Education & Qualification

I am a Director of research at the CNRS, specializing in the history of human sciences and intercultural history. My research focuses on the transnational history of Oriental studies (18th to 20th century). I am also interested in the history and use of the comparative method in the human sciences. Together with Kevin Ku-Ming Chang (Academia Sinica, Taipei), I am currently running the French-Taiwanese research program "Philology and Interculturality" (PhilInter). More details concerning my research topics can be found in the "Research projects" section of this website.

I was trained in German Studies (ENS Fontenay/Saint-Cloud & Université Paris IV-Sorbonne) as well as in modern Indian studies, major: Hindi (INALCO: National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations). I obtained a PhD in German studies in 2005 at the Université de Provence under the supervision of Prof. Thomas Keller (Title: L'extension anthropologique de la philologie. Sanskrit, philologie, anthropologie dans l'Allemagne du XIXe siècle). This work has received the Pierre Grappin Thesis Award 2006. I hold an accreditation to supervise research (Habilitation à diriger des recherches) in History.

Academic Employment & research grants

Since 2006 I work at the CNRS as a permanent researcher in the research unit UMR 8547 Pays germaniques: transferts culturels, at the Ecole normale supérieure of Paris. My grants include a Lavoisier research scholarship (French Foreign Office) and a lectureship at the Center for French and Francophone studies (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi) in 2000-2001  and a senior research fellowship at the Vossius Center for the history of the humanities and sciences, Amsterdam (April 2017). In January 2014 I was a Guest professor at the Université Yaoundé I, Cameroon and in October 2017 a Guest professor at the Universidad del Rosario (Bogotà, Colombia).

Teaching & supervision activities

I teach in the Masters Programme in Transnational History  of Ecole normale supérieure/PSL Research university. I have been co-running the research seminar "Cultural transfers" with Michel Espagne since 2007 (see Organised conferences).

PhD supervisions:

-Emanuele GIUSTI, Le Rovine di Persia nella cultura europea del XVIII secolo, 2017-2021 (co-supervisor: Rolando Minuti, Università degli Studi Firenze)

-Susan FILOCHE-ROMME, Les processus de popularisation des mythes nordiques au Danemark au XIXe siècle, 2020- (co-supervisor: Thomas Mohnike, Université de Strasbourg)

Research management

• Pedagogical and scientific committee of the Ecole doctorale Lettres, Arts, Sciences humaines et sociales (ED540)
• Comité national du CNRS, section 35, member, 2019-2021
• PSL PhD Prize in Humanities, jury member, 2018-2020
• DAAD long and short-term research grants, selection committee member, 2013-2017
• Zukunftsphilologie research network and postdoctoral program (Freie Universität Berlin), member of the Collegium, 2011-2018

Editorial work

I am a member of the Editorial Board of

• Revue germanique internationale, in charge of the website
• Histoire épistémologie langage
• Revue d’histoire des sciences humaines
• Philological Encounters

Affiliations & memberships

• Board member of the  SHESL (société d’histoire et d’épistémologie des sciences du langage)
• Member of the Société asiatique de Paris