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Marlène de Saussure
- © cms
marlene.desaussure@metropolitanstudies.de
Center for Metropolitan Studies
TU Berlin
Hardenbergstraße 16-18
HBS-6
10623 Berlin
Dissertation
Claiming Marseille Métropole.
A Diachronic Study of Urban Representation during the 1906 Colonial Exposition and the European Capital of Culture “Marseille-Provence 2013”
In my dissertation project, I am conducting a diachronic comparative study of the concept the ‘metropolis’ in Marseille. For this purpose, I examine two temporal stages: firstly, at the turn of the 20th century, when Marseille was portrayed as the “colonial metropole” of the French Empire during the era of European Colonialism. Secondly, the contemporary city image of ‘Métropole Aix-Marseille-Provence’ as a regional urban entity in an era of globalization. For this purpose, I investigate two crucial cultural events which, I argue, extensively contribute to carrying and producing the “métropole”: the first French Colonial Exhibition in Marseille in 1906 and the festival as the European Capital of Culture, “Marseille-Provence 2013”.
Here, I do not regard the metropolis primarily as a localized and fixed spatial entity. Rather, I propose a conceptual approach to metropolitanism as a discursive formation. For my analysis, I conduct in-depth interpretation of historical sources, official documents and expert interviews, drawing from discourse analytical methods and critical urban studies.
My project addresses the following research questions: Why is metropolitanism constitutive of urban discourses on Marseille throughout history despite deep definitional and functional shifts of that very concept? How do major cultural events, more than a century apart, disseminate and shape the “métropole”? What and who produces these discourses and (how) are they contested?
I propose that both during the age of colonialism and in the context of contemporary neo-liberalism, the concept of the metropolis in Marseille represents an ideological definition, and a relational instrument of urban labelling and marketing. Metropolitanism is a crucial factor of urban historicity, which (re)produces and is produced through discursive representational practices according to specific power structures.
The aim of the overall project is to contribute to discussing the theoretical definitional problem of urban typologization and metropolitanism, as well as addressing the lack of diachronic critical research on the history of Marseille’s metropolitan representation and heritage.
CV
Professional/Research Experience
Since 01/2018
Research Assistant
German Historical Institute Paris
Department for Modern History
Since 10/2017
Associate Doctoral Fellow
Centre Marc Bloch Berlin
Franco-German Research Center for the Social Sciences
06/2017
Guest Doctoral Researcher
University Aix-Marseille
Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l’Homme, Laboratoire TELEMME
05/2017
Guest Doctoral Researcher
University Aix-Marseille
Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l’Homme, Laboratoire LAMES
05/2015 – 12/2017
Full PhD Scholarship Holder
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
Since 05/2015
Doctoral Researcher in History
International Graduate Research Program “The World in the City” Berlin - New York – Toronto
Center for Metropolitan Studies, Technical University of Berlin
Dissertation title: “Claiming Marseille Métropole. A Diachronic Study of Urban Representation during the 1906 Colonial Exposition and the European Capital of Culture ‘Marseille-Provence 2013’”
12/2012 – 04/2015
Student Researcher
Center for Metropolitan Studies, Technical University of Berlin
08/2014 – 01/2015
Student Researcher
Leibniz Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning, Erkner (Berlin), Department for Historical Research
05/2014 – 07/2014
Student Researcher
University of Applied Sciences Erfurt, Department for Architecture and Urban Planning
01/2011 – 01/2012
Independent Research Assistant,
Dr. Pamela Kort, Guest Professor at Humboldt University Berlin
Education
10/2012 – 05/2015
Master of Arts in Historical Urban Studies
Center for Metropolitan Studies, Technical University of Berlin
Master Thesis: “Hip-Hop und Stadt. Urbane Kultur in Marseille, 1984¬ – 2014”
10/2008 – 04/2012
Bachelor of Arts in History / Art and Visual Studies
Humboldt University Berlin
Publications (selection)
De Saussure, Marlène/ Grésillon, Boris, Multi-Scaled Metropolisation. Challenges and Opportunities of Plural Urban Reconversion Processes in the “Métropole Aix-Marseille-Provence”, in: Urban Geography, Special Issue “The Process of Metropolisation“. (forthcoming, under review)
De Saussure, Marlène, Negotiating Capitality in the Second City. Urban Representations of Colonial Marseille in the Late French Empire, in: Shelekpayev, Nari and Economides, Aliki, Exploring Capital Cities in Imperial and Post-Imperial Contexts, 1880-1980, University of Pittsburgh Press. (forthcoming, under review)
De Saussure, Marlène, Marsatac au parc Chanot: le hip-hop sur les traces de la première exposition coloniale, in : Marsactu, Marseille, 23.06.2017
De Saussure, Marlène/Fuhg, Felix, Tagungsbericht: Imperial Port Cities in the Age of Steam. Towards a Comparative History of Entanglements, 14.07.2016 – 17.07.2016 Berlin, in: Connections. A Journal for Historians and Area Specialists, 2016.
