黑料正能量

Each year, we are proud to honor individuals whose work profoundly resonates with The American University of Paris鈥� mission and values. This year鈥檚 Commencement Ceremony on May 23, 2025, celebrates artist Julien Creuzet, writer 脡douard Louis, and scholar Marina Warner, visionaries who challenge boundaries, provoke our reflection and imagination, and bring light to complex histories and human experiences. Their contributions across art, literature, critical theory and many more fields embody 黑料正能量鈥檚 commitment to interdisciplinary thinking, diversity of perspective, and the courage to confront the present while imagining a better future.

鈥淚t is a privilege to celebrate these bold and original voices,鈥� said Sonya Stephens, 黑料正能量 President. 鈥淭heir work reminds us what it means to think freely, act ethically, and create with purpose.鈥�

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Julien Creuzet

Julien Creuzet is a Franco-Caribbean artist, born in 1986, who lives and works in Montreuil. He creates multi-faceted works that integrate poetry, music, sculpture, assemblage, film and animation. Evoking emancipatory trans-oceanic exchanges and their multiple temporalities, the artist places his past, present and future heritage at the heart of his production. Disregarding global narratives and cultural reductionism, Creuzet's work often highlights anachronisms and social realities to construct irreducible objects. Like relics of the future brought ashore by an ocean tide, Creuzet's works materialize as amplified testimonies to history, technology, geography and the self.

His works are part of prestigious collections such as Centre Pompidou (FR); CNAP (FR) ; MMK Museum (DE); Fondation Villa Datris (FR); Fondation d'entreprise Galeries Lafayette (FR); Fonds d'art Contemporain, Paris (FR); FRAC (Bourgogne, Bretagne, Champagne-Ardenne, Grand Large, Ile-de-France, M茅ca, Pays de la Loire, (FR); Carr茅 d'Art-Mus茅e d'art contemporain (FR); CAPC de Bordeaux (FR); Kadist Foundation (US). Julien represented France at the 60th Venice Biennale of Art in 2024. He has received the 脡tants Donn茅s 2022 prize, the BMW Art Journey Award 2021, the Camden Arts Centre Emerging Artist Prize 2019 at Frieze and was also nominated for the Marcel Duchamp Prize in 2021.

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脡douard Louis

脡douard Louis is a prominent French author and sociologist whose work has garnered international acclaim for its incisive exploration of class, identity, and systemic violence. Emerging from a working-class background in northern France, Louis made a striking literary debut with The End of Eddy, a semi-autobiographical novel that confronts issues of poverty, masculinity, and homophobia. His subsequent works鈥�History of Violence, Who Killed My Father, and others鈥攆urther interrogate the ways in which personal experience is shaped by broader political and economic structures. His writing, translated into over thirty languages, exemplifies a rare fusion of literary craft and sociopolitical critique.

In addition to his literary achievements, Louis is a significant voice in contemporary intellectual discourse. Drawing on the traditions of Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault, his work challenges dominant narratives by foregrounding the lived realities of marginalized communities. Through essays, public lectures, and contributions to major publications such as The New York Times and The Guardian, Louis has established himself as both a writer and a thinker committed to examining the mechanisms of power, responsibility, and social change in modern life.

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Marina Warner听

Marina Warner is a writer of cultural history, fiction and memoir. She has explored myths and fairy tales in听Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary听(1976),听From听the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers听(1994), and听Stranger Magic: Charmed States & the Arabian Nights听(2011). Her essays are collected in听Signs & Wonders听(1994),听Forms of Enchantment: Writings on Art and Artists听(2018), and听Myths, Magic and Marvels听(forthcoming, 2026).听She has published five novels, including听The Lost Father听(1985, shortlisted for the Booker Prize) and collections of short stories including听Fly Away Home听(2014).听Inventory of a听Life Mislaid听(2021 [US title,听Esmond & Ilia]) tells the story of her childhood in Egypt.

She has curated shows, including听Only Make Believe: Ways of Playing;听The Shelter of Stories听will open at Compton Verney in October 2025. She is听Professor of English and Creative Writing at Birkbeck College,听a Distinguished Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and a Fellow of the British Academy. In 2015, she received the Holberg Prize in the Arts and in 2024, the Robert B. Silvers Prize for Literary Criticism. She听contributes regularly to the听New York Review of Books听and the听London Review of Books, and her study听Sanctuary: Ways of Dwelling, Ways of Telling听will be published in the summer of 2025.