Every year since 2016, the Institut d'études avancées de Nantes has co-organized with Lieu Unique, and since 2023 with Nantes Université, a cycle of meetings for the general public, every second Tuesday of the month.
Inviting well-known scientists, artists and media personalities, each new season explores the major issues and debates that are shaping our contemporary societies through a new theme.
All meetings are filmed and can be viewed on our You Tube channel.
Our mission is to bring the intellectual wealth of our institute to our region, and to contribute to the dialogue between science and society.
By crossing disciplinary perspectives, cultural and geographical origins and forms of expression, we offer an encounter with thinkers who are also agents of change.
Season 2023-2024
Changing our narratives, exploring other imaginaries for a desirable future.
Narratives have always played a major role in the history of humanity and the emergence of our societies. The aim of this cycle is to re-interrogate our dominant founding narratives and imaginaries in the West, and welcome others that might help us to think about our humanity on earth at a time when it seems under threat.
October 10, 2023 - Living in France in 2050
With Martin Vanier and Laurent Devisme
We hear and read a lot about French people's aspirations for the way they live in their country, what they want and what they reject. As far as the future evolution of society is concerned, lifestyle forecasting must remain a cautious exercise, as it seems easy to project onto it the injunctions, anxieties or dominant models of the present!
In this debate, we invite everyone to discuss a question that is both simple and terribly complex: "What are the prospects for living in France in 2050?
Martin Vanier, geographer, academic and consultant. He teaches territorial foresight and has been working with local authorities for 20 years.
Laurent Devisme, professor of urban studies at Ensa Nantes, researcher at UMR Ambiances Architectures Urbanités, and vice-president of Nantes University in charge of sustainable development.
Tuesday, December 5, 2023 - At the source of life
With Éric Karsenti
How did life "miraculously" come into being? And why is its diversity so exuberant? Why was life first aquatic? How rich are the world's seas and oceans and their seabeds? This event takes us on a scientific odyssey from the first cell billions of years ago to the birth of humankind, to reintegrate our imaginations into the long story.
Éric Karsenti is a French biologist. Director of research at the CNRS, he was scientific director of the Tara Océans expedition.
Hosted by Guillaume Mezière, science journalist.
Tuesday, February 13, 2024 - The invention of the dead
With Grégory Delaplace
Starting with questions about the place of the dead in the daily lives of nomadic pastoralists in Mongolia, Grégory Delaplace has sought to lay the foundations for an anthropology of the invisible. This has led him to take an interest in subjects as diverse as spirit apparitions, the practice of shamanism, the relationship with history... He takes us into the multiple processes by which the dead are "invented" as partners in formal or intimate relationships, which subvert the institutional frameworks imposed by the state and the clergy.
Grégory Delaplace is an anthropologist and Director of Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, a member of the Groupe Sociétés Religions Laïcités and the Institut Universitaire de France (2017-2022), and was awarded the CNRS bronze medal in 2015.
Hosted by Julia Passot, artistic director of La Turbine.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024 - Gymnastics on the frontier
With Corinne Morel Darleux
About Alors nous irons trouver la beauté ailleurs, published by Libertalia, 2023.
This literary, political and geographical wanderings is part essay, part travelogue, part diary. Corinne Morel Darleux talks about India and Rojava, novels, madness, degrowth, the uprisings of the Earth, changes of perspective and dreams. She blithely mixes genres.
Corinne Morel Darleux is an essayist and novelist. Involved in numerous ecologist, libertarian and peasant networks, she devotes her time to grassroots activism and writing books, including the highly acclaimed Plutôt couler en beauté que flotter sans grâce, published by Libertalia in 2019.
Hosted by Lisa Bienvenu, cultural mediator.
Tuesday, April 9, 2024 - Beginnings: where to start again?
With Claire Marin
What are the beginnings that punctuate our existence? What is a good beginning in life? Beginnings present themselves to us in a multitude of ways: from the sparkle of the birth of a child, to disasters, to discoveries... Beginnings are also the excitement of novelty, the fear of uncertainty, the hope of surprise. Claire Marin examines our first times and new beginnings from the dual angle of philosophical knowledge and personal experience, and raises the question of the place of narrative in the construction of ourselves and our societies.
Claire Marin is a professor of philosophy in classes préparatoires aux grandes écoles and an associate member of ENS-Ulm. After the bestseller Rupture(s) (L'Observatoire, 2019), Les Débuts (Autrement, 2022) is a great success.
Hosted by Lisa Bienvenu, cultural mediator.
