Position
Ph.D. Student

Institution
Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

Team
EHGO / TERMS

E-mail
kimberley_courrier@hotmail.fr

Kimberley.Du-Buat@ac-versailles.fr

Direction : Olivier Orain

To be a geographer in France, a socio-geography of geographers

Direction : Olivier Orain

Abstract (provisional) : 

Although many geographers reflect on the usefulness, position, and public perception of their professional group, few studies have provided substantial answers to these questions beyond the academic field. This research first seeks to locate geographers: where they work, where they live, and, above all, the position they occupy within society through their occupations, employers, and extra-professional commitments.

The study then examines geographers both as individuals and as a collective in order to determine whether they constitute a distinct professional group. Investigating what it means to be a geographer in France at the individual level entails analysing professional trajectories and assessing the influence of factors such as gender, location, educational background, and training on career paths. It also involves examining the effects of being a geographer on individuals’ careers, including visibility, earnings, professional recognition, and social mobility.

At the collective level, the study explores the professional group itself by identifying its defining characteristics, strategies for consolidation and growth, internal tensions and struggles, transformations over time, and relationships with other professional groups.

The research is based on three main methods of inquiry: a survey of geography PhD graduates from five cohorts (2006, 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2018; n = 655), a questionnaire distributed to geographers from a wide range of professional backgrounds (approximately 1,000 respondents), and a series of semi-structured interviews.

Research Interests

• History and Epistemology of Geography
• Professional Geographies and Academic Labour Markets
• Careers and Professional Trajectories of Geographers
• Gender and Higher Education
• Geography Education and Didactics
• CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) and Geography Teaching through English
• Geospatial Data Professions
• Scientific Communities and Professional Networks
• Sociology of Professions
• Quantitative Methods in Social Sciences

Conference Presentations

du Buat, K. (2026). “Geographers in the age of artificial intelligence : professional reconfigurations in the fields of planning and urban development”, IRC IGU Regional Conference, Istanbul, August 2026.

du Buat, K. (2026). “The Professional Landscape of French Geography: The Return of Physical Geography ?”, IRC IGU Regional Conference, Istanbul, August 2026.

du Buat, K. (2026). Networks and Associations of Geographers: A Necessity? Réseau Géophyte Conference, 27 March 2026.

Goeury, D., Lefebvre, A., & du Buat, K. (2026). Clio-Agora Meeting: Engagements. Practising Geography in the Twenty-First Century – Les Clionautes (presentation of my chapter in the edited volume). Online, 14 January 2026.

du Buat, K. (2025). Teaching Geography without Geographers: An Additional Challenge for CLIL Geography Teaching. International ADNL Conference, Université Paris Nanterre, 20–21 November 2025.

Deschamps, A., du Buat, K., & Mai, B. (2025). Teaching Geography and English in CLIL Classes: A Case Study Based on a Graphic Production Exercise in Upper Secondary Education. International ADNL Conference, Université Paris Nanterre, 20–21 November 2025.

du Buat, K., Deschamps, A., & Hakimi, N. (2025). Upper Secondary Students Producing Maps and Sketches in English: What Geographical Learning Outcomes? PLACE Research Seminar, CY Cergy Paris Université, 11 March 2025.

du Buat, K. (2024). The Professional Destinations of Geographers. AFNEG Student Fair, 16 November 2024.

du Buat, K. (2024). Which Career Path for Women in Geography? A Quantitative Approach Based on Five Cohorts of Geography PhDs in France. International Geographical Congress (IGC-UGI), Dublin, August 2024.

du Buat, K. (2024). Gender Inequalities among Geographers. EHGO / Géographie-Cités Doctoral Workshop, Chaignes, July 2024.

du Buat, K. (2024). Survey Research and Mirror Effects: Is Self-Portraiture a Methodological Dead End? Interdisciplinary Seminar Sortir de l’impasse, Le Havre, February 2024.

du Buat, K. (2024). The Place of Geographers in Geospatial Data Professions: Geographic Data Analysis as a Major Employment Sector for Geographers in France. Seminar Professional Worlds of the Urban, session on Geospatial Data Professions, Lille, January 2024.

du Buat, K. (2023). Life after the PhD: The Professional Destinations of Geography Doctorates. Géographie-Cités Doctoral Meeting, Aubervilliers, September 2023.

du Buat, K. & Szende, N. (2023). Geographers’ Engagement through the Lens of the Sociology of Science and Professions: A Comparative Study of France and the United Kingdom. French National Committee for Geography (CNFG) Annual Conference, Valenciennes, May 2023.

Event Organisation and Administrative Responsibilities

2026–present
Co-chair, Applied Geography Commission, French National Committee for Geography (CNFG).

2024
Organizer of the session What’s Geographers’ Place in the World? at the International Geographical Congress (IGC-UGI), Dublin.

