Anne Lancien

Anne Lancien holds a Ph.D. in political science from the EPHE (2019). She currently leads the ANR Access ERC RetroMove project (2025–2027), as well as a project on media coverage of religious issues (2026–2027), which is co-led by Lauren Bakir and co-funded by Religis and the Office of Religious Affairs. She has previously been a postdoctoral researcher at the International Observatory of Religions (2021–2025).

Her research and publications focus on the shifting relationships between politics, religion, and non-religion in European democracies. She analyzes the actors, institutions, and movements involved in redefining the boundaries of the religious sphere, as well as the resulting transformations in the norms of citizenship, secularism, and democracy.

She has published La Ligue de l’enseignement: mutations d’une institution d’éducation populaire (Classiques Garnier, 2025); she co-edited the volume Faits religieux et médias (Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2023) with Anaël Levy; and has authored numerous articles in international journals, including: "The Normative Spread of the Securitarian Shift in Secularism Facilitated by ECtHR Rulings: the Impact of the SAS v. France Case," Religion & Human Rights, 21, 2026; “Legal Arguments Against Emotions—How the Law Silences Militant Disillusionment with the Identity Evolution of a Non-Religious Organization,” Secularism & Nonreligion, 10(2), 2025; “The League of Education: Has Crisis Become a Method of Governance?” French Politics, Culture, and Society, 41, 2023 (with Florence Ihaddadene). Together with Philippe Portier and Anne-Laure Zwilling, she is co-editing a dictionary of the non-religious, to be published by PUF in 2027.

Anne Lancien participates in numerous research projects. She was a member of the socio-historical research group of the Independent Commission on Abuse in the Church in France (CIASE, 2019–2021); she was a co-recipient of the Stefanik grant for a comparative study between France and Slovakia on the appropriation of religious frameworks by political parties in both countries (2025–2026); she is a member of the Franco-Nordic research consortium “Out of Step or Leading Light? The Role of French Secularism as Inspiration for Nordic Law and Policy on Religion” (2025–2027), which was awarded a grant from the FMSH (2024). She was scientific advisor for the SAFEDUC project within the PRESAGE program (IdEx UP19, Sciences Po Paris, 2023–2024). She is a member of the commission of inquiry into abuses of power and sexual violence within the Dominican Sisters of Pontcallec (2023–2027). Finally, she is an active participant in the Eurel network (European network of researchers on religion).

Anne Lancien is currently preparing an ERC StG grant application for the project RetroMove—Religious Retrotopias and Identity-Based Withdrawal in a Moving Europe.

• Religious retrotopias and identity-based withdrawal in a Moving Europe (RETROMOVE) / ANR Access
   
• Out of step or leading light? The role of French secularism as inspiration for Nordic law and policy on Religion

Anne Lancien has taught courses in international relations, political sociology, political science, politics, the sociology of European integration, gender studies, the sociology of religion, constitutional law, the history of political ideas and 20th-century history, from the first year of the Bachelor’s degree to the second year of the Master’s degree, notably at Sciences Po Paris and Sciences Po Rennes.

For the 2026/2027 academic year, she will serve as a teaching assistant for the course ‘Dynamics of Religion in the Contemporary World’ (taught by Alain Dieckhoff and Stéphane Lacroix) at Sciences Po, Master’s 1 level. She will also deliver a lecture on religion and international relations to Master’s 2 students at the University of Clermont-Ferrand.

Main publications

2026 "The Normative Spread of the Securitarian Shift in Secularism Facilitated by ECtHR Rulings: the Impact of the SAS v. France Case", Religion and Human Rights, 21.

2025 La Ligue de l’enseignement, mutations d’une institution d’éducation populaire, Paris, Classiques Garnier.

2025 "Legal arguments against emotions - how the law silences militant disillusionment with the identity evolution of a non-religious organisation", Secularism & Nonreligion, 10(2).

2024 "COVID-19 in France - An Insight into the Recompositions of the Religious in a Secular-Majority Country", dans Religion, Law, and COVID-19 in Europe - A Comparative Analysis Ouvrage dirigé par Lene KÜLHE, Francesco ALICINO, Gabriel BÎRSAN & Brian CONWAY, Helsinki University Press.

2023 Avec Anaël LEVY (dir.), Faits religieux et médias, Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes

2023 Avec Florence IHADDADENE, "The League of education: has crisis turned into a method of governance?", French politics, culture and society, 41, pp. 71-93.

2023 « Dissemblances et convergences des commissions d'enquêtes sur les abus sexuels dans l'Église », Revue droit des religions, 15, pp.93-108.

2022 "Secular associations as vectors of integration and production of secularism in contemporary society. The case of the League of education", dans Anne-Laure ZWILLING et al., Formatting religions in Modern societies, London, Springer editions.

2021 Sous la direction de Philippe PORTIER, avec Paul AIRIAU et Thomas BOULLU, « Rapport du groupe de recherches socio-historiques de la Commission indépendante sur les abus sexuels dans l’Église », 612p.

2019 « Organisations laïques et résurgence du religieux dans l’espace public : une concurrence axiologique illustrée par le cas de la Ligue de l’enseignement », Studies in Religion / Sciences religieuses, vol. 48 (3), pp. 340-360.

See all publications on Sciences Po Institutional Repository