Joan Divol
Interview with the Director of the Fondation des États-Unis
Tell us about your background and your arrival at the Cité internationale.
French and American, I have been an academic at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne for 20 years. In addition to teaching comparative intellectual property law and fashion law in particular, I have worked developing international relations to create transatlantic opportunities for training, mobility, scholarships and integration for students from all backgrounds and countries. My shared DNA with the US Foundation may explain my arrival at the Cité Internationale on January 1, 2020.
What do you think it is that makes the Cité Internationale a unique campus in the world?
In the post-war period, the Cité internationale took the gamble of bringing together several houses of different nationalities to provide young students, doctoral or PhD students, athletes, musicians or artists in residence or training in Paris with an ideal setting for learning, rehearsing, revising, lodging, eating, spending time, having fun, relaxing and meeting. …. The pacifist and humanist values of diversity, equality, respect and tolerance that characterize the community located in the very heart of Paris makes the Cité internationale one of the world’s most unique campuses.
How does living in your house allow residents to have a different outlook on the world and how is it a springboard for their futures?
The house overlooks the Montsouris Park on one side and the campus of the Cité internationale on the other. It is large and offers to all residents a pleasant environment in which to live, study and enjoy French and American values and traditions. The 5th floor is reserved for artists’ and musicians’ studios; they occasionally participate in cultural events and artistic events that take place throughout the year in the Grand Salon. The house thus allows residents to enjoy themselves while developing relationships which over time and thanks to their Parisian encounters, will be beneficial not only to their integration socially but also to their future profession.
If you had to sum up the Cité Internationale in one word, what would it be and why?
The Cité internationale opens a benevolent door on the world represented in all its diversity and richness. The word I choose is integration because that is also its purpose: to offer young people from all continents a place to live designed to facilitate their studies in France in an environment conducive to sports, cultural and artistic activities.
Julie Benetti, Rector and president of the Foundation
Julie Benetti served as Rector of the académie de Créteil from July 2023 to March 2025. She previously held the positions of Rector of the région académique de Corse and of the académie de Corse, and was adviser to the Minister of National Education and Youth, Mr Pap Ndiaye.
She holds a doctorate in public law from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University (2004), became a senior lecturer and deputy head of undergraduate studies in 2006, and was awarded the agrégation in public law in 2010. Julie Benetti was professor at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne until 2015, before joining Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University. There, she directed the master’s programme in public finance law and sat on both the academic council and the committee for training and student life.
In 2012, she was a member of the Commission on the Renewal and Ethics of Public Life chaired by Lionel Jospin. She has contributed to various publications and conferences as part of her research in constitutional law.
Julie Benetti was appointed Rector of the région académique Île-de-France, Rector of the académie de Paris, and chancelière of the universities of Paris and Île-de-France by decree of the President of the Republic on 12 March 2025.
