Biography 

I received my Ph.D. in History and Historical Sociology in November 2004 from the University of Fribourg and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, Paris), respectively. Between 2006-2008, I was a post-doctoral researcher first at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, London) and then at the EHESS (Paris). Upon my return to Switzerland, I was Lecturer at the University of Fribourg and Neuchâtel. Between 2010-2016, I led a research project on minority conflicts in the Middle East funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. Since September 2017, I am Adjunct Professor in the Department of History at the University of Neuchâtel where I am leading a project funded by the European Research Council (ERC), titled “Towards a Decentred History of the Middle East: Transborder Spaces, Circulations, Frontier Effects and State Formation, 1920-1946”.

Research

I define myself as a historian of contemporary Middle East with an interdisciplinary profile. I am particularly interested in topics such as nationalism, state-building, minority conflicts, social mobilisation and cross-border dynamics, including networks of violence, criminality, refugees and smuggling. I am also interested in historiographical debates as well as the search for new epistemological and methodological avenues to better grasp the complexities of historical events and dynamics.

Within the framework of my present research project, I am planning to re-examine the relationship between local agency, border-making and state-formation in the Middle East after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire by using ‘borderlands’ as an analytical device that affords a new, decentred perspective. Likewise, the project expects to generate new knowledge in the areas of “border studies” (border-making, frontier effects and circulations across borders) and the history of the Middle East by using both qualitative and quantitative methods.

Teaching

• Introduction à l’histoire contemporaine du Moyen-Orient (1878-2012), BA
• Résistances et protestations au Moyen-Orient : une perspective socio-historique (1920-2012), BA
• Migrations forcées et dépossession au Moyen-Orient : une perspective historique (1878-2014), MA

Publication

Profil LIBRA

ORCID

Profil Academia.edu