Home>Guillaume Piketty Appointed Director of the Centre for History at Sciences Po
18.09.2025
Guillaume Piketty Appointed Director of the Centre for History at Sciences Po
Luis Vassy, President of Sciences Po, has appointed Guillaume Piketty as Director of the Centre for History at Sciences Po. He succeeds Paul-André Rosental.
A Full Professor at Sciences Po, Guillaume Piketty has established himself as a leading specialist in the social and cultural history of World War II in France and Europe, and more broadly in the history of warfare, resistance movements, and post-conflict transitions since the outbreak of the US Civil War. His expertise has led him to undertake research internationally, first as a Visiting Research Scholar at Yale University (2010–2012), then as a Visiting Fellow at Worcester College, a Senior Visiting Research Associate to the Modern European History Research Centre (MEHRC), and an Associate member of the Faculty of History, all three positions at Oxford University (2012-2018).
Focusing on individual experiences of war and the intimate writings of combatants, drawing notably on the history of the senses and emotions, his research has opened new perspectives in contemporary historiography. He is the author or co-editor of seminal works such as Retour à l'intime au sortir de la guerre (Tallandier, 2009), Encyclopédie de la Seconde Guerre mondiale (Bouquins, 2015), and Français, libre. Pierre de Chevigné (Tallandier, 2022). He has recently edited Sortir de la guerre. Des guerres de Religion aux conflits asymétriques (Passés composés, 2025).
« I am both honoured and delighted to succeed Paul-André Rosental at the helm of a thriving Centre for History, and I am deeply grateful to my colleagues for their trust. Without losing sight of the challenges raised by artificial intelligence and by illiberal political contexts, it will be our responsibility in the coming years to reflect further on the major research priorities we wish to pursue. I also hope to keep on increasing the number of women and the diversity of our permanent faculty as much as possible, while paying close attention to the situation of the youngest members of the Centre. We must also focus on multiplying and strengthening our exchanges with partner institutions. Finally, the dissemination of knowledge and public history—particularly through our flagship journal Histoire@Politique—deserve our renewed efforts. »
Guillaume Piketty
Director of the Centre for History
« Guillaume Piketty embodies the academic excellence and intellectual commitment that are the hallmarks of Sciences Po. I am delighted that he is taking over the leadership of the Centre for History, which for forty years has established Sciences Po as a leading institution for historical research. I am confident that he will continue to enhance its reputation for rigorous, multidisciplinary research that is resolutely open to the world. »
Luis Vassy
President of Sciences Po
Founded in 1984, the Centre for History (CHSP) brings together around sixty faculty members and affiliated researchers, about fifty doctoral candidates, and around ten postdoctoral researchers recruited through European or specific research projects.
Over four decades, it has undergone profound transformations, accompanying the major shifts in the discipline by broadening its recruitment, research fields, and methodologies, while remaining faithful to its original mission: to shed historical light on the transformations of our contemporary world.
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