Pierre Boilley

Pierre Boilley is a French historian and ethnographer, known for his focus on sub-Saharan Africa, particularly the Tuaregs. He was the director of the Center for African World Studies and is currently the director of the Institut des mondes africains.

Early life Boilley was born in 1957 to a father who was an accountant and a mother who was a nurse. After spending his primary and secondary schooling at the Lycée Carnot, he obtained a scientific baccalauréat and enrolled in biology at Jussieu Campus. Disappointed by the courses offered, he transferred to the University of Nanterre to study history. He made several trips to sub-Saharan Africa, where he gained a knowledge of local cultures. He then became a professor at the University of Paris VII before becoming a tenured professor at the University of Paris I, where he took over the laboratory "Mutation africaines dans la longues durée". When the lab joined the Center for African World Studies (CEAf), he became the director of the CEAf. Boilley then spearheaded the merger of the CEAf and another lab. He became the director of the Institut des mondes africains in 2014, and then founded the Scientific Interest Group on Africa.

Boilley participated in and organized several reactions to Nicolas Sarkozy's Dakar speech. He was cited in numerous media appearances during the Northern Mali conflict as a result of the Tuareg rebellion of 2012.