Home > Researchers > Guillaume Piketty

Guillaume Piketty

guillaume.piketty@sciencespo.fr
Full professor
Historical anthropology of the warlike phenomenon and of the resistance phenomenon, 19th and 20th centuries, History of coming out of war, 19th and 20th centuries, Resistance, Free France, World War II, Deportation of repression, History of intimacy, History of senses and sensitivity. History of emotions

Guillaume Piketty is a Full Professor of History at Sciences Po. He was a Visiting Research Scholar at Yale University (2010-2012), then 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 at Oxford University (2012-2018).

He was Dean of Undergraduate and Graduate Studies (1995-1999) and Vice-President (1999-2003) of Sciences Po.

His research focuses on the social and cultural history of World War II in France and in Europe, and, more broadly, on war, resistance, coming out of war and society since the beginning of the US Civil War. He notably borrows from the history of sensitivities, the history of emotions and the history of intimacy.

At Sciences Po, he convenes with Damien Accoulon (Tours, CETHIS), Camille Mahé (Strasbourg, LinCS), Cllaire Miot (Sciences Po Aix, Mesopolhis), Gwendal Piégais (University College Dublin, Centre for War Studies) and Thomas Vaisset (Université Le Havre Normandie, UMR IDEES), the seminar « Two greater wars » (De plus grandes guerres (FR)), within the broader research theme « Experiences / Social Actors, Movements & Groups ». 

He teaches on 19th century European history (“The Long European 19th Century (1780-1914). Revolutions, Modernity and Rise to Power”, 1st year lecture within the Europe-North America Programme, College, Reims campus), the social uses of the past (“Narratives, Uses and Representations of the Past”, 2nd year lecture within the “Political Humanities” major of the Europe-North America Programme, College, Reims campus), and the history of war as it is showed and used in cinema (“War on Screens” elective seminar, 2nd year of the Europe-North America Programme, College, Reims campus). 

Last Publications

  • Guillaume Piketty, "Le long chemin vers la résistance active aux dictatures. Pierre Brossolette et la Guerre d'Espagne", p. 122-130 in Europe, "Écrivains et reporters dans la Guerre d'Espagne", n° 118-119-120, June-July-August 2022
  • Steven O'Connor and Guillaume Piketty (eds.), Foreign Fighters and Multinational Armies. From Civil Conflicts to Coalition Wars, 1848-2015 (Abingdon: Routledge, 2022).
  • Guillaume Piketty, Français, libre. Pierre de Chevigné, Tallandier, May 2022.
  • Winston Churchill, Guillaume Piketty (ed.), Discours de guerre, Tallandier, Edition bilingue, April 2022.
  • Piketty, Guillaume. 2020. "Français libres entre traditions et innovation (1940 - ...)." In Symbolique, traditions et identités militaires, ed. Hervé Drévillon and Édouard Ebel, 198-213. Vincennes: Service Historique de la Défense.
  • Miot, Claire, Guillaume Piketty and Thomas Vaisset, ed(s). 2020. Militaires en résistances en France et en Europe. War Studies. 1. Villeneuve d'Ascq: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion.
  • Piketty, Guillaume. 2020. "Conclusion. Pour une histoire sensible des militaires en résistances." In Militaires en résistances en France et en Europe, ed. Claire Miot, Guillaume Piketty and Thomas Vaisset, 247-266. Villeneuve d'Ascq: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion. War Studies.
  • Piketty, Guillaume. 2020. "Les États-Unis en 1940." In Comme en 40..., ed. Christophe Bertrand, Jordan Gaspin, Vincent Giraudier, Carine Lachèvre and François Lagrange, 250-254. Paris: Éditions Gallimard.

▸ Extract of scientific CV (PDF, 514 Ko) (EN)

Other Activities

  • Qualified personality appointed to the Commission nationale de la médaille de la Résistance française.
  • Membre (elected) of the Steering Committee of the Society for the History of War.
  • Qualified personality appointed to the Comité directeur de la recherche historique de la Défense (CDRHD).
  • Permanent member of the Scientific Committee of the Fondation de la France Libre.
  • Permanent member of the Scientific Committee of the Order of the Liberation.
  • Permanent Member of the Historical and Pedagogical Committee of the Fondation de la Résistance.
  • Permanent member of the Scientific Committee of Charles de Gaulle Memorial of Colombey-les-deux-Eglises
  • Member (elected) of the Select Board of the Centre for History at Sciences Po.
  • Deputy member (elected) of the Scientific Board of Sciences Po.

Focus Area and Themes

Experiences | Social actors, movements, & groups

Last Publications

Supervision of PhD Thesis

Theses under way

Elodie Charrié, "Les troubles psychiques durant la guerre d'Indochine (1945-1954) : une histoire médicale, sociale et culturelle de la psychiatrie en contexte guerrier et colonial". Codirection with Claire Edington (Associate Professor, University of California, San Diego)

Louise Guttin-Vindot, "Réparer la guerre d'Algérie. Indemnisation et statut de victime. France, 1954 à nos jours". Joint supervision with Research Professor Sylvie Thénault (CNRS, Centre d'histoire sociale du XXe siècle).

Emma Papadacci. « Pratiques et vies scolaires dans le secondaire : le poids de la guerre, Royaume-Uni – France, 1918-1939 ». Joint supervision with Professor Emmanuel Saint-Fuscien, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales.

Defended theses

Romain Fathi. « ‘Do not Forget Australia’. Australian War Memorialisation at Villers-Bretonneux ». Joint supervision with Professor Martin Crotty (University of Queensland, Australia). Defended on 19 October 2015.

Paul Lenormand. « Vers l'armée du peuple : Autorité, pouvoir et culture militaire en Tchécoslovaquie de Munich à la fin du Stalinisme ». Joint supervision with Professor Antoine Marès (Université Paris-I). Defended on 5 December 2019.

Géraud Létang. « Mirages d’une rébellion. Être Français libre au Tchad (1940-1943) ».Defended on 29 November 2019.

Camille Mahé. « D’un traumatisme à l’autre ? Les expériences enfantines de la sortie de guerre en Europe de l’Ouest : Allemagne – France – Italie (1943-1949) ». Joint supervision with Professor Pierre Purseigle (University of Warwick, UK) 

Paul Marquis. « Les fous de Joinville. Une histoire sociale de la psychiatrie en Algérie (1933-1963 ». Joint supervision with Professor Richard Keller (University of Madison, Wisconsin, USA).

Claire Morelon. « Street Fronts. War, State, Legitimacy and Urban Space, Prague 1914-1920 ». Joint supervision with Professor Pierre Purseigle (University of Birmingham, UK). Defended on 12 May 2015.

Back to top