From 1 September, LEST will welcome the American sociologist Molly Dondero as part of Aix-Marseille University’s Safe Place for Science programme. She will be working on the WORKLIVES project, which explores the links between work, migration, health and ageing from an international comparative perspective.
Defending academic freedom
In response to the threats and obstacles facing the work of certain scientists in the United States, Aix-Marseille University launched the programme in 2026 A Safe Place for Science. Its aim is to enable researchers to continue their work in an environment that fosters innovation, scientific excellence and academic freedom.
Supported by the A*Midex Foundation, the programme includes funding for posts in key areas such as climate, the environment, health, and the humanities and social sciences. AMU has announced that it will be able to raise up to 15 million euros over three years and work with local institutions to host around fifteen scientists.
Molly Dondero’s appointment at LEST forms part of this initiative and, at the laboratory level, gives concrete expression to this commitment to academic freedom.
Find out more about the Safe Place for Science programme
WORKLIVES: work, migration and health
At LEST, Molly Dondero will be developing the project from 2026 to 2029 WORKLIVES – The Working Lives of Immigrants: A Cross-National Perspective, supported as part of the Safe Place for Science initiative and linked to the RINOREP research area. Ingrid Tucci is also involved in the project, for which LEST is the host laboratory.
WORKLIVES puts the work at the heart of the analysis of the health and wellbeing of immigrant populations in middle and later life. From a comparative perspective between Western Europe and the United States, the project examines, in particular, the disparities between immigrant and native-born populations in terms of exposure to occupational risks, the effects of career trajectories on health, and attitudes towards immigrants in the labour market.
The project combines quantitative analyses with interviews on career trajectories in France, Spain and the United States. It also aims to gain a better understanding of how national contexts and migration policies may influence the career trajectories, health and well-being of immigrant populations.
Find out more about the WORKLIVES project
Who is Molly Dondero?
Molly Dondero is a sociologist and social demographer, and an Associate Professor at American University in Washington D.C. Her research focuses on inequalities in health and well-being, particularly at the intersection of migration, ethnic origin and socio-economic inequalities. In particular, she employs a life-course approach to analyse the social and institutional mechanisms that create or perpetuate these inequalities.
Molly Dondero is already familiar with the scientific community in Aix-Marseille: in 2024-2025, she was awarded a residency at Iméra as part of the Fulbright/Iméra Chair in Migration Studies. There, she developed an initial project focusing on the relationship between work and the wellbeing of ageing immigrant populations in Europe; WORKLIVES builds on and broadens the questions raised by that project from an international comparative perspective.
His arrival at LEST thus opens up new avenues for research and international collaboration in the field of work, migration, inequality and health.
