Photo : Valérie Gelézeau
Geopolitical Cafe: The Korean DMZ. A meeting with Valérie Gelézeau and Laurent Hassid
Forget everything you think you know about the Korean border and step into a journey that blends geopolitical inquiry with the personal experience of a long-distance trek. This upcoming discussion offers a unique chance to unpack the absurdity and hope found in a landscape caught between war and peace. It is the perfect intellectual detour for anyone looking to dig deeper into world affairs.
Bibliothèque Germaine Tillion (Paris 16th)
About
The Germaine Tillion Library hosts a geopolitical coffee meeting on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, from 18:00 to 19:30, focusing on the Korean DMZ. Geographer Valérie Gelézeau and geopolitical expert Laurent Hassid will discuss the human and territorial stakes of this unique border seventy years after the conflict. Through the account of a 500 km walk, they examine the scars and transformations of this landscape between war and peace. This free event, accessible to wheelchair users and open to ages 15 and up, features an interactive dialogue between the audience and the experts to better understand contemporary Korean society.
Can spaces be repaired? How do we inhabit places seventy years after a catastrophe? What have we rebuilt when a demilitarized zone (DMZ) has cut through previously coherent and continuous territories? How do we live today on this border, which is a non-border, in a geopolitical context that is neither quite war nor quite peace?
By presenting materials from a 500 km walk along the DMZ Peace Trail opened in September 2024, the author attempts to answer these questions. The essay, which reveals the behind-the-scenes of a mobile investigation along the path, mixes a cultural geography of this border still under construction (from its origin to its contemporary landscapes), a reflection on walking as a research method, and a travelogue.
We encounter soldiers, of course, but also trendy cafes, vampire deer, and alternative life projects, in contrasting and unusual regions that reflect the absurdity of spaces born from conflict, where the border scar is a place of memory and healing.
Valérie Gelézeau, a geographer and Koreanist, is a Director of Studies at the EHESS. In the field, she questions Korean society in its relationship to space: in Seoul, in new towns, on the border between the two Koreas, and in North Korea. She has published numerous books and articles on these subjects. Always driven by a passion to understand the cultural geography of Korea, she explores sensitive and mobile fieldwork methods and experiments with alternative and hybrid writing styles between scholarly research, literary fiction, micro-texts, and travelogues. In April 2026, she published with L'Atelier des Cahiers DMZ: marche et démarche à la frontière coréenne.
Laurent Hassid is a Doctor of Geography, specializing in geopolitics. He runs the blog https://beyondborderlines.wordpress.com/ and has been the organizer of the geopolitical cafes since their creation in 2016.
Since 2016, the Germaine Tillion library has regularly offered geopolitical cafes on current topics. They are hosted by Laurent Hassid. The guest presents the topic of the cafe in a few minutes, then the participants intervene, ask questions, share their experiences, react, and begin a dialogue with the speaker.
Our take on this event
On Tuesday, October 13, 2026, the Germaine Tillion Library in the 16th arrondissement invites you to explore the Korean border. From 18:00 to 19:30, geographer and EHSS director of studies Valérie Gelézeau will discuss her book, DMZ: marche et démarche à la frontière coréenne. Her research, based on a 500 km trek along the DMZ Peace Trail, examines how people inhabit territories defined by decades of division.
Laurent Hassid, a doctor of geography who has organized these geopolitical coffee meetings since 2016, will moderate the discussion. The session is designed to be interactive: following a short presentation by the guest speaker, the audience is encouraged to contribute their own perspectives and ask questions, fostering a direct dialogue on the geopolitical and social realities of the region.
Attendance is free on a first-come, first-served basis. The venue is wheelchair accessible, and the event is open to participants aged 15 and older. It is a unique opportunity to learn about the cultural geography of Korea through a blend of academic research and field observation.
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Weather forecast
Light rain
max +23 °Cmin +15 °C
