Theme: Loose Threads

Our TEDx event features speakers from a variety of backgrounds and specializations, with the aim of bringing together different points of view around a single theme: Loose Threads.

How do we deal with loose threads? Some of us prefer to follow them, others cut them, still others burn them. But every loose thread means something - a fall we've made or a scratch in the fabric. Our event aims to follow that distended thread.

We are excited to hear stories addressing questions of unbalance, unravelled histories, and revealed truths… By reuniting students from our campus, and speakers from outside, we hope to inspire our public, by sharing unique ideas and stories.

Sciences Po Menton
11 Place Saint-Julien
Menton, Alpes-Maritimes, 06500
France

Amira Souilem

Reporter

Amira Souilem is a reporter. After graduating from Sciences-Po Paris, she began her career at the France 2 newsroom. She was particularly interested in "post-war journalism", reporting from Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo, Bangladesh, Lebanon and Syrian refugee camps. She now lives in Tunis and Paris, where she works mainly with ARTE and RFI. She will be delivering a speech called "The reporter's blues when faced with the madness of the world", in french.

Claudia Maraston

Professor of Astrophysics, Author, Researcher & Lecturer

Claudia Maraston is Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Portsmouth, UK and a world-renowned researcher in galaxy formation and evolution. She obtained her PhD at the University of Bologna (Italy) in 1998, discussing a new model for the spectral evolution of stellar generations in galaxies. After her PhD she was a research fellow at the Ludwig Maximillian University of Munich (Germany) and at the Max Planck Institute for extra-terrestrial Physics (Garching), before joining the University of Oxford (UK) as a Marie-Curie fellow in 2005. In 2007 she received an Excellence Team Grant from the European Council, with which she joined the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation of the University of Portsmouth (2007).

Kousai Ghrimil

Student at Sciences Po Paris campus of Menton

He is Tunisian born and raised in Qatar and the UAE educated at an international British school. To him, his identity is very confusing as he doesn’t know what to call home. He can’t call Qatar or the UAE home because at any given moment you can be deported and he can’t call Tunisia home because he has never lived there, and so the concept of what is home and his identity is a loose thread but at the same time is part of what builds his character.

Maxime Kuschnick

Student at Sciences Po Paris campus of Menton

Maxime is a second-year political science student. "It will get better when you grow up": that's the phrase he used to hear as a teenager, at a time when he was exploring all facets of his identity, especially his sexuality. It was a period punctuated by a lot of questioning, too much questioning. So, in his talk "How to live without answers", he discusses how he came to terms with not finding answers to these questions. He will share with his audience the different stages one goes through to come to terms with living all one's emotions to the full, as well as advice on how to get through these questions about identity.

Sarina Soleymani

Student at Sciences Po Paris campus of Menton

Sarina is currently a student in Sciences Po Paris, Menton campus studying political humanities of the Middle East and Mediterranean region. Her Iranian background has always held strong value for her despite having lived abroad her entire life. Since September 2022, her home country experienced a social movement entitled “Women, Life, Freedom” which was exceptionally moving for Sarina as she watched from far away, frantically looking towards the media to keep herself updated. In Tehran, she understood the subtleties of the movement which she found to be just as important, if not more, than the elements one can find in the media. She belives that authentic experiences, our backgrounds and conversations are crucial elements that can lead to open-mindedness and understanding. Through her talk "Images of freedom", she will share these aspects in an effort to delve deeper towards defining freedom to urge audiences to look within and remember the importance of our individual backgrounds.