Doctoral and post-doctoral students
The web page is dedicated to PhD students and young post-doc researchers whose themes of research focus on the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf in all disciplines. It is meant to create a network of young researchers for practical purposes (fieldworks, visas procedures, funding, contacts) and scientific ones (theoretical problems, good readings, symposium and workshops announcements).
Kaïna Rointru is a doctoral student in Archaeology, co-supervised between the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (UMR 8215, Trajectoires) and the Natural History Museum of Paris (UMR 7209, AASPE).Her research topic concerns the “Bioanthropological and geochemical study of protohistoric populations of the Arabian Peninsula”, and is part of the ANR Arabiancairns project (ANR-22-CE27_0001), directed by Olivia Munoz. The use of these two complementary approaches will make it possible to question potential mobilities, to translate the modes of subsistence of these Bronze Age groups and to characterize their exchange and circulation networks.
After her studies in Rennes (literary preparatory class A/L specializing in Italian literature) and a degree in history and political science with a major in Italian literature at the University of Rennes 2, Melissa Tedafi continued her studies at the University of Nantes. She holds a Master’s degree in International History and is currently working on a history thesis entitled “The Arab World Institute, a policy of cultural cooperation at the service of Franco-Arab diplomacy”, in partnership with the French Research Centre for the Arabian Peninsula (CEFREPA) in Kuwait City, under the supervision of Alain Messaoudi (Nantes University) and Luc Chantre (Rennes 2 University).
Enki Baptiste is a post-doctoral researcher in Medieval History and Islamic Studies at Lyon 2 University (CIHAM). He is a member of the project Faire société : modèles normatifs et hétéronomie dans les islams minoritaires (chiismes et ibadisme) funded by the Institut français d’islamologie. In 2023, he defended his doctoral thesis entitled L’ibadisme omanais : histoire et mémoire d’un mouvement dissident aux marges de l’Empire (iie-vie/viiie-xiie siècle). His PhD aimed to shed new light on the early Ibadi history between Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula during the formative period of Islam. He is now working on turning it into a book. In the meantime, he continues to explore and translate Ibadi sources. His current project aims to better understand the imamate theory conceptualized by the Ibadi ulama in Iraq and Oman, not as a standalone and marginal political thought, but as a product of the early Islamic society. Within the framework of the project Faire société, he is in charge, along with C. Aillet, of organizing an international conference (Lyon, November 2024) and of stewarding a research seminar on Islamic sectarian trends.
Névyne Alexandra Zeineldin is a researcher with a multidisciplinary background in political science, sociology, and history from Pantheon Sorbonne University in Paris. She obtained her PhD from Paris Descartes University in 2023. Specializing in the Arab world, her work primarily investigates national narratives, social inclusion and exclusion mechanisms, public policies, and the sociopolitical alternatives cultural initiatives may foster. Alongside her academic pursuits, she is committed to developing international collaborations with researchers and entrepreneurs, aiming to create interdisciplinary and multicultural projects that promote a comprehensive dialogue between Europe and the Middle East.
Camille Bougault is a PhD student in History and Political Science at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, under the supervision of Philippe Pétriat, and at Sciences Po Paris, under the guidance of Stéphane Lacroix. Her doctoral research focuses on heritage policies in Saudi Arabia since the 1950s. She holds a Master’s degree in Middle Eastern Studies from ENS Lyon, with a Master’s thesis exploring the process of heritage-making in al-‘Ulā (Saudi Arabia), supported by a CEFREPA scholarship. In 2022, she also earned a Master’s in Public Policy from Sciences Po Paris and completed a Bachelor’s degree in Art History at the University of Paris-Nanterre. Camille has gained significant expertise in cultural and economic diplomacy both in the field and within institutional settings. She has notably worked at the French embassies in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon as a project officer. Camille has contributed to cultural and economic cooperation projects and the drafting of reports for international organizations such as UNESCO.She is currently involved in a research project on the history of al-‘Ulā, under the direction of Louis Blin, in collaboration with Villa Hegra (Saudi Arabia).
Alice Königstetter is a PhD candidate at the Institute for Near Eastern Studies, University of Vienna, Austria, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Stephan Procházka. Her dissertation, Voices and Silences in Contemporary Women’s Fiction from Kuwait, explores representations at the intersection of language, nationality, and gender. She is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, affiliated with the Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies. Her research is funded by the Austrian Ministry of Education, Science, and Research, the University of Vienna, and Literar-Mechana. Alice’s research interests include postcolonial literature, cultural production in the Arab Gulf region, and gender studies.
Arabist, jurist and ethnologist, Léo Marty’s research focuses on Arab societies, norms and socio-ecosystems. Holder of a professional Master’s degree in the Advanced International Studies sector from INALCO as well as a research Master’s degree in Political Studies from EHESS where he worked on the phenomenon of honor killing in Palestine, he was an associate researcher at the Institute of Advanced Studies on Justice from June 2015 to May 2021, a period during which he participated in the development of the Institute of Studies on Law and Justice in the Arab companies (IEDJA). Between May 2019 and May 2020 and then again since September 2024, he is an advisor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees at the National Court of Asylum.
Keen to develop an ethnography integrating environmental norms and issues, he completed a doctorate in social anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History defended on April 26, 2024. His thesis focused on the functioning of oasis communities of al- ‘Ulā (in Saudi Arabia) and their relationships with the environment. The objective was to make a proposal for the contribution of normative questions as one of the keys to reading the change in socio-ecosystems.
Hélène Mutter is a French visual artist, Dr. in Arts and Art Sciences and academic researcher. Her approach combines both artistic and theoretical research to investigate the ways images are produced in war. Her past accomplishments include being a laureate of various awards and grants, as the Marie-Antoinette Van Huele thesis prize (Université Libre de Bruxelles) in 2022. In addition to her academic pursuits, she has contributed to peer-reviewed publications and several exhibitions. Hélène Mutter’s work has been showed and exhibited in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and recognized by several institutions like the Wallonia-Brussels Federation in Belgium (2019, 2021) and the Pompidou Centre in Paris (2023). Since 2023 she lives and works in Saudi Arabia, where she oversees various cultural programs as a project specialist, brings a wealth of experience and expertise in the field of visual arts and research.
Hélène Mutter also pursues long-time fieldwork in the Gulf region. This project examines the multiplicity of points of view on the 1990-1991 Gulf War by taking a sociological look on it across France and the countries of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq. Drawn from numerous family archives, photographs, videos, military documents, satellite images and testimonies, it highlights how visual narratives are crafted in war through the interdependence between images and their fabrication process. In so doing, it invites the viewer to acknowledge and reflect on the way the visual information produced in these contexts is disseminated, perceived and received. This project has been granted support from DRAC Occitanie (2023), the CEFREPA and FIKAR (2024-2025).