Conference Contributions/Talks
11/2017
Guest Lecture: “Claiming Marseille Métropole.
A diachronic discussion on urban (self-)representation, 1906 and 2013”,
History of the Mediterranean Institute, Ruhr University Bochum
06/2017
Paper: “La société métropolitaine à Marseille, ou la conceptualisation contingente du rapport à l’’Autre’ ? Regards croisés en 1906 et 2016”,
Annual Graduate Conference 2017, Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l’Hommes, University Aix-Marseille
04/2017
Paper: “Integrated Metropolisation. Challenges and Opportunities of Multi-Scaled Urban Reconversion Processes for the ‘Métropole Aix-Marseille-Provence’”, Co-author Prof. Boris Grésillon,
American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting 2017, Boston MA
10/2016
Paper: "Producing the ‘Colonial Metropole’ in Marseille through Materialized Processes of Racialization",
Conference “UrbanTOPIAS. Discussing the Challenges of Changing Cities”, Center for Metropolitan Studies, Berlin
Conference Co-Organization “UrbanTOPIAS. Discussing the Challenges of Changing Cities”, Center for Metropolitan Studies
09/2016
Round Table Speaker: “Berlin – Paris – Marseille. Quel avenir pour nos métropoles?”,
with Prof. Boris Grésillon and Finn Geipel, Centre Marc Bloch Berlin
06/2016
Paper: “Eine Zukunft namens Metropole. Von kolonialer zu globaler Metropolitanität in Marseille, 1906 und 2013“,
Science Slam, Institut Français in Berlin (cooperation with the French Embassy in Berlin, the DAAD and Marc Bloch Center Berlin).
03/2016
Paper: “The Urban Accelerated. From Colonial to Global Metropolitanism in Marseille”,
Urban History Group Conference 2016, University of Cambridge.
Teaching Experience
11/2017
Guest Lecture: “Marseille und die Kolonialausstellung 1906. Produktion von urbanen Repräsentationen im imperialen Kontext”, M.A. Course (Dr. Noa Ha), Technical University Berlin
10/2017
Guest Lecture: “Negotiating Metropolitanism III”, M.A. Course (Prof. Dorothee Brantz), Technical University Berlin
04/2017
Guest Lecture: “Marseille, the Colonial Exposition, and the Concept of the ‚Metropolis’“, Undergraduate Course (Prof. Rosemary Wakeman), Fordham University, New York City
11/2016
Guest Lecture: “Negotiating Metropolitanism II”, M.A. Course (Prof. Dorothee Brantz), Technical University Berlin
07/2016
Guest Lecture: “Urban Form – Urban Brand. A Theoretical and Empirical Discussion on the Metropolis”, M.A. Course (Dr. Stefanie Rinke), Humboldt University Berlin
01/2016
Guest Lecture: “Negotiating Metropolitanism I”, M.A. Course (Prof. Dorothee Brantz), Technical University Berlin
11/2014
Guest Lecture: “Introduction in Historical Urban Studies”, B.A. Course, Technical University of Berlin
Research Trips
05 – 06/2017
Marseille/Aix-en-Provence
09/2016
Paris/Marseille/Aix-en-Provence
02 – 03/2016
Marseille
12/2015
New York City
Memberships
Since 12/2016
Interdisciplinary Academic Working Group “Création Réseaux Territoires / Kreation Netzwerke Raum” (bilingual French/German), Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin
2015 – 2016
NYLON International Research Network (New York University – London School of Economics – Humboldt University Berlin)
Language Skills
French: Native
German: Native
English: Fluent
Italian: Basic
Latin: Basic
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