Thierry Berthet, 62, a research director at the CNRS, expresses his happiness to return to the Émile Durkheim Centre after a ten-year absence. He lives in the countryside.
His academic journey began with studies in law and history, before specializing in political science for his doctorate at the University of Montreal. His thesis focused on the colonization of Canada in the 17th and 18th centuries. Recruited by the CNRS in 1993, he was assigned to CERVL (now the Émile Durkheim Centre) at Sciences Po Bordeaux until 2016. After research periods in Rome and Montreal, he directed the LEST (Laboratoire d’Économie et de Sociologie du Travail) in Aix en Provence from 2017 to 2023, continuing there as a researcher until this summer.
For the past three decades, his research has centered on education, training, employment, and labor. Within the CED, he established a small team associated with Céreq (Centre d’études et de recherches sur les qualifications). Currently, he is leading a collective research project on the combination of studies and work among high school students. This study reveals that one in four students works during their high school years, which can have both positive and negative repercussions on their schooling. This multidisciplinary project involves about a dozen researchers and doctoral students from the CED and LEST.
Outside of research, Thierry Berthet enjoys playing music, reading (particularly crime novels and thrillers), hands-on activities like repair and construction, and slow travel.
