Emilien Houard-Vial
PhD Candidate
Emilien Houard-Vial graduated earned a double degree from Sciences Po and Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (mathematics and informatics) in 2016 and a Master in Polical Science (Comparative Politics programme) from Sciences Po in 2018. He is currently working for his PhD thesis on the production and diffusion of ideology within the French right wing.
1. Research
Emilien Houard-Vial’s PhD work discusses the ideological production of the French party Les Républicains. It considers an electoral-professional party, which has experienced a sharp electoral decline, through its ability to structure and renew itself from an ideological point of view, questioning the role of ideas, the ways the official party ideology is built or not and its likelihood to distinguish itself from its adversaries. It includes a particular concern for ordinary party activities and its embeddedness in a larger intellectual and media environment meant to relegitimize it. This PhD is supervised by Florence Haegel.
2. Teaching
Emilien Houard-Vial taught courses at a Bachelor level in Sciences Po Paris, such as tutorials in comparative politics and introduction to political science, while being teaching assistant in the lectures of Introduction to Political Science and Democratic Erosion. He has also been responsible of an English-speaking seminar labeled “Political Parties in Times of Crisis”. He will join the Law and Political Science department of the UVSQ as a temporary teacher for courses on political participation and political life.
3. Recent publications
« La droite faible. La défaite des Républicains à l’élection présidentielle de 2022 à l’aune du réalignement électoral », Revue française de science politique, vol. 72, n°4, 2023, pp. 539-562
« The French Right-Wing Paradox », Partecipazione & Conflitto, vol. 15, n°2, 2022
« Parler de l’extrême-droite : Registre commun et particularités locales du discours des militants Les Républicains sur le Front National », Pôle Sud - Revue de science politique de l’Europe méridionale, n°54, 2021, pp. 155–69
4. Conferences
Presentations at the 2022 AFSP Conference: « Quand la radicalité fait la Une. Le développement d’un espace médiatique, intellectuel et politique de droite radicale en France » and « La culture du chef sans chef. Les dynamiques de personnalisation de la droite partisane française (2012-2022) »
Co-organisation (with Frédéric Boily) of a themactic section at the 2021 CoSPoF/ABSP Conference: « Les partis politiques, les mouvances intellectuelles et la résistance conservatrice à l’hégémonie culturelle et idéologique »
Research Topics
Parties and Party Systems, French Right, The production of ideological discourse and its actors, Relationships between Partisan and Non-Partisan Actors
