[Portrait] Yoletty Bracho, contract lecturer in political science (-JPEG)

What are your current scientific activities?

In 2023 and 2024, two publications that I co-edited came out. An issue of the journal Cahiers des Amériques latines on the issue of state violence in Venezuelaand a book published by Presses Universitaires de Rennes on political changeover in Latin America. I am currently working with my political scientist colleagues at the University of Avignon and the JPEG laboratory, in partnership with the GIS Participation and the CERAPS laboratory, on the organisation of a conference on the question of institutional activism in contexts of democratic regression on a transatlantic scale.

Why did you choose to work in academic research?

As with many of my predecessors, I see research as a job that allows you to get to know yourself better and to put down roots in your environment. For me, research is also the best way of maintaining the links between the two sides of the Atlantic that I hold so dear. Finally, it is an approach to knowledge that I see as a social and political commitment in its own right.

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

The practical realities of social science research today demand responsibility and clarity when you embark on this path, and it's difficult to get the whole picture when you're a Master's student and starting to think about doing a PhD. So, at this pivotal moment, two things seem important to me. The first is this, choice of thesis director to find someone who can really support the young researcher's career path. Second, exchanges with those already involved in doctoral studiesto find out more about the workplace (university, laboratory) that you will be joining for many years to come.

What object or image from your business best illustrates you?

A lot of my work is done on a small desk equipped with two screens and a map of the city of Caracas, the capital of Venezuela.

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