Marie Poulain

Marie Poulain is a teaching assistant and PhD candidate at the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Geneva since 2022. She is currently completing a thesis examining the role of mountain tourism in the reconfiguration of borderlands in the Middle East, drawing on three case studies: Turkey, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and Jordan. At the crossroads of Border Studies and Tourism Geopolitics, her research explores the interactions between tourist mobilities, mobility regimes, and the materiality of borders. She is particularly interested in how the verticality of mountains shape power relations between authorities, armed groups, and hikers in securitized spaces.
Alongside her academic work, she also works on mountain tourism development and governance in countries of the Global South (Middle East, South Caucasus). Her areas of interest include community-based tourism development.