Cédric DENTANT received the 2025 Interdisciplinary Academic Thesis Prize for his research work among PhDs graduating in 2024.
Thesis Title: High mountains and flowering plants: geography of a science of life on the edge of terrestrial habitability
This project aims to study life through the prism of two margins: a geographical margin - the high mountains - and a scientific margin - the construction of a hybrid knowledge between non-academic spheres and academic research. The three parts of the thesis are structured as follows: (i) an analysis of the construction of biological knowledge at the very edge of life; (ii) current research on high alpine plants (evolution and historical ecology); (iii) an analysis of the different ways in which this science is narrated in the high mountains (scientific, artistic, literary, popular) and their possible implication on the human/non-human relationship.
We will use vascular plants as a biological model in three analytical frameworks: geohistory - with a particular focus on the geography of science; scientific ecology, involving botany, taxonomy, biogeography and historical ecology; and ethnobotany, as a tool to analyze a contemporary and situated example of the humans/plants relationship. This multiple and hybrid approach aims to understand how the high mountains are a singular space of science and a revealing space of the transformation of life; and how the vascular plants form a biological group capable of testifying to the evolution of a singular biodiversity, to what it tells us about the terrestrial habitability and our relation to living beings.r de science et un espace révélateur de la transformation du vivant ; et en quoi les plantes vasculaires forment un groupe biologique à même de témoigner de l'évolution d'une biodiversité singulière, de ce qu'elle nous dit de l'habitabilité terrestre et de notre relation au vivant.
Key words: Actor-network, living beings, high mountains, geography, botany, habitabilité
Doctoral School: ED SHPT - Humanities, Political and Territorial Sciences Research laboratory: Laboratoire des sciences sociales (Pacte - CNRS/ UGA -Sciences Po Grenoble-UGA) Thesis supervision: Philippe BOURDEAU and Pascal MAO
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Learning by Research
This project aims to study life through the prism of two margins: a geographical margin - the high mountains - and a scientific margin - the construction of a hybrid knowledge between non-academic spheres and academic research. The three parts of the thesis are structured as follows: (i) an analysis of the construction of biological knowledge at the very edge of life; (ii) current research on high alpine plants (evolution and historical ecology); (iii) an analysis of the different ways in which this science is narrated in the high mountains (scientific, artistic, literary, popular) and their possible implication on the human/non-human relationship.