Destination expert
Sébastien Bertrand
Sébastien Bertrand has been a professor of history, geography, and geopolitics of the contemporary world in Preparatory Classes for the Grandes Écoles (CPGE) at the Cité Scolaire Janson de Sailly (16th arrondissement of Paris) since 2013.
A graduate of the agrégation in history and a PhD in contemporary history (2008), he has taught in German in bilingual classes. He has been a lecturer for French universities and served as a special advisor to the Interministerial Mission for the Centenary of the First World War.
He has been publishing articles and contributions in books and journals on contemporary history and on textbooks for several publishers (Nathan, Ellipses, PUF). He also works with South Korean institutes and has been a lecturer since 2002.
His educational and academic work focuses primarily on 20th-century geopolitics and the contemporary history of Europe and East Asia.
His preferred areas (and themes) in Europe are Germany (the Prussian royal house, West Germany) and the countries bordering the Baltic Sea (geopolitics of Finland).
His work in East Asia, where he travels frequently, focuses on contemporary Japan (particularly the imperial family), South Korea (the era of rapid economic takeoff under President Park Chung-hee, 1961–1979), Taiwan, and Southeast Asia (the rise of the "baby tigers," from Thailand to Indonesia).
He is a Knight of the French Order of Academic Palms.
Languages spoken: French, English, German
Photo credit: ARR
