David Le Breton
Chair of Anthropology of Contemporary Worlds
David Le Breton is professor of sociology and anthropology and member of the Laboratory for interdisciplinary cultural studies (LinCS) of the University of Strasbourg, and a member of the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF). His research focuses, amongst others, on representations of the human body and the analysis of risk behaviour. He has, furthermore, worked on and written about topics such as pain, silence, and the face.
David Le Breton has written around 40 books, including the influential Anthropologie du corps et modernité, of which the first edition was published by the Presse Universitaire de France (PUF, 1990, latest edition in 2013). Recent publications include Cicatrices. L’existence dans la peau and La fin de la conversation ? La parole dans une société spectrale (2024, Métailié); Anthropologie des émotions. Être affectivement au monde and L’art du vélo (2021 and 2022, Petite Bibliothèque Payot); Des visages. Une anthropologie, Marcher la vie. Un art tranquille du bonheur, Rire : une anthropologie du rieur, Tenir. Douleur chronique et réinvention de soi and Disparaitre de soi. Une tentation contemporaine (2022, 2020, 2018, 2017 and 2015, Métailié); Sociologie du risque (2017, PUF, « Que sais je ? ») ; Expériences de La Douleur. Entre destruction et renaissance, Éclats de Voix. Une anthropologie des voix and also Marcher. Éloge des chemins et de la lenteur (2010, 2011 and 2012, Métailié). Around 80 different translations of his books have been published in a dozen languages, including Sensing the World: An Anthropology of the Senses (2018, Bloomsbury - originally published in French with the title La Saveur du monde : une anthropologie des sens (2006, Métailié)).
Professor Le Breton was co-editor of the Dictionnaire de l’adolescence et de la jeunesse (PUF) and editor of 18 collective works. He sits on the editorial boards of around ten scientific journals, and is a member of numerous other scientific committees. He received the honorary title of Doctor Honoris Causa from the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (Bucharest, Romania) in 2019 and from the Center for Latin American Studies of Inclusive Education (CELEI, Chili) in 2020.