Erwan Dianteill

Erwan Dianteill (born 1967) is a French sociologist and anthropologist, graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay, holder of the aggregation in the Social Sciences, Doctor of Sociology and professor of Cultural and Social anthropology at the Sorbonne (University of Paris, est. 2019). He is also Senior Laureate of the Institut Universitaire de France since 2012 and Non-Resident Fellow of the W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute at Harvard University since 2017. Dianteill's work explores anthropological and sociological theories about religion and interconnections between political and religious powers. It also includes the study of symbolic origins of domination and resistance. He is a specialist in the anthropology of African and African-American religions.

Erwan Dianteill created in 2010 the Center of Cultural and Social Anthropology (CANTHEL) component of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences – Sorbonne. Along with Francis Affergan, he also founded cArgo – International Journal for Cultural and Social Anthropology (Paris, France), in 2011.

He has twice served as Chair of the Department of Social sciences of the Paris Descartes University, then University of Paris (2019) (2010–2012, 2018–2024).

He was a visiting professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara; Tulane University; the University of Buenos Aires; the National University of Honduras; the University of Havana; the University of Vienna; the University of Salento; and Harvard University (Divinity School in 2016 and African and African American Studies Department in 2020). He is a Fellow of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University in 2024–2025.

His book ''The Oracle and the Temple - From Medieval Geomancy to the Church of Ifa (Nigeria, Benin)'' was awarded the History of Religions Prize ([https://aibl.fr/fondations/fondation-pierre-antoine-bernheim/# Pierre-Antoine Bernheim Foundation]) by the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres - Institut de France in 2025. It is the first work on Africa to receive this prize. Provided by Wikipedia