Lucile David 

Please tell us about your research project.
This research, at the crossroads of the social history of political ideas and the sociology of feminist and ecologist movements, aims to explain the conditions that have enabled ecofeminism to resurface fifty years after its original emergence. By retracing the career of ecofeminism, this research examines the missed opportunities for reception in the 1970s as well as the recent processes of circulation (publishing, translation, etc.), transmission and canonisation that characterise its contemporary emergence in the political, editorial and academic fields. By studying these dynamics of the transfer of ideas and practices between different cultural spaces, the thesis reveals the label's transnational itineraries, the multiple reappropriations to which it is subject, and the theoretical and political repertoires associated with it in France. In this sense, the thesis aims to understand the relationship between the circulation of a political category—ecofeminism—and its concrete activation in political circles. 

Currently in the fourth year of a PhD in political science, I work under the supervision of Chloé Gaboriaux (University of Poitiers, CRIHAM) and Ioana Cîrstocea (EHESS, CESSP). 

Could you please tell us a bit more about your scholarship/exchange programme?
I have been granted a research scholarship from Sciences Po Lyon for a period of six weeks. This residency at the Maison français d’Oxford will enable me to conduct archival work in London and to pursue the writing of the thesis.

First impressions of Oxford/the University?
Oxford is the ideal environment for research, and the Maison Française d'Oxford in particular. The opportunity to socialise with researchers from various disciplines and the abundance of bibliographic resources make it the perfect setting for writing.