Erwan Dianteill


Erwan Dianteill is a French sociologist and anthropologist, graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay, holder of the aggregation in the Social Sciences, Doctor of Sociology and professor of Cultural and Social anthropology at the Sorbonne. He is also a Senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France since 2012, and Non-Resident Fellow of the WEB DuBois Research Institute at Harvard University since 2017.
Dianteill's work explores anthropological and sociological theories about religion and interconnections between political and religious powers. It also includes the study of symbolic origins of domination and resistance.
He has done researches on Afro-American cultures, on the evolution of autochthonous religions in West Africa and on new Christian churches. He published two books on Afrocuban religions in Havana and one book on the African American Spiritual Church in New Orleans.
Erwan Dianteill is presently completing this Afro-Atlantic research with a fieldwork in West Africa : he has been conducting a fieldwork since 2007 in Porto-Novo on the transformation of the Fa/Ifá divination in a modern African city. In addition, Dianteill was the first scholar to study extensively the Epiphany festival of Porto-Novo, a unique popular celebration created by a catholic missionary and a Vodu dignitary in 1923.
He also conducts a critical reading of the history of anthropology and sociology of religions.
Erwan Dianteill created in 2010 the Center of Cultural and Social Anthropology – CANTHEL – component of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences – Sorbonne. Along with Francis Affergan, he also founded CARGO – International journal of Cultural and Social anthropology, in 2011.
He was a visiting professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Tulane University, the University of Buenos Aires, the National University of Honduras, the University of Havana, the University of Vienna and Harvard University in 2016.

At the UNESCO

Erwan Dianteill is President of the Intergovernmental Council for the Management of Social Transformations of the UNESCO, which includes 35 countries.
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He was previously Vice-President of the same council from 2017 until 2019, representing Western Europe and North America.

Main publications (in French)