List of investigators, postdoctoral researchers and PhD students in alphabetical order.
PhD candidate in Law, JUR-I
previously LLM’24 at Harvard Law School.
PhD candidate in Law, JUR-I
Climate litigation, Climate displaced, Sustainable Development & Education.
Collaborator of CLAIM – PhD candidate in Political Science, EDEM and CReSPo
Aspirante (FRS-FNRS)
PhD. Post-doctoral researcher in Law, JUR-I.
Co-investigator – Communication Science, ILC – RECOM
Andrea Catellani is Professor of Communication at the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain, Belgium). He is one of the directors of the Study and Research Group “Communication, Environment, Science and Society” of the French Society of Information and Communication Sciences (SFSIC). He was the principal investigator of the research project “Overcoming Obstacles and Disincentives to Climate Change Mitigation” (funded by JPI Climate, 2020-2024).
He has published several academic articles and books, particularly on environmental and climate communication and rhetoric, corporate social responsibility discourse, the semiotic approach to organisations, ethics in communication, and the relationship between religion and digital communication.
Collaborator of CLAIM. PhD. Researcher on Climate Change and Mobility (Law & Anthropology), JUR-I
Co-investigator – Communication Science, ILC – RECOM
Sophie Del Fa is a Professor at the School of Communication at UCLouvain (Belgium) and a member of the Institute for Language and Communication (ILC) and LASCO. She holds a PhD in Communication from the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM, Canada).
Her research is firmly anchored in the Communicative Constitution of Organizations (CCO) framework, through which she explores contemporary resistance practices, environmental activism, and radical alternatives. Adopting a critical and engaged ethnographic approach, her fieldwork investigates protests, alternative organizational structures, and the pivotal role of marginalized actors within climate litigation.
Prof. Del Fa is a significant contributor to the global dialogue on organizational communication. Her scholarly work has been published in leading international journals such as Information, Communication and Society, M@n@gement, Ethnography and Education, and Resistance Studies.
A recognized expert in her field, she has authored key chapters in foundational textbooks, including the Routledge Handbook of the Communicative Constitution of Organizations (2022) and recent 2024 French-language volumes on organizational communication and “communicating-as-organizing” edited by Vasquez, Cooren, and Reumont.
www.uclouvain.be/fr/people/sophie.delfa
PhD candidate in Law at UCLouvain (JUR-I) & McGill University
previously LL.M. UC Berkeley ’24 (International Law and Social Justice).
PhD candidate in communication sciences at UCLouvain
Samaneh Koohestani holds a PhD in Cultural Sociology and works at the intersection of communication, society, and culture. Her research focuses on the role of communication in shaping social dynamics, with particular interest in issues related to marginalized voices and global challenges.
Co-investigator – Political Science, CReSPo, UCLouvain Saint-Louis Bruxelles
Amandine J. Orsini is Professor of International Relations at UCLouvain Saint-Louis Bruxelles, where she specializes in global environmental politics.
Holding a PhD in Political Science from Sciences Po Bordeaux (2009), her career is marked by an extensive international trajectory, including visiting fellowships at the European University Institute in Florence, the Graduate Institute of Geneva, and the Universities of Oxford, Laval, and Utrecht.
Her current research agenda explores the intersections of environmental governance, diplomacy, and generational dynamics. She is the principal investigator of the Youth Earth project (2021–2025), focusing on youth participation in international negotiations, and leads the Global Cleav-Age research chair (2024–2026), which examines climate and permanent diplomacy through the prism of age. As a Jean Monnet Chair (EUGLOBALGREEN), she also coordinates the Advanced Master POLLEN, reflecting her commitment to excellence in EU environmental policy education.
Prof. Orsini’s expertise spans a wide range of critical issues, including:
- Institutional Interactions: regime complexes and the participation of non-state actors.
- Global Environmental Governance: focusing on biodiversity, biotechnology, and climate change.
- International Negotiations: exploring the sociology of negotiators and foreign policy dynamics.
- International Political Economy: specifically business lobbying and transnational coalitions.
Beyond her research, she is a deeply engaged member of the academic community, serving as the Secretary of the Association Belge de Science Politique and as a member of the Earth System Governance international network. She is also the founder of the WIRE (Workshops in International Relations) series, fostering international collaboration in her field since 2010.
Collaborator of CLAIM. PhD. SJD Candidate (Harvard Law School) and Postdoctoral Researcher (ULB)
Lead investigator – Law, CeDIE | EDEM
Prof. Sylvie Sarolea focuses her research on the legal protection of individuals within the dynamics of mobility, navigating the complex intersection of international human rights, European asylum law, and migration law.Her scholarship is structured around three analytical pillars: the critique of international protection regimes, the practical effectiveness of fundamental rights for highly vulnerable populations, and the evolving nexus between human mobility and environmental transitions—specifically regarding climate-induced migration and litigation.
Beyond these frameworks, Prof. Sarolea maintains a dedicated focus on migrant agency, child protection in migratory contexts, and the documentation of human rights violations in conflict zones, with extensive expertise on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Embracing a resolutely interdisciplinary approach that bridges law, sociology, and legal anthropology, her work emphasizes North-South dynamics and the decolonization of legal knowledge. Through her current research, she continues to bridge the gap between theory and practice by re-evaluating legal categories of transitional justice in light of contemporary field realities.
PhD candidate in political science, CReSPo, UCLouvain Saint-Louis Bruxelles
Florine Serrault holds a French-German Master degree in Political Science from Sciences Po Rennes in partnership with the Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, and a Master degree in European Studies from Sciences Po Strasbourg, both obtained in 2020.
Before joining the CReSPo, Florine worked as an accredited parliamentary assistant at the European Parliament for two and a half years, before continuing her professional career as an advocacy officer towards European institutions for a civil society organisation working on climate and environmental issues.
As part of the ARC CLAIM project, she is pursuing a PhD in political science, supervised by Amandine Orsini and Andrea Catellani.
