Olivier Roy (1949) is a Senior Researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (since 1985) and a professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (since 2003). He headed the OSCE’s Mission for Tajikistan (1993-94) and was a Consultant for the UN Office of the Coordinator for Afghanistan (1988). His field works include Political Islam, Middle East, Islam in the West and comparative religions.
Prof. Roy received an “Agrégation de Philosophie” and a Ph.D. in Political Sciences. He is the author of “Globalized Islam” (Chicago University Press), 2004, and more recently of “La Sainte Ignorance” (“The Holy Ignorance”, Seuil 2008). In 2008-2009 he has been a visiting Professor at Berkeley University.
He is presently working on “Islamic norms in the public sphere”, conversions and apostasy and comparative religions.