I am Professor of Sociology at the École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay, a researcher at the Institut des Sciences sociales du Politique (ISP), and a senior member of the Institut universitaire de France. In 2016–2017, I was a visiting researcher at the Institut national d’études démographiques (INED), where I studied the first names given to immigrants’ children in France and the use of proxy voting (vote par procuration) in French national elections.
Most of my publications are in French. They include A French History of Sex Shops (2007); Contemporary Sociological Theories (with Céline Béraud, 2008; 2nd revised edition, 2018; and with Marion Maudet, 3rd expanded and revised edition, 2026); A Sociology of First Names (1st edition, 2011; 2nd revised edition, 2014; 3rd revised edition, 2022); and Changing One’s First Name (2016).
You can also find my résumé [link] and read several articles in English below :
- with Sandra Brée, Victor Gay, Marion Leturcq, Baptiste Coulmont, Yoann Doignon, Thomas Constum, Thierry Paquet, and Pierrick Tranouez. “POPP. An OCR-Generated Database of the Population Censuses of Paris (1926–1936), Historical Life Course Studies, 2026, n°16 (February): 3-28. doi : 10.52024/hlcs18627
- with Nicolas Todd, “The Effect of World War I on Naming Patterns: A Systematic Exploration” Social Science History, 2025, 49(3), 620-639, doi:10.1017/ssh.2025.27
- with Nicolas Todd, “Naming for Kin during World War I: Baby Names as Markers for War“, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 2021, 52(1), p. 55–67, doi : 10.1162/jinh_a_01663
- “In absentia: Proxy voting as a form of remote electoral participation“, Revue française de science politique (English edition), 2020, 70(3-4), p.469-488
- with Patrick Simon, How do immigrants name their children in France?, Population and Societies, n° 565, April 2019
- with Céline Braconnier and Jean-Yves Dormagen, «The Heavy Variables are Still Alive and Kicking: The Drop in Voter Turnout and the Increase in Electoral Disparities in Spring 2017», Revue française de science politique (english), 2017, 67(6), p.1023-1040
- with Arthur Charpentier “We are not alone! (at least, most of us aren’t), Significance, 15(1):23-28, DOI: 10.1111/j.1740-9713.2018.01108.x (Homonymy in large scale social groups)
- with Virginie Supervie and Romulus Breban “The diffusion dynamics of choice: From durable goods markets to fashion first names“, Complexity, DOI: 10.1002/cplx.21748
- You can vote twice! The many political appeals of proxy votes in France, with Arthur Charpentier and Joël Gombin.
- At the Top of the Bill: a Structural Analysis of Claims to Charisma, Revue française de sociologie (English), 2013, 54(3), 503-530 [translation of this article]
- “Changing One’s First Name in France: A Fountain of Youth ?”, Names, 2014, 62(3), 137-146
- Antoine Mazieres, Mathieu Trachman, Jean-Philippe Cointet, Baptiste Coulmont and Christophe Prieur, “Deep Tags: Toward a Quantitative Analysis of Online Pornography“, Porn Studies, 2014, 1(1-2), 80-95.
- Consuming sex: socio-legal shifts in the space and place of sex-shops (with Phil Hubbard), Journal of Law and Society, 2010, 37(1), 189 – 209 [Special Issue: Regulating Sex/Work: From Crime Control to Neo-liberalism?]
- Do the Rite Thing: Religious Civil Unions in Vermont, Social Compass, 52(2), 2005, 225-239
- The Geography of Civil Unions in Vermont, Journal of Lesbian Studies, 2005, 9(1/2), 185-195
