2025 Research Award For her research on humanitarian aid, risk perceptions and displacement related to disasters and climate change in the Pacific and Vanuatu.
The Foundation wishes to reward Maëlle Calandra for her research on humanitarian aid, risk perceptions and displacement related to disasters and climate change in the Pacific and Vanuatu.
Maëlle Calandra’s research lies at the intersection of disaster anthropology, human-environment anthropology and migration anthropology. It focuses on island societies in the South Pacific, particularly in Vanuatu. In 2017, she obtained a PhD in social anthropology (EHESS Paris), co-supervised by Philippe Descola and Pierre Lemonnier (Thesis Prize from the Musée Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac and 1st prize in the ThesePac competition, ‘Grand jury Pacific Sud’ category). Her current research project concerns the study of the forced displacement and resettlement of the inhabitants of Ambae Island after the eruption of their volcano in 2018. Since 2022, she has been teaching at Sciences Po as part of the interdisciplinary course ‘Hazards, Risks and Societies’. Since 2023, she has been co-responsible with Sandrine Revet for teaching ‘Anthropology of Disasters’ for the joint academic programme at Sciences Po and co-leader of the ANR project ‘Environmental Migrations and Volcanic Disasters in Vanuatu: a multiple perspective (EMVOLDIVA)’.
Watch Maëlle’s video portrait
About
The Research Prizes of the French Red Cross Foundation, awarded with the support of the Red Cross of Andorra, aim to highlight scientific work already completed or innovative lines of thought devoted to humanitarian and social issues, both in the North and in the South. Open to all disciplines in the human and social sciences and to all nationalities, they reward scientific excellence and human commitment, and promote scientific knowledge, ethical reflection and social innovation to encourage action in favour of the most vulnerable.
In 2025, the awards were presented with the support of the Andorran Red Cross and the Monaco Red Cross.