Eric Macé: Vice-President for societal and environmental transitions

After obtaining his Advanced Studies Diploma (DEA) in sociology in 1990 from the French School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS > in French) under Alain Touraine's supervision at the Centre for Sociological Intervention and Analysis (CADIS), Eric Macé defended his doctoral thesis in 1994 that re-examined the sociology of the media from the perspective of the English-speaking tradition of "cultural studies". 

He continued as a post-doctoral fellow at CADIS with research on urban violence, before being recruited in 1998 as a lecturer in sociology at the University of Sorbonne-Nouvelle, while remaining a member of CADIS. Covering a wide range of empirical fields (media, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, coloniality), his research focused on the analysis of power relations. After being accredited to supervise research in 2006 by the Université Paris-Descartes (now University of Paris), Eric Macé was recruited in 2008 as a professor at the Faculty of Sociology at the University of Bordeaux. His mission was to steer the creation of a new Joint Research Unit with a unit from Sciences Po Bordeaux.

This led to the creation of the Emile Durkheim Centre (in French) in 2011, which he was to co-direct until 2016. In addition, starting in 2013, he took part in the planning of the future research department in human and social sciences set up when the University of Bordeaux was created in 2014. Building on that experience, in 2019, he went on to direct the new research department CHANGES - Social sciences of contemporary changes.

Strongly committed to the university's strategic planning process for the 2030 horizon with a will to position the human and social sciences at the heart of it, Eric Macé is helping to ensure that the challenges of the Anthropocene, which are also his research and teaching subjects, find their rightful place. His new responsibilities logically connect policies of environmental transition and solidarity (equality, inclusion, diversity) in order to achieve the "Transitions Roadmap" adopted by the University of Bordeaux. Eric Macé is also an (amateur) jazz musician who plays the double bass.

In February 2022, he was appointed Vice-President for environmental and societal transitions at the University of Bordeaux by President Dean Lewis.

Key dates

1989: Master degree in sociology at the University of Paris 7

1990: DEA in sociology at EHESS

1994: Doctorate in sociology at EHESS

1998: Lecturer at the University of Sorbonne-Nouvelle

2008: University professor, University of Bordeaux

2011: Deputy director of the Emile-Durkheim Centre

2019: Director of the research department CHANGES - Social sciences of contemporary changes

2022: Vice-President for societal and environmental transitions, University of Bordeaux