emlyon business school asserts its pioneering status among the top business schools in France and worldwide, by appointing the first ever Associate Dean to the Anthropocene Pedagogy. emlyon business school chose Thomas Gauthier to carry out these new missions, a teacher-researcher whose works focus on the prospective and strategy of organizations in the Anthropocene.

This appointment occurs as the scientific world is agreeing on the entry of a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. It is characterized by the dawn of human activities as the main force for changes on Earth. This is the context in which, for the first time, six of the nine planetary boundaries (which mark off a safe zone in which humanity can thrive) were crossed.

In the face of such dramatic perspectives, the Anthropocene provides a theoretical and operational framework allowing to anchor the pedagogical initiatives of the School in both a holistic and pragmatic approach. Beyond the numerous projects and initiatives already started, there are two particularly emblematic examples of the pedagogical ambitions emlyon is channeling:

  • “Conclusive conferences” gathering up a floor of teacher-researchers and reflexive corporate executives, will be open to emlyon students and alumni. The objective will be to cross point of views by assuming a multidisciplinary perspective, to shed an up-to-date light on the challenges organizations need to face in the Anthropocene context.
  • “Conversations in the Anthropocene” will be the second original pedagogical journey. Nurtured by the experience and the reflexivity of corporate executives facing the new challenges associated with the Anthropocene context, they will provide students with a practical application of gained conceptual knowledge via full immersion in real-life situations.
Isabelle Huault, Executive President and Dean of emlyon business school:

“ For several years now, emlyon business school has been unfailingly including social, ethic and environmental issues in its teachings. As a Benefit Corporation (société à mission) whose purpose is to train enlightened and responsible leaders, we are fully aware that we need to take things further. The role of the Associate Dean to Pedagogy is to make sure that the pedagogy does include the unprecedented question of the habitability of the planet in all its dimensions.”

Mark Smith, Doyen des Programmes à emlyon business school
Thomas Gauthier, Associate Dean to the Anthropocene Pedagogy of emlyon business school:

“Traditional avenues, too timid and partitioned, no longer allow to anticipate and prepare for the structural transformations, sometimes brutal ones but mainly rarely foreseeable, of the bio- socio-economic system. I am candidly hoping I can contribute to make business schools a calling for people thriving for knowledge and practice. Not a calling to take care of people - like you would when studying medicine-, but a calling to take care of the world.”

Download the press release

About emlyon business school:

Founded in 1872 by the Lyon CCI, emlyon business school has an enrollment of 9,050 students of 125 nationalities over 6 campuses worldwide (Lyon-Ecully, Saint-Etienne, Shanghai, Paris, Bhubaneswar and Mumbai). emlyon draws on a Faculty of 166 international professors and researchers, and a network of 200 global academic partners, to provide learning tracks of excellence opened to the world. emlyon runs a community of 41,700 alumni spread out in 130 countries. As a Société à Mission since July 2021, emlyon's raison d'être consists in: “providing life-long training and support to meaningful individuals able to transform organizations, for a fairer society, with more solidarity and respect for the planet.” In its early makers pedagogy, action and reflection are closely intertwined. Skill hybridization and social responsibility are at the heart of its training programs, where the best of both socio-economic and academic worlds meet.
www.em-lyon.com

Press contacts:

KBZ Corporate for emlyon: Laurence Martin - lmartin@kbzcorporate.com - 06 47 69 85 99