.M.. Dato' Mohd Zamruni Khalid, Ambassador of Malaysia to France
In November 2022: M. Abdukodir Toshkulov, Minister of Higher Education of Uzbekistan
In December 2022: M.. Freddy Manani Machaca, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bolivia

Staff news

The International Relations Department has welcomed three new full-time colleagues: Ms Alexia DELAIRE, Incoming Mobilities Coordinator (Erasmus+), Ms Lola LANIER, Incoming Mobilities Coordinator and Ms Chloé LECOMTE-PLANCHE, Outgoing Mobilities Coordinator.

Gilles Forlot : Vice-president for international relations

Les Presses de l'Inalco

Watch video interviews of our in-house authors conducted by Inalco.

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