Clémence Léobal

Clémence Léobal is a CNRS [1] research fellow, based within the LAVUE joint research unit (Laboratoire Architecture, Ville, Urbanisme, Environnement; UMR CNRS 7218) at Paris-Nanterre University. Her work on French Guiana began in 2009, when she was employed by the city of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni to prepare its Architecture and Heritage Interpretation Center. She subsequently focused on research in the field of sociology: in her PhD thesis, defended in 2017, she analyzed the implementation of urban policies and the ways these policies were reappropriated by Bushinengue inhabitants. Her current research focuses on the way in which borders acquire substance as a result of diverse administrative contexts, and their diverse uses, along the Maroni River between French Guiana and Suriname.

Her publications include a historic work, Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni. Une porte sur le fleuve (published in 2013), and an article titled "La blancheur bakaa, une majorité bien spécifique. Race, classe et ethnicité dans les situations de démolition à Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, Guyane", published in Asylon(s) (issue 15, 2018). The broad lines of her doctoral thesis are discussed in an interview with Léo Kloeckner and Charlotte Ruggeri, titled "Redessiner les frontières de l’urbain en Guyane", in Urbanités, published online on June 1, 2017.