Grégoire Ramé

Please tell us about your research project.

I am not a PhD student yet and will try to use my time at the MFO to define a research project. However, to this day I have worked in different fields in geography. I have done some studies on city metabolism, especially on concrete origin, use and destination within the city of Lyon. For my second master's thesis, I worked for Engie in Paris on energy networks and the possible risk of “splintering urbanism” with green infrastructures.

Finally, I did two internships last year, one in Senegal that focuses on the Ferlo Biosphere Reserve and conflicts emerging along the Great Green Wall between Fulani pastoralists and the different army corps managing the Wall and the Reserve. The other internship was in Tucson, Arizona, focusing on the restoration of a river that had disappeared due to over-pumping. Both these two projects share a strong connection with border conflicts, the Fulani being known for crossing the border between Mali and Senegal with their cattle when needed. In Arizona, on the contrary, the border Wall had a strong effect on the hydro system by splitting the river and limiting water transfers between the twin cities of Nogales.

Could you please tell us a bit more about your scholarship/exchange programme?

I benefit from a program between my school, the ENS Lyon, and the MFO to stay until the end of Michaelmas Term 2022. I hope that, through discussions with other students, seminars and researchers, I will be able to define my thesis project. At the Maison, I will be working with Pascal Marty in particular as he has produced extensive work on different subjects in environmental geography.

First impressions of Oxford/the University?

As a student, I haven't experienced a self-governing institution such as Oxford before, and I am much more used to heavily centralised and urban higher education settings. As an urban geographer, I must say I am thrilled to live in that ‘City of Dreaming Spires’ and to explore all it has to offer.