“International Scientific Transfers and Institutionalization of an Area Studies Program in France during the Cold War”
Résumé
This paper focuses on the set-up of a French Area studies Division implemented in the mid-1950’s in the 6th Section of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Paris) and in particular on its Russian, Soviet and Eastern European program. It outlines the international context favouring such a process, while taking into account its local scientific, institutional and political conditions as well as the background of its main initiators. Moreover, the analysis reveals a twofold international dynamics. On the one hand, transatlantic scientific and financial transfers were made possible by the sponsorship of the French area studies program by American philanthropic foundations. On the other hand, academic exchanges between the 6th Section of the EPHE and some Eastern European countries came within the framework of intergovernmental agreements. The additional effects of these distinct geographical patterns of scientific transfers helped institutionalizing area studies into a particular academic institution and their development in France. More generally, they aimed to connect Eastern and Western social sciences despite the political constraints associated with the Cold War context.
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