Jeanne’s PhD looks at the construction of the relationship towards foreignness in secondary schools of low-income areas in Johannesburg, in order to explore processes of nation-building and state-making in contemporary post-apartheid South Africa. She focuses on administrative and pedagogic practices of school staff, learners’ responses and how these are informed by the broader political, social and institutional framework. She has conducted ten months of fieldwork within schools’ settings and among lawyers, NGOs and officials of the Departments of Basic Education and the Home Affairs. She uses a mix of quantitative and action research methods: co-teaching, drama facilitation, ethnographic observations, focus groups, interviews, legal documents and policy instruments analysis. She is part of two collective research projects:
- Practices of the State in Urban Governance, coordinated by Pr. Claire Bénit-Gbaffou, her PhD thesis co-supervisor; a three-years project sponsored by the South African national research agency (SA-NRF) hosted at the Centre for Urbanism and the Built Environment Studies (CUBES), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Practices of the State in Urban Governance - Wits University
Jeanne has previously been intern at CUBES during her Master’s research on attitudes of high school learners towards foreignness in Johannesburg and a visiting scholar during her PhD.
- The Social Life of Identity Documents in Africa, coordinated by Pr. Séverine Awenengo Dalberto and Pr. Richard Banégas, her PhD thesis co-supervisor; a three-years project sponsored by the French national research agency (ANR) hosted at the CERI. Abstract – The Social Life of Identity Documents in Africa | LA VIE ...
Her PhD is sponsored by the French national research centre (CNRS) with the support of the French Institut of South Africa (IFAS). She is visiting the IAS through the African Humanities Project, a Partnership University Fund collaboration between the IAS and the CERI.