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Laurent Dousset is an anthropologist trained at the EHESS in France where he submitted his PhD under the supervision of Maurice Godelier. After his studies, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Western Australia, before returning to France where he held the position of Directeur d'Etudes at the EHESS until 2022. He now works as independent reseracher and lecturer at the University of Lucerne in Switzerland.
Working since 1994 on Australian Aboriginal cultures, he is particularly interested in kinship, social organisation and transformations, as well as conceptions and issues of land tenure, history and inter-cultural relationships. Besides the numerous papers he has published in scientific journals, he has also written several books (Assimilating identities, Oceania Monograph 2005; Mythes, bombes et cannibales, Société des Océanistes 2011; Australian Aboriginal kinship, pcp 2011) and co-edited volumes (Kinship and Change in Aboriginal Australia, Anthropological Forum 2002; The Scope of Anthropology, Berghahn 2012; Les sciences humaines et sociales dans le Pacifique Sud, pcp 2014).
Since 2008, he is also working in Vanuatu on the domain of land issues, disputes, sorcery, local and national politics and ethnohistory; as well as on issues of Uncertainty and Risk perception and management (See the book Dousset L. 2018, Pour une anthropologie de l'incertitude, Paris: CNRS éditions). |
Specialities |
Uncertainty, Social Organization, Land Management, Social Change, First Contacts, Environment, Digital Resources, Indigenous Politics, Personhood, Sorcery, Kinship, Resilience |
Discipline(s) |
Anthropology
History
|
Member of |
e-toile Pacifique (e-toile)  European Society for Oceanists (ESfO) Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) |
Geographic administrative areas |
|
Geographic places |
Australia (area)
Melanesia
Australia (country)
Western Australia
Vanuatu
Malakula
Efate
Western Desert
|
Historical periods |
Precolonial Australia
First and Early contacts
20th century
21st century
The Colonial time
Sahul and the prehistory of Melanesia
Lapita and the Austronesian expansion
|
Indigenous languages |
Ngaanyatjarra, Bislama |
Experiences |
PhD Research (1994 to 1999)
Fieldwork and PhD thesis on kinship and social organization in the Australian Western Desert — EHESS (School for Advanced Social Studies, Paris)
Received the price for best PhD of the year after completion in 1999.Field Research (1994 to now)
Field Research in the Australian Western Desert — Funded by EHESS, AIATSIS, CREDO, ANR, ARC....(and others)
Many field trips over the years on various subjects, mainly among Ngaatjatjarra-speaking people.Academic Position (2000 to 2002)
Postdoctoral and ARC postdoctoral positions at The University of Western Australia — The University of Western Australia, PerthAcademic Position (2003 to now)
A/prof at the EHESS — EHESS (School for Advanced Social Studies, Paris)Teaching Experiences (2003 to now)
Weekly seminar in Australian Aboriginal Studies — EHESS (School for Advanced Social Studies, Marseille)Field Research (2008 to now)
Field research on politics in Malekula, Vanuatu — CREDOAcademic Position (2008 to 2014)
Director of CREDO — Aix-Marseille University - CNRS - EHESS
Centre de Recherche et de Documentation sur l'Océanie, MarseillesCollaborative Project (2008 to 2015)
Participant of the Australian ARC-linkage project AustKin — Australian Research Council, with Australian National UniversityCollaborative Project (2009 to 2012)
Leader of a French National Research Agency funded collaborative project on political organization in Melanesia — French National Research AgencyCollaborative Project (2010 to 2012)
Responsible for the establishment of the national research unit on Digital Humanities "Corpus IR" — Ministry for Research and Higher Education, CNRS, Aix-Marseille UniversityAcademic Position (2011 to now)
Member of the board and researcher of the Labex (Laboratory of Excellence) Corail — French National Agency for Scientific Research
Research on coral reefs and their relationships to human societies.Academic Position (2014 to now)
Co-editor of the journal Anthropological Forum — The University of Western AustraliaAcademic Position (2015 to now)
Directeur d'Etudes (Professor) — EHESS (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales)
Holding the chair of "Elicitation and social values" |
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Some figures...The database of experts counts today 1236 profiles, of which 593 are publicly accessible, while 643 have chosen to remain private. These persons have defined 747 unique keywords in which they situate their research interests and expertise. They have also defined and described 648 ' experiences' (research and teaching activities, consulting work, or applied projects) in which they have contributed. | |
