A conference tilted: « Parcours d’un anthropologue français au Yémen» by Franck Mermier, anthropologist, research director at CNRS was organized by the Embassy of France in Yemen and the CEFREPA on October 23, 2024 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
This conference traced the professional career of Dr. Franck MERMIER in Yemen between the early 1980s and the 2000s. This retrospective look aimed to combine the evocation of personal experiences with the crucial historical events that Yemen experienced during this period. The eleven years spent in Yemen, divided into different stays, allowed him to live in Taez and Sanaa and to travel to different regions of the country, notably Aden. The evocation of these experiences were an opportunity to share certain reflections on Yemeni society and on the recent history of Yemen which were concluded with some observations on the current situation, particularly on the cultural field in the broad sense.
Dr. Franck MERMIER is a specialist in anthropology and the study of societies of the Arabian Peninsula and the Arab East. He held the position of Director of the French Center for Yemeni Studies from 1991 to 1997, in Sanaa. He has also published several works on Lebanon and Yemen, some of which have been translated into Arabic and have become essential references in the fields of studies devoted to urban life, political anthropology and the cultural productions of these countries. He published, among others, Le sheikh de la nuit. Sanaa: organization of souks and urban society (1997) and Stories of cities: from Aden to Sanaa (2015) and co-directed Contemporary Yemen (1999) and Yemen. The revolutionary turning point (2012) as well as Yemen. Writing War (2018).
