Alice Bobée
Research Associate | Economy and Civil Society

Since June 2018 Alice Bobée has been working in the research project “Constructing Transnational Spaces of Higher Education. International Branch Campus development at the Interface of Network and Territorial Embeddedness (TRANSEDU)“ within the research department „Economy and Civil Society“.

She obtained a Bachelor of Liberal Arts with a focus on Cultural Studies from the University College of Maastricht. It was followed by a Master of Arts in “Sociology – European Societies” at the Freie Universität of Berlin, in which she specialized on elite sociology, symbolic boundaries and distinction practices. In her Master thesis she explored the collective identity construction of students of a School of Governance in Berlin. Next to her studies she worked as a student assistant for projects tackling the future of mobility (Institut Futur), Islamist radicalization in France as well as African-European research partnerships (Berlin Social Science Center).

Projects

Ongoing Third-party Funded Projects

In the past twenty years, the number of students completing university studies in a foreign country has constantly been on the rise. In addition, many universities are investing in international branch campuses (IBCs) abroad. These are initial indices for a parallel globalisation of knowledge-intensive branches of the economy and of the university landscape. The Leibniz Junior Research Group “Constructing Transnational Spaces of Higher Education” (TRANSEDU) is concerned with the relationship between globalised economic processes and the internationalisation of the academic and research landscapes. more info

Ongoing Qualification Projects

The project adopts a cultural economic approach to investigate the discourses that constitute the development of French campuses abroad and the materialization thereof in the space of the campuses, while paying attention to the dissonances and renegotiations involved in the process. Addressed through qualitative expert interviews with decision-makers working in French public and private higher education institutions, the following research question guides the analysis: “How is the development of French branch campuses discursively and materially constructed, branded and experienced?” more info

Selected Publications by Year

2023
Kleibert, J. M., Schulze, M., Rottleb, T., & Bobée, A. (2023). (Trans-)Regional Embeddedness and the Resilience of Offshore Campuses. Regional Studies, Regional Science, 10(1), 23-32. https://doi.org/10.1080/21681376.2022.2157323
Bobée, A., & Kleibert, J. M. (2023). Choose France! Containment, Circulation and Postcolonial (Dis)Continuities in Transnational Education. Globalisation, Societies and Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2022.2075329
2021
Kleibert, J. M., Rottleb, T., Schulze, M., & Bobée, A. (2021, Jun 10). Strategy First: Ten Questions to Answer before Starting an International Campus. Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space (IRS). https://leibniz-irs.de/fileadmin/user_upload/IRS_Dialog_Transferpublikationen/IRS_Dialog_Policy_Paper_2-2021.pdf
Kleibert, J. M., Bobée, A., Rottleb, T., & Schulze, M. (2021). Transnational Education Zones: Towards an Urban Political Economy of ‘Education Cities’. Urban Studies, 58(14), 2845-2862. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098020962418
2020
Kleibert, J. M., Bobée, A., Rottleb, T., & Schulze, M. (2020). Global Geographies of Offshore Campuses. Leibniz-Institut für Raumbezogene Sozialforschung. http://hdl.handle.net/10419/223315

Selected Publications by Type

Journal Article
Kleibert, J. M., Schulze, M., Rottleb, T., & Bobée, A. (2023). (Trans-)Regional Embeddedness and the Resilience of Offshore Campuses. Regional Studies, Regional Science, 10(1), 23-32. https://doi.org/10.1080/21681376.2022.2157323
Bobée, A., & Kleibert, J. M. (2023). Choose France! Containment, Circulation and Postcolonial (Dis)Continuities in Transnational Education. Globalisation, Societies and Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2022.2075329
Kleibert, J. M., Bobée, A., Rottleb, T., & Schulze, M. (2021). Transnational Education Zones: Towards an Urban Political Economy of ‘Education Cities’. Urban Studies, 58(14), 2845-2862. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098020962418
Expertise / Position Paper / Policy Paper
Kleibert, J. M., Rottleb, T., Schulze, M., & Bobée, A. (2021, Jun 10). Strategy First: Ten Questions to Answer before Starting an International Campus. Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space (IRS). https://leibniz-irs.de/fileadmin/user_upload/IRS_Dialog_Transferpublikationen/IRS_Dialog_Policy_Paper_2-2021.pdf
Working Paper, Discussion Paper
Kleibert, J. M., Bobée, A., Rottleb, T., & Schulze, M. (2020). Global Geographies of Offshore Campuses. Leibniz-Institut für Raumbezogene Sozialforschung. http://hdl.handle.net/10419/223315

Talks

2022
Capitalizing on European Capital Cities. Thinking Through the Geographical Expansion & Reputational Geographies of French Business Schools

6th Global Conference on Economic Geography 2022

June/08/2022
Trinity College und University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

2021
Choose France! Containment, Circulation and Postcolonial (Dis)Continuities in Transnational Education

RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2021

August/31/2021
virtuell, London, United Kingdom

2019
"We thought that coming with a French image would be very attractive". An analysis of spatial imaginaries in the context of French offshore campus development.

Deutscher Kongress für Geographie 2019

November/26/2019
Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany

French Offshore Campus Development: Discourses, Branding, Experiences

Gemeinsames Kolloquium IRS-Humboldt Universität Wirtschaftsgeographie

February/19/2019
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Geographisches Institut, Berlin, Germany

French Offshore Campuses Development: Discourses, Branding, Experiences

International Workshop “Constructing Transnational Spaces of Higher Education”

January/11/2019
Leibniz-Institut für Raumbezogene Sozialforschung, Erkner, Germany

2018
Spatializing globalization: The offshoring of French International Branch campuses between strategies and lived reality

Monthly colloquium of the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB)

November/14/2018
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, Berlin, Germany

News
June/09/2022
New Paper Analyses the Strategies of French Universities in Africa

In their newly published article "Choose France! Containment, Circulation and Postcolonial (Dis)Continuities in Transnational Education", Alice Bobée and Jana Kleibert show how French offshore campuses in Francophone Africa on the one hand implement French migration and higher education policies and on the other hand increasingly adapt to economic competitive pressure and the mobility desires of paying students. In doing so, they are imitating "Anglo-Saxon" market-oriented strategies. The article appeared in the journal Globalisation, Societies and Education. more info