This project aims to study on a diachronic way (through Middle and Modern ages), the different original forms of Christianity that were to be found in the « border territories », located on political, religious and linguistic borders, i.e. the lotharingians territories, later on called during the Middle Ages the « inbetween lands » (from the North Sea to Savoy). This territories, along with the Milanese, formed the « catholic Ridge » during the modern era (the border of the catholic influence, between the Protestants in the east and the Catholics in the West). These specificities were asserted often by the historians, but rarely demonstrated, if it is not by case studies. The objective thus is to rethink the explanatory causes and the processes of such a multiplicity and variety of religious experiments, as well as their spread, their successes or failures, while highlighting more efficiently what is due to the circumstances and what is to be credited to the structural phenomenons, linked to the political and religious specificities of these regions. To cover this space and assure a really comparative and transverse approach, an international consortium with 7 historian research teams was established : 4 French teams (the CRULH of Lorraine – coordinator –, the LARHRA of Lyon, the LSH of Besançon, the CREHS of Arras) and 3 foreigners (Transitions of Liège, Institute of history of the University of Luxembourg, History Department of Università degli Studi of Milan). All in all, 37 people are committed in the project, which concerns essentially the history but also assures openings towards the art history and the musicology, to deal with the evolution of the liturgical practices : 12 medievalists, 21 modernists, 2 art historians, 2 musicologists. Given the tremendous size of the region and of the period to be studied, the project will focus on a comparative study of three main topics, by using in particular the methods of the historic anthropology, the gender studies, the prosopography : • The commitment of religious women (specificity of the feminine vocations ; the relations with the male management of the churches ; the feminine writings) : organization of three rounds tables and a final colloquium, with publication of the acts in the form of common synthesis ; three volumes of editions of texts ; on-line publishing and digitalizations of texts ; constitution of a database on these communities. • The pastoral models (episcopal models, formation and skills of the bishops, the organization of the diocesan staff, the legal or liturgical norms’ production, « clericalization » of the Protestant ministers) : organization of three round tables and a final colloquium with publication of the acts ; constitution of a prosopographical database on the episcopal staff (14th-17th c.). • Devotions and politics (promotion and spread of the devotional practices : specific ways of the Marian worship, « political » saints, specific devotion to the angels) : organization of two round tables and a final colloquium with publication of the acts ; one exhibition with realization of a catalog (Museum of sacred art from Fourvière in Lyon) ; on-line edition of an inventory of the editions of a devotion book, "best-seller" during two centuries in the considered region. All the works will give rise to the production of a web site and a global synthesis in the form of a book-atlas, which will contain hundred maps accompanied with long recapitulative notes and with iconography.

The project consists in studying the arguments used by the Christian Churches (both Catholic and Protestant) to defend religious truths in contemporary Western societies, from the Enlightenment to the 21st century. This study mainly focuses on France, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain, without refraining from occasionally taking advantage of US examples. The use of the word apologetics for describing a general system of response to the challenges of the times is quite recent (mid-nineteenth century/mid-twentieth century), and it allows to identify a specific period of reconfiguration of the relations between society and religion. The appearance of the word apologetics is largely prepared upstream, since Christian apologies changed at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, and its rarefaction and its exclusion from the ecclesiastical field since the mid-20th century is then the manifestation of a new reconfiguration. The understanding of these scansions allows to grasp, according a long term historical analysis, the evolutions or the tensions of the believing discourse in its relations to modernity. Such an investigation first requires to approach ecclesial discourse from within. This approach is based on an abundant body of sources. However, the project mainly aims at using this corpus as a mirror of the changes experienced by contemporary Western societies: essentially "reactive", that is to say first of all defensive, apologetics is primarily a confrontation with all the difficulties that arise from the progressive transformation of the status of beliefs in contemporary societies. From this point of observation, it is possible to note that the difficulties, the blocking points (the opposition with philosophy, the “exact” or “social” sciences, the evolution of mores, etc.), allow to draw up an inventory of the characteristics of modernity in its relations with the Christian religion.

