Samuel Depraz studied Geography at the Ecole Normale Supérieure of Lyon and the University of Montpellier (France). His PhD, completed in 2005, focused on the transformation of post-socialist rural areas in Eastern Germany and Hungary and the development of nature protection policies in local planning. He held a position of Maître de conferences (HDR) at the University Jean Moulin, Lyon (France) before becoming in september 2021 Director of Research of the ESPI Group (Paris), where he currently heads the ESPI2R Research Unit, a laboratory dedicated to Real estate and Planning issues.
He devotes his research to the social acceptance of planning projects, environmental protection measures and spatial inequalities. He works mainly on the European area and Germany, where he was a visiting scholar at the Marc Bloch Center (2006) and the WWU University of Münster (2014). More recently, he gained the opportunity to expand his researches in Latin American countries (ANR/Conacyt Joint Research Programme "Selina", 2012-2016, Mexico). Since then, he contributed to the analysis of spatial fringes and the Yellow Jackets social uprising in France. In 2020, his habilitation work (HDR) focused on the theme: "spatial justice and rurality". He also leads several research projects on territorial inequalities, spatial justice and margin spaces in France, such as the ESTER programme (2021-2024, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region).
He published Géographie des espaces naturels protégés (ed. Armand Colin, 2008) and co-authored the Atlas mondial des espaces protégés (ed. Autrement, 2012). Dealing with the social acceptance of planning projects at local level, he directed Acceptation sociale et développement des territoires (ENS Editions, 2015).
He also directed the special issue: "Allemagne, vers une territorialité durable?" (BAGF Journal, 2016) and developped an analysis about lagging-behind territories in: La France des Marges. Géographie des espaces "autres" (ed. Armand Colin, 2017).
As the Director of the Research of the ESPI Group, he is steering the scientific strategy of the group over its severall campuses, in France and abroad. Besides, he is commissioned for peer reviewing in several Journals such as Géocarrefour, L’Espace politique, L'Espace géographique, Annales de géographie, VertigO, Cybergéo, BelGeo, Natur und Landschaft, Environmental Development, Nature Science Sociétés, Journal of Alpine Research, Les Cahiers d'Outre-Mer and for project expertise by the French National Research Agency (ANR) the HCERES or the NRDI (Hungary). He is member of the steering committee of the online Expert Site Geoconfluences and of the French Journal Bulletin de l'Association de géographes français [BAGF].
He was jury member for several national examinations (CAPES, 2008; Ecole Normale supérieure de Lyon entrance exam, 2008-2016; Agrégation de géographie, 2017-2020).
He headed the Department of Geography and Planning at the University Jean Moulin, Lyon (2010-2013). He was President of the Regional association of teachers for History and Geography in Lyon (2014-2018) and vice-President of the AGF (Association de géographes français (2013-2021).