[Portrait] Marion Fontaine, Senior Lecturer in History and Director of the Centre Norbert Elias (CNE)

What are your current scientific activities?

I am finishing the manuscript from my Habilitation to direct research, to be published in early 2022, with the title The industrial society in question. I am also actively working on the preparation of a documentary for TV, entitled "The Great Slayer (on the exposure and mobilisation of mineworkers in the face of health risks). Finally, on the eve of this very political year, we are preparing a dossier with a colleague on "The politicisation of the working classes which is expected to be published this autumn [2021].

Why did you choose to work in academic research?

A bit by chance at first (I was initially tempted by journalism)! Because some questions intrigued me afterwards: why and how did the industrial and working class past remain present? Why had spectacles, like football, become a new medium of identity? How to explain the crisis of the left? And because, a little later, I realised that this profession, far from certain stereotypes, was surprisingly varied and allowed me to meet very different people, both in research and in teaching.

What advice would you give to students who want to do research?

Do not get discouraged! There are many pitfalls, competition and selection too - certainly too many - and you often have to wait, sometimes taking paths you hadn't thought of. Don't forget that this job is varied, as I said, and that you have to prepare yourself for it: you work in the field, you research and write, but you also teach, you look for funding, you manage training courses and you organise events. All experiences are good to prepare for it! And finally love languages The languages in which we write, the languages we need in an increasingly internationalised research environment, the languages we use in our writings and scientific works, and the languages we translate to speak to students and a wider public.

What object or image from your business best illustrates you?

View of the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum (Germany). In a single image, the intersection of the industrial and mining past and the present (the museum, heritage, new activities).