In my research I set out to analyse the relationship between politics and female mysticism, comparing France and Italy, with a major focus on North Italy and the State of Savoy, which was constantly influenced by French culture and spirituality, between the Baroque era and the first half of the Twentieth century. The philological and literary analysis of mystical writings and the study are meant as an introduction to two key aspects of political society in the modern era: on the one hand, the aptitude to use mystic language in political and social conflicts; on the other hand, the role of mystic authority in the definition of sacred spaces and devotional practices. Scholars often deal with religious experiences as if these were only private phenomena: and yet, they are political phenomena as well. So, the proposed research should not be seen as a simple addition of new elements to the information which the scholars already have, but rather as a renovation of the study approach, which of course includes the exploration of new research fields. A long-term approach covering developments from the Seventeenth to the early Twentieth centuries will particularly allow to examine the continuities and discontinuities of the phenomenon, drawing attention to its historical evolution and constant adaptation to different social, cultural and political contexts. From the Seventeenth century mysticism to the forgotten new mystical invasion in the Twentieth Century, we'll see how the relationship between politics and mysticism never ceases to mark the history of Catholicism and of its visionary women.

Outdoor activities create a permanent human presence in mountain territories. The increasing number of outdoor activities on mountain territory calls for a better understanding of human presence and their consequences on wildlife. This presence could indeed have negative effects on wildlife demography and mountain biodiversity. HUMANI is an interdisciplinary project that focuses on how outdoor recreation affect mountain ecosystems and from there on, provide managers with tools to better concile the development of outdoor activities with conservation and management of wildlife. It focuses on interrelationships between wildlife and both hiking (during summer and winter including snowshoe and mountaineering ski) and hunting activities. This project will identify and analyse human behavior in mountains and their different values linked to emblematic wildlife and conservation measures, while measuring the consequences of human presence on emblematic mountain wildlife. following the recommendations done by the french Biodiversity Research Foundation.. In order to understand the interrelationship between outdoor activities and mountain wildlife, our overarching goal is to develop an integrated analysis of (1) the use and perceptions of the environment by outdoor activities participants, (2) human-wildlife interactions in the shared spaces between humans and wildlife, (3) the management practices and effectiveness to raise recreationists awareness that together will lead to informed management guidelines. The analysis will focus on a gradient of territories with different status of protection and management in order to confront the interrelationships between recreationists and wildlife in a diversity of contexts. This inter-sites comparative analysis should disclose how extant management and protection status influence human and animal behaviors. The expected project results are : (1) the development of an interdisciplinary methodology aimed at better understanding human - wildlife relationships ; (2) the identification of a typology of outdoor activities participants according to their outdoor activities experience and expectation and their perception of wildlife and of their own impacts on wildlife ; (3) the production of knowledge about human-wildlife interactions in shared spaces with different levels of constraining protection measures for human ; (4) the production of knowledge about wildlife disturbance and human impacts on ecosystem, which is essential for improving efficient management policies.

LIBEX is an interdisciplinary corpus-based project federating linguists, jurists, historians, literature and philosophy scholars from France and Quebec who focus on freedom of expression, of creation, of conscience and discrimination. Their research will concentrate on the relationship between religion and society, as key issues regarding the articulation of freedom of conscience and freedom of creation and the resulting social tensions will be studied. Considering that the past thirty years were marked by a growing number of public controversies and even legal proceedings against cultural or social events such as the writings, comments or performances of artists, journalists, polemists, or the wearing of signs or clothing perceived as marking a religious affiliation, several questions guide our reflection: how are freedom of expression, creation and conscience articulated with the principles of secularism in the public space? Can the right to humour be a line of defence, including for “non artists”? Has state censorship been replaced by public debates launched by associations or groups on social networks? Does the media coverage of court proceedings aim to generate self-censorship, even among creators? Tensions are visible in polemics and legal procedures aiming at restricting the expression when religious matters, in a broad sense, are at stake in the public sphere (for insults / libel / slander / blaspheme / public lewdness / breach of the peace / protection of the youth / incitement to discrimination / humour / parody / breach of the law on secularism..) while the means to communicate with the greatest number of people have multiplied. Practical cases will be examined through a corpus of trials, literature and media texts (social networks included) with a comparative, diachronic and synchronic perspective in a mediative objective. Our goals are to understand where these tensions come from and what creates them, how controversial speeches are received and generated, what argumentative dynamics are in circulation, and how creative and legal practices evolve together in a context of live dissemination of information, whether true or false. Relying on the methods of discourse analysis, LIBEX will propose tools of understanding and reflection to civil society in the face of controversies involving freedom of expression, creation and conscience (judicialized or not) so that debates and/or judgments can be based on accurate facts and analyses supported by ALLSHS research. The aim is to deconstruct the hurtful discourses in circulation by placing them in context and by relating them to broader strategies of persuasion.