[REPLAY] 2026 Inaugural Lecture at the School of Research

This year, the School of Research Inaugural Lecture took a different format, turning the spotlight on our own research community. Rather than welcoming an external guest speaker, the event brought together four faculty members recently awarded a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) grant: Diane Bolet, Julia Cagé, Axelle Ferrière et Mirna Safi.

Coming from economics, sociology, and political science, the four laureates presented their ERC projects and discussed how they fit within their broader research trajectories. Their work addresses major contemporary challenges, including the green transition, elections, inequality, discrimination, and the relationship between efficiency and redistribution.

The interdisciplinary roundtable was also an opportunity to celebrate research excellence and highlight the importance of ambitious, independent research within a research university.

The lecture took place on Friday, September 4, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Amphitheater Chapsal. Discover the speakers’ biographies and watch the replay below.

Biographies

Diane Bolet, Assistant Professor at the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics (CEE), has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant for her project “Lost in the Green Transition: Local Collective Greenloss Identity, Anti-Climate Attitudes and Radical Right Support”. This grant will allow her to deepen her research on the repercussions of climate policies for fossil-fuel-dependent communities in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Poland. A political scientist, Diane Bolet specialises in electoral behaviour, public opinion, and territorial and climate public policies.

Julia Cagé, Professor in the Department of Economics, has received an ERC Consolidator Grant for her project “Elections, Ecological Inference and Social Capital in Historical Perspective”. This grant will enable her to investigate the historical evolution of political cleavages and socio-economic inequalities in the United States and Europe, while proposing innovative solutions to long-standing problems of ecological inference. A social scientist, Julia Cagé conducts research in political economy and economic history, with a particular focus on media economics, political participation, and voting behaviour. In 2021, she received an ERC Starting Grant for a project examining the behaviour of small donors in Western Europe and North America, as well as the lack of representativeness among candidates and elected officials.

Axelle Ferrière, CNRS research fellow and member of the Department of Economics, has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant for her project “Rethinking the Efficiency-Redistribution Trade-Off: Taxes, Transfers, and Household Inequality”. This grant will allow her to shed new light on tax and transfer policies that reconcile redistribution and economic growth. The project will focus on income support for low-income households, wealth taxation, and consumption taxes. A macroeconomist, Axelle Ferrière works primarily on the evaluation of fiscal and budgetary policies and their redistributive effects. In 2025, she received the CNRS Bronze Medal, which recognises the excellence and vitality of the research undertaken by early-career scholars.

Mirna Safi, Professor at the Centre for Research on Social Inequalities (CRIS), has received an ERC Advanced Grant for her project “The Discrimination-Inequality Circle: Bridging Unequal Treatment and Unequal Outcomes across Countries, Regions and Workplaces”. This grant will enable her to advance knowledge of the mechanisms linking discrimination and inequality, their historical evolution across 35 countries, and the effectiveness of policies designed to address these persistent societal challenges. A sociologist, Mirna Safi’s research focuses on migration, labour-market inequalities, discrimination, and urban segregation. Former Director of CRIS (2019–2024), she contributes actively to international research on migration and social inequalities.

Watch the recording of the inaugural lecture