Bérénice GIRARD

Bérénice Girard is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Stavanger in Norway, where she contributes to the ASSET and Sun4all projects. Her research focuses on the role of Small and Medium Enterprises in solar roll-out. She is particularly interested in the discourses, perspectives and work practices of solar entrepreneurs, and their role in shaping the transition to renewable energies at the local and regional levels. In India, her research focuses on the state of Rajasthan.

Bérénice Girard defended her PhD in sociology in July 2019 at EHESS Paris (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales — School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences). Her thesis, entitled “The Engineers, the River and the State. The role and place of engineers in the management of the Ganges”, was awarded the French Academic Network on Asian Studies (GIS Asie) 2020 PhD Award.

Her previous postdoctoral fellowships focused on energy transitions in Indian cities. They were hosted by the Laboratoire Techniques, Territoires et Sociétés (Gustave Eiffel University) and the Centre for Policy Research New Delhi (2018-2020) and by the Centre de Sciences Humaines (2021). Both were funded by the Hybridelec project (https://hybridelec.hypotheses.org/).

Recent publications:

• « Gérer des infrastructures dysfonctionnelles. Les ingénieurs et techniciens en charge des infrastructures d’assainissement à Bénarès », Tracés, n°35, 2018.
• (Accepted, 26/03/2022) « Mini-grids at the interface. The deployment of mini-grids in urbanizing localities of the Global South » (co-authored with Emmanuelle Guillou) Journal of Urban Technology
• « Un ingénieur contre l’exploitation hydraulique. G. D. Agrawal et la lutte pour la protection du Gange » in Roland Lardinois et Charles Gadéa (eds) (2022), Les Mondes de l’ingénieur en Inde (xix^e-xxi^e siècle). Paris: Garnier Flammarion
• (In press) « Public civil engineering, an expertise from the past? Insights from a contested public utility in a time of reforms » in Vanessa Caru (ed) (2022), Engineers and Society in India from c.1850 to Present Times, New Delhi: Oxford University Press