Biography

Trained in modernism and former student of Daniel Roche, professor at the Collège de France, history lecturer and honorary member of the Institut Universitaire de France, Grégory Quenet has headed a number of research programmes and published various highly original reference works.

Grégory Quenet is one of the pioneers of environmental history and environmental humanities in France. In 2012, he became the first professor of environmental history in France, at the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (Paris-Saclay), and is still France’s only professor in this subject. At the request of Bruno Latour, he created the first courses in this field in 2009 for Sciences Po Paris, and subsequently for the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (Paris-Saclay), the University of Lausanne and the Sorbonne Abu Dhabi. He founded the French environmental humanities portal and organised the 8th Congress of the European Society for Environmental History in Versailles in 2015.

His work has led to many instances of collaboration, past, present and future, between social and natural sciences. For his thesis, he worked closely with seismologists specialised in the sizing of nuclear power plants. He has been a member of the French world heritage committee and expert for Taputapuatea marae, which was inscribed on the UNESCO world heritage list on its first application. At the University of Paris-Saclay, he was inspired by the work of climatologists and ecologists. He was an auditor for the 13th year group at the Institute of Higher Learning in Business (IHEE). In recent years, he has developed close collaborative relationships with artists, including Laurent Grasso in particular, as scientific advisor for various creations.

Research work and individual publications

Current projects concern the new meaning of the globalness that has developed with environmental and climatic transformations, analysed on the basis of tropical islands through history. This is combined with another publication project, a theoretical and historiographic text on what the environment does to history, the Anthropocene and the regimes of historicity of nature.

In 2005, L’histoire des tremblements de terre en France aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Champ Vallon publications, was awarded the Louis Castex prize by the Académie Française. It is one of the first monographs devoted entirely to a natural disaster.

In 2014, Qu’est-ce que l’histoire environnementale ?, Champ-Vallon publications, was the first intellectual analysis of environmental history and was followed by a brief collective manual.

In 2016, he was awarded the François Sommer literary prize for Versailles, une histoire naturelle, published by La Découverte. This work on one of the most important elements of French history, the Château de Versailles, shows how it can be ecologised, allowing a totally different story to be told.

Education

• 2012-2013 : Auditor of the 13th year group at the Institute of Higher Learning in Business (IHEE)
• 2011 : Authorisation to direct research at the University of Paris 8 – Saint-Denis-Vincennes, under the supervision of Philippe Minard
• 2001 : Doctorate on “Earthquakes in France in the 17th and 18th centuries”, University of Paris 1 – Sorbonne (under the supervision of Daniel Roche, Collège de France)
• 1994 : Diploma in teaching history

Completed research projects (management)

• 2013-2016 : ANR (French National Research Agency) NAT-CAT (natural disasters) project manager, Environmental changes and their analysis categories, in partnership with LABTOP (Paris 8) and PHICO (Paris 1).
• 2012-2015 : Collaboration agreement for a doctorate on the Vulnerability of past societies in the face of earthquakes, Electricité de France.
• 2012-2013 : Agreement with the Ministry of the Environment, Environmental Humanities and adapting to climate and environmental change.
• 2012 : Narratives of Change programme, in collaboration with UNESCO (“Social aspects of global environmental change” team) and the Ministry of the Environment (Biodiversity management).
• 2008-2011 : ANR KINDUNOS “Young researchers” project manager, 2008-2011, Environmental history in the face of natural disasters and risks. 
• 2009-2010 : Joint project manager of Working towards a common language for Earth Policies, with Bruno Latour, Sciences Po and the Ministry of the Environment.
• 2009-2010 : Manager of Natural disasters and historical hazards databases. State of the art and new perspectives (Post-doc. Jean-Baptiste Fressoz). R2DS.
• 1995-2009 : Case studies and expert assessments in historic seismicity, IRSN (Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety).