Leila Chakroun
Doctoral fellow
At IGD until 2022

Graduate Assistant and PhD student

Graduate Assistant in the Institute of Geography and Sustainability (Institut de Géographie et Durabilité; Igd) of the University of Lausanne from novembre 2015, I am doing my doctoral thesis under the supervision of Prof. Christian Arnsperger (UNIL) and Dr. Yoann Moreau (Écoles des Mines, Paris). I completed a Master ès Sciences, in geosciences of the environment, with a specialization in "Social issues of the environment: territory management". In parallel with my studies, I worked as an intern for a European network of Universities, UNICA (Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe) in Brussel. I was in charge of the communication and coordination between the universities of the network for the UGAF initative (UNICA Green Academic Footprint).

Within our institute, I am part of the group "environmental humanities", which focuses on the necessity to question the epistemology of every discipline in the light of the environmental issues. More precisely, "environmental humanities" designates a new paradigm in human and social sciences, resolutely not constructivist, nor determinist, in the sense that it applies impossibility of understanding the evolution of the societies without resorting to the natural third. The human and social sciences were precisely formed owing to natural dualism human/nature, namely of the assertion according to which the societies constitute a specific phenomenon, governed by its own laws, different from the natural laws. Environmental humanities are dedicated to reconsider the society and the social change in general, according to the relation of the human communities to the biosphere.

As part of my comparative research between the Swiss and the Japanese case, and thanks to the awarding of a doc.mobility scholarship from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF/FNS), I have integrated the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies of Kyoto University for 7 months, starting in February 2019. I am part of Prof. Usami Makoto' Laboratory of Global Environmental Policy.