Invited Speakers

Hélène Gispert  

Hélène Gispert is a historian of mathematics and professor emerita at Paris-Saclay University. She is currently conducting research, both in an academic and trade union context, on the theme of ‘Women – Knowledge – Power’. She is co-author of an article entitled « Le genre académique – Prendre la mesure de l’avantage masculin dans les sciences », to be published in the journal Zilsel – Sociologie, histoire, anthropologie et philosophie des sciences et des techniques (Zilsel, 17, 2026/1).

Title: The issue of professional gender equality - questioning "excellence" and the illusions of male-normed success.

Abstract: Professional equality between women and men in academic research can be examined through multiple dimensions: activities, careers, remuneration (salaries and bonuses)... I have chosen to approach this issue through the lens of scientific excellence and its implications for professional success. Drawing on research by specialists in gender studies – historians, sociologists, economists, and political scientists – I argue that excellence is a deeply gendered construction, built upon sex-divided academic labor, male-normed standards of success, and the myth of meritocracy. Rather than settling for an elitist equality that benefits only a privileged few, the challenge now is to formulate and establish gender-neutral norms that transform academic structures.

Odome Angone 

Odome Angone is an Associate Professor at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar (UCAD), where she teaches the sociology of identity within Hispano-African and Afro-Spanish literatures. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on endogenous knowledge and advocates for epistemic justice.
She is the author of several influential works, including the novel Roi-dieu coupé (2013), which explores madness and collective amnesia in postcolonial contexts, and the essay Femmes noires francophones (2020), examining power dynamics at the intersection of race, gender, class, and coloniality. Her most recent book, ¿De qué color son los blancos? Un decálogo de herramientas sobre justicia epistémica (2025), highlights unconscious biases in scientific neutrality. Her broader work interrogates colonial representations and the construction of imaginaries in the Global South, specifically focusing on narrative sovereignty, (cyber)narratives, diglossia, and the intersections of borders, migration, and identity.

Title: Agnotology or Selective Ignorance as a Tool of Power: Cultural Hegemony, Hidden Curriculum, and Epistemic Injustices

Abstract: Since joining Cheikh Anta Diop University in 2015, my research has focused on epistemic justice, with the ambition of reconciling scientific production and societal challenges. Through an intersectional lens, I examine the persistence of sexist, racist, and neo-colonial biases within the academic institution. My approach is driven by the need for legitimation for marginalized groups, whose status remains precarious due to rigid normative structures. I argue that despite its image as an epicenter of neutrality, the University remains a site for the reproduction of social inequalities, often masking ideologies rooted in epistemic regimes that perpetuate the scientific divide between the North and the South. This contribution thus aims to unmask the mechanisms of selective ignorance that transform the institution into a vehicle for cultural hegemony, to the detriment of truly inclusive science. 
Keywords: Selective ignorance; Epistemic justice (or epistemic injustices); Cultural hegemony; Hidden curriculum; Intersectionality; Systemic biases (sexist, racist, neocolonial); Scientific production; Cheikh Anta Diop University; North-South inequalities.