Associate Students

Léandre Benoit

leandre.benoit@umontreal.ca

Léandre Benoit is currently a Master’s candidate in Political Science at the Université de Montréal and holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Studies from the Université de Montréal. He is interested in European integration and the rise of the extreme right in Europe. His research project focuses on the participation of far-right parties in the politicization of the European Union.

Laurent Charbonneau

laurent.charbonneau[at]umontreal.ca

Laurent Charbonneau is a Master’s student, thesis option, at the University of Montreal. He previously graduated from the University of Ottawa, where he obtained a Bachelor in political science as well as a minor in economics.

Laurent is interested in security issues and defence cooperation in the European context. He is a recipient of the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship from SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council).

Romain Crouton

romain.crouton[at]umontreal.ca

Romain Crouton is studying for a master’s degree in Political Science at the University of Montreal, a thesis option. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, Public Affairs and Diplomacy option from the Institut Catholique de Vendée, and he is particularly interested in linguistic problematics within international relations. This axis led him to write a thesis on the historical-political relations between Vendée and Québec and to write a research project on the relationship between identities and languages in Bulgaria.

His numerous stays in the Balkans lead him today to question the central issue of the French language and Francophonie in this region. His thesis is about the role and influence of the French-speaking world and the OIF in Eastern Europe, a thesis co-directed by Magdalena Dembinska and Frédéric Mérand.

Maxime Duchâteau

maxime.duchateau[at]umontreal.ca

Maxime Duchâteau is a PhD student in Political Science at the University of Montreal, specializing in International Relations. He graduated with a double bachelor’s degree in Arabic and Russian Studies from the University of Geneva (2015), as well as with a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Politics from the University of Montreal (2018). In June 2020, he completed a master’s degree in International Relations, majoring in Russian studies, from the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO, Paris – France). Thanks to this background, Maxime is fluent in Russian, and has a thorough knowledge of the Arabic language. His main research interests lie in the processes of communication and representations of the Self and the Other in the foreign policy of States, through diplomatic practices, as well as through more intangible tools such as “soft-power”. More specifically, Maxime’s doctoral reserch aims to better understand the discursive processes underlying the construction of French foreign policy towards Russia since 1991, from a critical perspective in International Relations Theory.

Pauline Forel

pauline.forel@umontreal.ca

I am Pauline, a graduate student in international studies with a focus on European studies at the University of Montreal. I hold a bachelor’s degree in European political sciences from the European School of Political and Social Sciences in Lille, France, where I completed a research project on the Frontex agency. This agency reveals a European political and humanitarian crisis in the management of migration flows in the Mediterranean, as its practices evolve.

Due to my interests and commitments, I am particularly interested in European migration policy issues in the context of EU politics and external actions. I wish to continue my master’s project exploring these issues and would like to concentrate on Turkey, a neighboring country of the European Union and an ambiguous geopolitical actor.

Vivien Geoffray

vivien.geoffray@umontreal.ca

Vivien Geoffray is a last year student in International Studies bachelor at the University of Montreal. His major research topic is the influence of the European Union on the international diplomatic scene. Moreover, he is interested in the geopolitical issues in east asia. Notably about the conflict management in the area. His academic exchange in South Korea has allowed him to improve his language skills in Korean (Lv3) and in Japanese (Lv2). On the other hand, he is involved in the student organization CAIUM as an event manager and a writer. One article about the weight of French diplomacy has won a scholarship given by the CERIUM.

Nolwen Guegan

nolwen.guegan[at]umontreal.ca

Nolwen Guégan is currently a master’s student in International Studies, European Union option at the University of Montreal and in correlation with the Catholic University of Louvain. She holds a bi-disciplinary bachelor’s degree in Communication and Politics, also from the University of Montreal. The field of studies that currently animates her is about environmental policies.

Nathan Hurteau

nathan.hurteau@umontreal.ca

Nathan Hurteau is a candidate for a Master’s degree in International Studies with a focus on European Studies at the University of Montreal, where he is pursuing a dual degree program with the Catholic University of Louvain. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Studies from the University of Montreal. He is interested in various aspects of European integration, including the coexistence of national identities and European identity. However, he would like to work on his master’s project on the relationship between the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), with a focus on their mutual reinforcement and expansion, both in historical context and since the war in Ukraine.

Calvin Khalesi

calvin.khalesi[at]umontreal.ca

Calvin Khalesi is a PhD student studying political science at the University of Montréal. He is interested in European politics and particularly in the status of democracy in Central and Eastern Europe.

He holds an MA in Global Politics from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and a BA in Political Science from the University of South Florida in Tampa. During his BA, he spent a semester abroad on exchange at New Sorbonne University in Paris, France.

Furthermore, Calvin is a cofounder of The Critical View, a website where he writes and publishes opinion articles on international affairs.

Jeanne Milot-Poulin

jeanne.milot-poulin@umontreal.ca

Jeanne Milot-Poulin is currently a master’s student in political science at the University of Montréal. She previously completed a bachelor’s degree in political science and a microprogram in Russian language at Université Laval. She is interested in Russian-speaking minorities in Eastern Europe, and more broadly in the relations between Europe and Russia.

Julien Robin

julien.robin.1[at]umontreal.ca

Julien Robin is a PhD student in political science at the University of Montreal. He holds a Master’s degree in Law and Public Management from the Ecole Nationale d’Administration and Paris Dauphine University. He has worked at the National Commission on Election Campaign Accounts and Political Funding (CNCCFP) and at the General Inspection of Social Affairs (IGAS).
Interested in parliamentary studies in France, Europe and Canada, Julien wrote a first thesis on the interpretation of the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly (France) and his thesis will focus on the nature, effectiveness and interpretation of parliamentary rules in Canada.

Angélique Roy-Ings

angelique.roy-ings@umontreal.ca

Angélique Roy-Ings is currently a master’s student in the double degree program in International Studies with a focus on European Studies, in partnership with the Catholic University of Louvain and the University of Saint-Louis – Brussels. She previously earned a bachelor’s degree in International Development from the University of Quebec in Outaouais.

Her final project focused on the United Nations’ paralysis in the context of the war in Ukraine. Additionally, she had the opportunity to represent Latvia at the Model United Nations (NMUN) in New York in 2022. As a result, she aspires to further her research in the Eastern European region as part of her master’s project, with a particular interest in the relations between Russia and the European Union in a context of escalating tensions on the continent.

Théo Simoncelli

Théo Simoncelli is a PhD student in political science at the University of Montreal. He holds a master’s degree in Political Studies from EHESS Paris, where his thesis provided an overview of the ideas of authors Aldous Huxley and George Orwell through their dystopian novels “Brave New World” (1932) and “1984” (1949). The aim of his research was to examine the evolution of forms of social control in our present time. By choosing these authors, he was able to analyze two different yet complementary visions of authority. After gaining two years of experience in a human resources consulting firm, Théo resumed his research to explore the evolution of these forms of control within the framework of the modernity project in Western democracies. More specifically, his thesis focuses on the role of “happiness” as a new form of modern conditioning in the “society of acceleration” presented by Hartmut Rosa.

Yaxin Zhou

yaxin.zhou[at]umontreal.ca

Yaxin Zhou is a master’s student in international studies program, European studies option, at the University of Montreal, she also has a master’s degree in law at the Beijing Foreign Languages University. She wrote a thesis on France’s role in improving the relationship between Russia and European Union.She is interested in EU security issues but also in relations between the EU, the US and China.