François Durpaire

About François Durpaire

François Durpaire is a historian, writer, and TV and radio consultant. A Doctor of History and Associate Professor of History, he is a researcher at the EMA laboratory (“École Mutations Apprentissages”) at the University of Cergy-Pontoise. Author of around fifteen books, his work focuses on cultural diversity, American society, and education.

On the topic of diversity, he defines the concept of “pluri-identity,” aimed at understanding the evolution of contemporary societies towards complex identities that the notion of “multiculturalism” fails to grasp. He envisions a third way between adopting affirmative action policies and exclusive focus on social issues.

In the field of education, he defines a “cosmo-education,” believing that schools, born at the time of the creation of national sentiment, must now meet the challenge of globalization (integration of digital culture, training for “world citizenship,” attention to transnational issues: environment, etc.)

Regarding the United States, he is notably the author of the first non-English language biography of Barack Obama (2007) and the first to predict the victory of the black candidate. He writes both reference manuals for students (American Civilization, at PUF, with André Kaspi, Hélène Harter, Adrien Lherm) and books intended for a broader audience (The United States for Dummies, FIRST).

François Durpaire is a consultant on television (“C dans l’air”, “C à vous”, on France 5, or the news broadcasts of TF1, France 2, France 3, BFM TV, I Télé, LCI) and on radio (Europe 1, France Info, RTL, France Inter, France Culture, etc.) and is the author of numerous opinion pieces in the press, notably for the newspaper Le Monde.