Three CERI PhD researchers win the Académie française’s 2026 Jean Walter-Zellidja Fellowship

The School of Research is delighted to congratulate three PhD researchers from the Center for International Studies (CERI), Manon Deguet, Grégoire Ramé and Michaël Bourdon, who are among the recipients of a 2026 Jean Walter-Zellidja Fellowship.

Established in 1939 by the architect Jean Walter, the Zellidja scholarships are designed to support young researchers wishing to undertake independent research exclusively abroad. Since 1976, they have been awarded to students in the French-speaking higher education system to enable them to complete their studies with a research placement lasting approximately one year. Administered by the Walter-Zellidja Foundation under the auspices of the Académie française, these fellowships encourage intellectual autonomy, international mobility and field research.

This distinction recognises the excellence of the work carried out by these three PhD researchers, whose research – grounded in a variety of international contexts – examines contemporary transformations in politics, development and the relationship between societies and the environment.

Manon Deguet: the rights of nature around Lake Titicaca

A PhD researcher in political science, specialising in ‘comparative politics’, co-supervised by Sandrine Revet (CERI) and Franck Poupeau (CNRS-CREDA), Manon Deguet is devoting her thesis to the political construction of the rights of nature in Peru and Bolivia, using Lake Titicaca as a case study.

A graduate with a Master’s degree in Development and International Cooperation from Sciences Po Toulouse, she worked in the field of sustainable development before joining the French Institute for Andean Studies in Lima, where she conducted an initial exploratory study on her research topic. Her work analyses the processes through which the rights of nature are emerging as a political and legal category in the Andes, as well as the actors, institutions and movements contributing to their recognition.

Grégoire Ramé: tracing the pathways of sand in Taiwan

A PhD researcher in geography, specialising in urban studies, supervised by Éric Verdeil and Melissa Marschke, Grégoire Ramé is studying the sand and aggregates supply chain in Taiwan through an urban ecological approach to everyday extractivism.

His research traces these materials from quarries to urban spaces, combining quantitative analyses of material flows with qualitative surveys of the sector’s various stakeholders. Through a comparison of the metropolitan areas of Taipei and Kaohsiung, he explores the environmental, economic and political issues linked to the extraction and circulation of resources essential to contemporary urbanisation. As a visiting researcher at Academia Sinica in Taipei in 2024, he is conducting long-term fieldwork on the material and ecological transformations of Taiwanese cities.

Michaël Bourdon: start-ups, development and the restructuring of the state in West Africa

A PhD researcher in political science supervised by Richard Banégas and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, Michaël Bourdon is interested in the restructuring of the state and the development sector associated with the promotion of start-up entrepreneurship in West Africa.

His thesis offers a comparative study of Togo and Ghana to understand how policies supporting innovation and entrepreneurship are helping to transform forms of public action, development practices and the dynamics of contemporary capitalism. A graduate of the École normale supérieure and the École des hautes études en sciences sociales, he is also involved in several research projects focusing on the imaginaries of digital development in Africa and on trust infrastructures across the continent.

The awarding of the Jean Walter-Zellidja fellowships to Manon Deguet, Grégoire Ramé and Michaël Bourdon highlights the academic rigour and international scope of the doctoral research conducted at CERI. It also demonstrates the importance the Walter-Zellidja Foundation attaches to fieldwork and original research carried out in a variety of international contexts.

The School of Research extends its warmest congratulations to the three award winners and wishes them every success in their future research.

Find out more:

• About the Doctorate in Political Science
• About the Center for International Studies (CERI)
• About the Walter-Zellidja Foundation scholarships (in French)