Timothée Brunet-Lefèvre holds a Ph.D. in political studies from the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS). Since the start of the 2026 academic year, he has held the position of research fellow affiliated with Patrick Boucheron’s chair in the History of Powers in Western Europe, 13th-16th century . Among his responsibilities at the Collège de France, he serves as editor-in-chief of *Entre-Temps* , a journal of contemporary history dedicated to the construction of history and the diversity of its forms of writing and transmission.
For his dissertation—soon to be published by Presses universitaires de France—he examined the trials in France concerning the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda, drawing on audiovisual archives of the trials of Rwandan nationals in Paris and conducting an ethnographic study of the criminal court. Years after the massacres and far from Rwanda, these trials constitute invaluable sources for writing the history of the genocide, through the voices of witnesses and victims who appeared before a justice system foreign to them. Despite the distance, the courtroom becomes an educational space and a place where the genocide resonates, even in its most local dimensions. Conflicting memories also emerge there, fueled by the face-to-face confrontation between survivors and the accused. As a fellow of the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah for this research (and later during a postdoctoral fellowship), he was awarded the Auschwitz Foundation Prize in 2025.
His recent work focuses on the trajectories of Rwandan intellectuals accused of genocide in Europe. Currently, he is interested in the judicial and public uses of history, particularly in relation to historical commissions called upon to rule on the past. As a co-founder of the International Network of Researchers on Extreme Violence (Riceve), he has contributed to several research missions on sexual abuse scandals within the Catholic Church, notably as part of the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Abuses Committed at Notre-Dame de Bétharram (CEIB).
