Jean-françois Bayart

Biography

ean-François Bayart, a specialist in historical sociology and comparative politics, is a professor at the Graduate Institute, Geneva, where he holds the Yves Oltramare Chair for Religion and Politics in the Contemporary World. He is also Director of the Comparative African Studies at the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Rabat, and Director of the Political Society Analysis Fund (FASOPO) and of the European Network for the Analysis of Political Societies (REASOPO). Jean-François Bayart Was Researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) from 1976 to 2015 and Director of the International Research Center (CERI) from 1994 to 2000, and is Founder of the African Policy (1980) and International Critics (1998) journals, as well as Karthala's International Research (1998) collection. He has been a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of African Affairs since 1983. Jean-François Bayart is a specialist in the role of religion in the formation of states in Africa and the Middle East (Turkey, Iran), proposing a new problematization of identity, culture and globalization.

Research Interest

Published works include The State in Africa. The policy of the belly (Fayard, 1989, new edition 2006), The Illusion of identity (Fayard, 1996), The Government of the world. A political criticism of globalization (Fayard, 2004), Republican Islam. Ankara, Tehran, Dakar (Albin Michel, 2010), The Postcolonial Studies, an academic carnival (Karthala, 2010), Leaving National Liberalism. Political sketches of the years 2004-2012 (Karthala, 2012), and The Plan cul. Ethnology of a sexual practice (Fayard, 2014). Jean-François Bayart has also led or co-led several books, includingReligion and political modernity in Black Africa. God for all, each for oneself (Karthala, 1993) and La Cite cultuelle. To render to God what belongs to Caesar (Karthala, 2015, with Ariane Zambiras). He has taught in Paris, Lausanne, Turin, Geneva and Rabat.