Welcome, sharing and exchanges at Maison Suger

Interview with Gwenaëlle Léonus-Lieppe, Director of Maison Suger
Entrée de la Maison Suger
Located in the Latin Quarter, the Maison Suger is a residence and accommodation facility which, since 1990, has been offering HSS researchers of all nationalities who need to spend a few months in Paris, a working and living environment adapted to their needs.

Discover this exceptional place with Gwenaëlle Léonus-Lieppe, Director of Maison Suger.

What are the missions of the Maison Suger?

The Maison Suger was conceived on the initiative of the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (MSH), as an ‘international research, hospitality, and cooperation centre for foreign researchers. It represented a new stage in the development of the MSH, in line with its policy of promoting synergies between disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, collaboration between scientific establishments in Paris and abroad, and the development of international networks. In the founders’ vision, research was equal in importance to the hosting functions within the Maison. As a place for living, intellectual work, and cooperation, it should and must always meet the demands of both individual work and collective reflection.

The five missions of the Maison were and remain, even as the environment and resources have changed: to welcome foreign researchers, promote international exchanges, facilitate interdisciplinarity, provide tools that are tailored to researchers’ needs and conducive to research development, and finally, to ‘create a home’.

The Maison Suger is the fruit of Fernand Braudel’s vision, brought to life by Clemens Heller: Its purpose was to strengthen Paris’s role as an essential hub for intellectual exchanges and encounters of excellence, in the tradition of the peregrinatio academica.

A wonderful "home away from home"

Angela Creager, Princeton University, juin 2023

The Maison opened its doors almost thirty-five years ago. Can you tell us more about its history?

It is housed in a former private mansion built in the early seventeenth century and remodelled at the end of the following century. Starting in 1818 and for 150 years, the buildings were owned by the Lorilleux company, a pioneer in the printing ink industry. In 1967, the state acquired the property to house the departments of the Paris education authority. Abandoned due to disrepair, the site remained vacant until 1987, when the Ministry of Education made it available to the MSH. A forty-year emphyteutic lease was signed between the parties, requiring the MSH to finance the reconstruction and upkeep of this research centre for foreign researchers. An international fundraising campaign, involving public and private donors, enabled the project to proceed under the architect Antoine Grumbach. After more than two years of work, the residence welcomed its first researchers in January 1990.

Fernand Braudel’s ambitions were reflected in the architectural design: The renovation appropriately preserved the historic elements, reinforced by a modern framework and spaces dedicated to circulation. The residence was also equipped with state-of-the-art facilities for its time, symbolising the renewal in research. Antoine Grumbach’s vision of a ‘reconciled Babel’ continues to embody the values of the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (FMSH) and the Maison: to promote hospitality and sharing, to encourage human and professional exchanges, international solidarity, and tolerance across linguistic, cultural, intellectual, and academic differences.

We are approaching the fortieth anniversary of the signing of the lease: What are the prospects for the future?

The lease will expire in January 2027. Without pre-empting a decision that is up to the state, the FMSH is already keen to demonstrate the success of this project—of which it claims the initiative and the model—and the vital services the Maison has been providing to research communities in the humanities and social sciences (HSS) since 1990. The residents and research establishments in the Île-de-France region are its best ambassadors. The Foundation is not overly boastful when it states that the Maison fulfils its missions, contributes to the internationalisation of HSS research and to Paris’s scientific appeal. An impact study underway in 2024 will enable us to measure and better qualify the residence’s contributions to its beneficiaries.

The prospect of signing a new lease is also an opportunity to present our supervisory body with a renewed and ambitious project for the Maison, both in its scientific and real estate dimensions. It is up to the Foundation to spark the interest and enthusiasm of its stakeholders, engaging them once again in an inspiring venture, as it did in 1987. This is also the role of a Foundation: to innovate and take ‘calculated’ risks. The Executive Board will be responsible for championing this project for a ‘renewed Maison Suger’ and to build it jointly with the state. The Maison Suger is a remarkable establishment, but it requires considerable investment. For forty years, the FMSH has borne the operating and maintenance costs, and the building is in very good condition. It intends to demonstrate its ability to give it a second lease of life, provided the state grants it the opportunity and maintains its trust.

If Maison Suger didn’t already exist, we’d have to invent it at once!

Paul Videsott, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, March 2024

Can you tell us more about the arrangements for welcoming residents?

The residence has thirty-three units, ranging from studios to one-bedroom apartments, and can accommodate around 170 residents per year, staying between one to twelve months. Researchers from abroad or affiliated to a research institution abroad, from all disciplines in the humanities and social sciences or involved in collaborative projects with an HSS focus, are eligible to apply. Maison Suger welcomes researchers from post-doctoral level onwards, invited to Paris by higher education and research institutions in the Île-de-France region. However, colleagues who do not have a specific invitation, but who wish to carry out research in Paris, to consult document collections, carry out fieldwork, or meet colleagues, are also welcome.

As the number of applications exceeds the Maison’s capacity, applications are selected by a selection committee that meets every month. The committee is made up of the FMSH’s scientific directors and should soon be able to call on the expertise of members of the scientific advisory committee. In addition to the quality of the application and the relevance of the stay in Paris, the committee takes a number of criteria into consideration: ensuring a balance between men and women, applicants’ countries of origin, the disciplines to which they belong, and the inviting institutions. Particular attention is paid to first-time applicants, researchers at the start of their careers, and colleagues facing political or economic difficulties. The Maison also provides accommodation for researchers who have benefited from the FMSH’s mobility programmes (Atlas, Themis, DEA), as well as those who have been awarded grants under the PAUSE programme.

Residents pay rent calculated to closely reflect the running costs of the residence. The FMSH covers 30 to 35 per cent of the actual housing costs, i.e., around €180,000 in 2024.

Can you tell us more about the Maison’s scientific programme?

The Maison benefits from the researchers it hosts, constantly renewing its pool of talents. It serves as a kind of kaleidoscope, a tool that helps to highlight or reflect—in both senses of the word—on research in progress. Its purpose is to promote the work of its residents, and facilitate scientific encounters and the sharing of approaches, methods, and knowledge. It provides the opportunity to address interdisciplinary issues and encourage collaborations. As part of the ‘Thursdays at Maison Suger” (‘Jeudis de la Maison Suger’) programme, for example, residents are invited to present their current research. The Maison supports collective initiatives organised by its residents and also hosts five or six research seminars each year. A call for proposals has been launched for the start of the 2024 academic year. Projects that meet the criteria promoted by the FMSH will be selected: interdisciplinarity, institutional collaboration, openness to international and social issues, and innovative or distinct formats.

In addition to these recurring seminars, the Maison hosts a variety of scientific events (workshops, symposiums, summer schools, book presentations, conferences, performances, etc.) organised by the FMSH or by partner institutions. These events should provide residents with an opportunity to meet other scientific communities. They must also be aligned with the Foundation’s thematic axes, supported programmes, and values.

Knut Ove Eliassen revient sur son expérience à la Maison Suger


Article published in the second issue of the Journal de la FMSH.

Published at 7 January 2025