Born in 1980, Laurent Bonnefoy holds a double degree in political science and in Arabic and specializes in the study of contemporary Salafist movements in the Arabian Peninsula. He joined CERI in January 2013 asCNRS research fellow and is currently the deputy principal investigator of the European Research CouncilAdvanced Grant “When authoritarianism fails in the Arab world” (WAFAW-2013-2017), run by François Burgat. Laurent Bonnefoy graduated from Sciences Po in 2001 and received his PhD in political science and international relations in 2007.
He was a research associate at the French Center for Archeology and Social Sciences in Sana (CEFAS) between 2001 and 2009 and a research fellow in charge of the Palestine Office of the French Institute for the Near East (IFPO) from 2010 to 2012. He also consulted for the International Crisis Group (2009), was a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute for Research and Study on Arabic and Muslim World (2008-2009), and taught at the Universities of Tours and Sana.
Laurent Bonnefoy has been on assignement with the CNRS at the French Center for Archeology and Social Sciences based in Muscat, Oman (2018-2021).