2023–2024
Founder of the Erasmus Club at Lycée Évariste Galois. Organisation of a lecture series featuring university scholars.

2022–2024
Member of the Erasmus+ Steering Committee, Lycée Évariste Galois.
Responsibilities included European project applications, administration, mobility organisation, report writing, and dissemination activities.

Research Projects

2024–2027
Research participant in the LéA DNL Project, in collaboration with Université Paris Nanterre and CY Cergy Paris Université, focusing on the teaching of Geography through English (collaborative research and development in Geography Education).

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Articles

Du Buat, K. (2022). Féminisation et rapports de genre dans la fabrique de la science : l’exemple de la revue L’Espace géographique (1972–2022). [Gendering the Production of Scientific Knowledge: Feminisation and Gender Relations in the Journal L’Espace géographique (1972–2022)]. L’Espace géographique, 51(4), 336–354. https://doi.org/10.3917/eg.514.0336

This publication was shortlisted for the IGU-YECG and AGA-YGWG Young and Early Career Geographers Best Paper Award 2026 (IGC Istanbul).

Denmat, P., Deschamps, A., Manoïlov, P., Du Buat, K. et Mai, B. (2025). Analyse croisée géographique et langagière de productions graphiques en classe de DNL au lycée. [A Combined Geographical and Linguistic Analysis of Graphic Productions in Upper-Secondary CLIL Geography Classrooms]. Recherches en didactiques, 39-40(1), 279-310. https://doi.org/10.3917/rdid1.039.0279.

Book Chapters

Du Buat, K. (2025). Être engagé et s’engager : les géographes au prisme de leurs engagements professionnels et personnels. [Being Engaged and Committing Oneself: Geographers through the Lens of Their Professional and Personal Commitments] Dans D. Goeury et A. Lefebvre-Chombart Engagements : Faire de la géographie au XXIe siècle (p. 33-43). Presses universitaires de Vincennes. https://doi.org/10.3917/puv.goeur.2025.01.0033.

Teaching Experience

Agrégée Teacher of History and Geography, Lycée Paul Langevin (Suresnes), 2024–present.
Teaching History, Geography and Civic Education in both French and English within the English European Section (SELO). Member of the LéA DNL research project in partnership with Université Paris Nanterre and CY Cergy Paris Université.

Agrégée Teacher of History and Geography, Lycée Évariste Galois (Sartrouville), 2020–2024.
Teaching History, Geography and Civic Education at all secondary levels.

Khôlles Examiner, CPGE Humanities Preparatory Classes (Khâgne), Lycée Jeanne d’Albret, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 2020–2023.

Teaching Assistant (Lecturer), Université Paris Nanterre, 2023–2024.
Undergraduate courses in Rural Geography (Geography BA) and Rural Spaces (Anthropology BA).

Examination Boards

2026 – 2028
Member of the Geography Examination Board, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon entrance examination (CPGE competitive examination).

2022–2025
Member of the CAPES History and Geography Examination Board (written and oral examinations, Geography component).

Education

March 2024
Education Outside the Classroom: Learning from Sites, Museums, Monuments and Nature (7-day certified training course), Limassol, Cyprus.
Provider: Educulture (Erasmus+ accredited).
http://educulture.info/education-outside-the-classroom/

March 2022
Drama in Education, Erasmus+ Greece Formations, Piraeus (Athens, Greece), one-week training course.
https://www.erasmusgreece.eu/course/drama-and-experiential-learning-for-inclusion-1-week-in-corfu/

2021–2022
Certification in Teaching a Non-Linguistic Subject through English (DNL Certification), qualifying for teaching in European Sections. Grade: 16/20.

2019–2020
University Diploma in Teaching and Education (MEEF), INSPE Bordeaux.
Dissertation supervised by Julie Picard: Rethinking didactic transposition in order to restore the complexity of “migration” as an object of study by integrating the lived dimension of this total geographical phenomenon.

2018–2019
Preparation for the competitive examination for the Agrégation in Geography, École Normale Supérieure (Paris).
Successfully admitted, ranked 23rd nationally.

2017–2018
Master’s Degree (M2) in Territorial Sciences – Géoprisme Programme, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Graduated with Highest Honours (Très Bien), ranked 2nd in cohort.
Specialisations: History and Epistemology of Geography; Urban and Regional Planning.

Erasmus+ placement: Master Geographical Modelling Campus+e, University of Manchester.

2016–2017
Master’s Degree (M1) in Spaces, Societies and Territories, Université Paris-Est Créteil and Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée (in partnership with École Normale Supérieure, Paris).
Graduated with Highest Honours (Très Bien).
Research dissertation in the Geography of Music on the Philharmonie de Paris’s Démos programme.
Supervisors: Serge Weber and Séverin Guillard.

2013–2016
Bachelor’s Degree in Law, Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas.