Julien-Manuel Després is a master's candidate at Sciences Po Paris Law School and recipient of the Frontenac Scholarship (FRQ – French Consulate General). Since 2024, he is working as a research assistant for the Canada Research Chair in Human Rights and International Reparative Justice, under the supervision of Professor Miriam Cohen.

His research focuses on transitional justice, international criminal law, cultural minority rights and the concept of otherness, as well as epistemic and structural violence in law.

He is currently conducting research at the Dickson Poon School of Law at King's College London, and has previously worked at the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism and the Rule of Law and Economic Development Research Group at McGill University's Faculty of Law.

He gained experience as an intern in international criminal law at Larochelle Avocats in Montreal, as well as on issues of transitional justice and human rights with the team of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition. In addition, he has worked as a research assistant in public international law, human rights and legal theory for Professors M. Cohen, B. Duhaime, N. Ramanujam, E. Tourme-Jouannet and J. Saada.

He is a member of the editorial board of the Sciences Po Paris Law Review, the Trinity Journal of Legal and Historical Critique and the Revue québécoise de droit international.