Antoine Lilti

Professor Antoine Lilti, born in 1972, holds the History of the Enlightenment, 18th to 21st century chair at the Collège de France. A graduate of the École normale supérieure and agrégé d'histoire, he defends his dissertation on 18th-century Parisian salons in 2003. His research spans social, cultural, and intellectual history, focusing on Enlightenment legacies, celebrity culture, and modernity's ambivalences.

• Current chair at Collège de France (2022–today)
• Directed the journal Annales Histoire, sciences sociales (2006–2011)
• Editor of the "L'épreuve de l'histoire" collection at Fayard (2013–today)

Research Interests:

• 18th-century sociability practices
• Invention of celebrity (1750–1850)
• Long-term Enlightenment legacies post-French Revolution
• Polysemy of the Enlightenment in secularization and universalism debates

His public lectures (2022–2026) explore topics like Charlatans! Scholars and philosophers in the public arena, Science and Enlightenment, and Haiti's independence debt, reflecting his interdisciplinary approach to intellectual history.