Lecture. Religious diversity, pluralism and laïcité in contemporary France

Céline Béraud is a sociologist and professor at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS, Paris), where she holds the chair in Gender and Religion. She is an alumna of the École Normale Supérieure (Paris-Saclay), where she studied economics and sociology. After obtaining her PhD in the sociology of religion under the supervision of Danièle Hervieu-Léger at EHESS, she worked as a lecturer at the University of Caen (2007-2016). In 2016, she obtained her habilitation degree at Sciences Po and joined EHESS. Her main current research topics are gender and sexual issues within Catholicism, as well as religion in public institutions such as prisons and hospitals. She was recently appointed to chair the research commission investigating sexual violence committed by Abbé Pierre, a well-known French priest and social activist. Béraud has published Une religion parmi d’autres. Le catholicisme en prison et à l’hôpital (PUF, 2025), Les géométries variables de l’aumônerie musulmane (prison, hôpital, armée) (PUAM, 2024, with Claire de Galembert, Benjamin Farhat, and Anne Fornerod), Le catholicisme français à l’épreuve des scandales sexuels (Seuil, 2021), and La bataille du genre. Du mariage pour tous à la PMA (Fayard, 2021).

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