Career
A graduate of Sciences Po and EHESS, Pierre-Louis Six defended a thesis in history and civilization at the European University Institute in Florence (EUI), devoted to a sociohistory of Soviet diplomatic elites after the Second World War. Through the study of one institution, the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), and its graduates, his doctoral research focused on the constitution of major state bodies in the USSR dedicated to foreign affairs, on the question of the circulation of knowledge between East and West during the Cold War, and on the transformations of science and forms of government in the USSR with regard to international relations.
He has taught history and political science at the French University College in Moscow, Sciences Po Lyon, Université Paris II – Panthéon Assas and Université de Lille. From 2017 to 2019, he was Deputy Director of the Moscow Center for Franco-Russian Studies (CEFR).
His post-doctoral research focused on the discipline of political science in the Soviet context, examining apprehensions of the political and ways of delimiting them in the USSR, as well as the social uses of political science in the context of the so-called transition. At CIENS, he is currently conducting research on the international relations dimension of uranium, looking at the ways in which this natural, strategic and toxic resource has been addressed by Soviet and then Russian foreign policy since the end of the Second World War.
Publications
With Victor Violier, “Penser la réforme de l’État soviétique dans la Perestroïka : entre autonomisation des savoirs sur le politique et dépolitisation des cadres (1985-1992)”, Parlement(s), Volume 39, 2023, 125-147.
With Thibaud Boncourt, “Is political science a political affair? Luttes de définition politiques et disciplinaires autour du congrès mondial de science politique de Moscou (1979)”, Revue d’Histoire des Sciences Humaines, Volume 40, 2022, 43-83.
“Why advertise a “bourgeois science” in Pravda? : la tribune de F. Bourlatski ” La Politique et La Science ” publiée le 10 janvier 1965 “, Revue d’Histoire des Sciences Humaines, Volume 40, 2022, 219-238.
With Stephen Anthony Smith, “Penser les cultures des classes populaires au prisme de l’histoire sociale des communismes: un entretien avec Stephen Anthony Smith”, Biens symboliques, Volume 9, 2021.
Forthcoming:
“From one war to another: How MGIMO transformed Soviet diplomacy from a system of constant renewal of cadres to one based on social networks (1943-1953)”, accepted by Journal of Cold War Studies.
