Sonja JANMAAT
Interview with the Director of the Collège néerlandais
Tell us about your background and your arrival at the Cité internationale.
I graduated with a thesis with joint supervision from the Netherlands and France in neurosciences and I’m a former resident of the Collège néerlandais and I started my professional international career researching the aging nervous system. I then specialised in rare diseases and their databases. Today, in addition to my role as the director for the Collège néerlandais, I work to develop synergies for patients suffering from rare endocrine diseases by coordinating a network of experts with the aim of improving their diagnosis and facilitating scientific research.
What do you think it is that makes the Cité internationale a unique campus in the world?
It’s an exceptional place for interactions and intellectual and cultural exchanges that brings us an amazing experience of opening up to the world. A home in a village, where lifelong friendships are born out of diversity and tolerance. To be the director means promoting sharing in tolerance of others and cultural diversity.
How does living in your house allow residents to have a different outlook on the world and how is it a spring board for their futures?
The Collège Néerlandais, the modernist architectural masterpiece of W. Dudok, is a luminous building with its numerous windows, two interior courtyards, rooms and corridors that are positioned around it. It highlights the human dimension and invites you to meet people and live together. As they say in the Netherlands, and elsewhere, “better a good neighbour than a distant friend”.
If you had to sum up the Cité internationale in one word, what would it be and why?
Love
The love of learning from our experiences, studies, other cultures, other subjects, passing on our experience, our knowledge, our culture. The love of remembering, the love of beautiful encounters and the love of living together.
Blandine Sorbe, General Delegate of the Cité internationale
A graduate of the École Normale Supérieure and holder of the agrégation in German, Blandine Sorbe has served as a magistrate at the French Court of Audit since completing her studies at the École nationale d’administration in 2011. Between 2015 and 2019, she was Deputy Director-General of the Musée du quai Branly, where she was responsible for the day-to-day management of this exceptional institution and for ensuring the quality of its administration. From 2019, Blandine Sorbe was a member of the senior management of the Organising Committee for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. In her capacity as Senior Director for Public Affairs and Compliance, she oversaw the sound conduct of the event, with particular regard to the management of financial, legal, ethical, human resources and operational risks, working in close cooperation with both national and international authorities. Blandine Sorbe is a member of the History Committee of the Ministry of Culture.
