Maxime Forest holds a PhD in comparative in politics and a M.A degree in Central European Area Studies from Sciences Po Paris. He currently teaches on gender, politics and the avant-gardes in Central and Eastern Europe, and coordinates M.A projects at Sciences Po Urban School. His scholarly interests cover a wide range of issues, including the Europeanisation of gender, gender and illiberalism and gender inclusive cities. He developed a pluridisciplinary practice at the intersection of social sciences and design, nurtured through consultancy work for a Belgium-based design studio and his participation to EU- and nationally-funded projects on space, service and policy design.

In 2016, he co-founded with Laura Serra Kolektiv Cité Radieuse, devoted to exploring the relation of design and visual arts to 20th century architecture, and launched in 2018 a series of exhibitions and events titled Living the Modernist City, involving designers and artists from Poland, the Czech Republic and Ukraine. As part of the 13th Manifesta Art Biennale in 2020, Kolektiv inaugurated a third space for contemporary architecture and urban issues at UNESCO-listed Le Corbusier Housing Unit in Marseille, further extending collaborations with international institutions including CAC Vilnius, Institut Adam Mickiewicz, Le Corbusier Foundation, Isokon Gallery London, the Slovak Center of Design, Weissenhof Museum Stuttgart, the Estonian Design House or Kharkiv’s Urban Forms Center.