Anna Pondopoulo

Anna Pondopoulo is a Lecturer at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in the Africa and Indian Ocean Department, where she specializes in African history with particular focus on Fulani societies and the historical construction of knowledge about Africa.

Her academic profile aligns with CNU Discipline 22 covering History and civilizations of modern and contemporary worlds. She has maintained continuous teaching responsibilities since 2006, currently instructing 'History of Fulani Societies' at the Bachelor's level and previously teaching Master 1 Seminars on 'History of Islam in Africa.' Her linguistic expertise includes Fulani, which supports her primary research focus.

Dr. Pondopoulo's research centers on three interconnected themes:

• History of the School of Oriental Languages, particularly through biographical work on administrator Paul BOYER
• History of identity constructions in Fulani societies across West Africa
• History of knowledge production about Africa, with emphasis on colonial and postcolonial perspectives

She was an associate member of CESSMA (Centre d'Études en Sciences Sociales sur les Mondes Africains, Américains et Asiatiques) from 1991 to 2017, demonstrating long-term commitment to interdisciplinary African studies.

Her scholarly output reveals consistent focus on Fulani history and colonial knowledge systems. The 2009 monograph 'The French and the Fulani. The History of a Privileged Relationship' represents a major contribution to understanding Franco-Fulani relations. Recent work examines environmental knowledge ('Trees in the traditions of the Fulani pastoralists', 2018) and temporal concepts in Fulbe storytelling ('Time in the stories of the Fulbe shepherds of Senegal', 2016).

Her publications demonstrate sophisticated analysis of colonial representations of African societies, particularly evident in 'The Construction of Fulani Ethnic Otherness in the Writings of Louis Léon César Faidherbe' (1996) and 'History with many faces. The colonial reconstruction of the history of the Senegalese Fuuta' (2006). She has also made significant contributions to understanding transnational academic networks through her work on Paul Boyer's connections between French and Russian scholarly traditions.

Dr. Pondopoulo's research bridges multiple disciplines including history, anthropology, linguistics, and postcolonial studies, contributing to decolonial approaches to African history while examining the complex intersections of language, identity, and power in West African contexts.