Maurice Olender (21 April 1946 – 27 October 2022) was a French historian, professor at the

École des hautes études en sciences sociales The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (french: École des hautes études en sciences sociales; EHESS) is a graduate ''grande école'' and '' grand établissement'' in Paris focused on academic research in the social sciences. The ...

(EHESS) in Paris. His teaching focused in particular on the genesis of the idea of race in the nineteenth century. As editor, he headed the journal 'Librairie XXIe siècle
/ref> and ''La librairie du XXIe siècle'' at

Éditions du Seuil Éditions du Seuil (), also known as ''Le Seuil'', is a French publishing house established in 1935 by Catholic intellectual Jean Plaquevent (1901–1965), and currently owned by La Martinière Groupe. It owes its name to this goal "The ''seuil'' ...

. Olender died in Brussels on 27 October 2022, at the age of 76.

Scientific responsibilities

* Cofounder of the ''Scuola internazionale di alti studi scienze della cultura'' of

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

(Italy) in 1995. Founding member of its Scientific Advisory Board (1995–2009) * Associate professor and member of the board of the Martin Buber Institute of the

Free University of Brussels University of Brussels may refer to several institutions in Brussels, Belgium: Current institutions * Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), a French-speaking university established as a separate entity in 1970 *Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), a D ...

. * Member of the ''Steering Committee des Mishkenot Encounters for Religion and Culture'', in Jerusalem. * Member of the first editorial board, created in 1988, of the ''Revue de l'histoire des religions'' founded in 1880. * Directed the interdisciplinary journal ''Le genre humain'', since its creation in 1981

Selected publications

*1978: (dir.) with J. Sojcher, ''Le récit et sa représentation'', Colloque de Saint-Hubert, Éditions Payot. *1979: (dir.) with J. Sojcher, ''La séduction'', Colloque de Bruxelles n°1), Paris, Aubier, coll. "Les Colloques de Bruxelles", 1980 (). *1981: (dir.), ''Le racisme : mythes et sciences : pour Léon Poliakov'', texts by

Pierre Birnbaum Pierre Birnbaum (1940, Lourdes) is a French historian and sociologist.. Bibliography *1977: ''Les Sommets de l’État. Essai sur l'élite du pouvoir en France'', Paris, Éditions du Seuil, . *1979: . *1982: ''La Logique de l’État'', Fayar ...

Michel de Certeau Michel de Certeau (; 17 May 1925 – 9 January 1986) was a French Jesuit priest and scholar whose work combined history, psychoanalysis, philosophy, and the social sciences as well as hermeneutics, semiotics, ethnology, and religion. He was know ...

, Michèle Duchet, Maurice de Gandillac et al., Brussels, Éditions Complexe et Paris,

PUF PUF may refer to: * Physical unclonable function, in computer security, a physically-implemented secure identifier * The University Presses of France *Permanent University Fund, for Texas public universities * Pau Pyrénées Airport in France (I ...

, . *1989: ''Les langues du Paradis : Aryens et Sémites, un couple providentiel'', preface by

Jean-Pierre Vernant Jean-Pierre Vernant (; January 4, 1914 – January 9, 2007) was a French historian and anthropologist, specialist in ancient Greece. Influenced by Claude Lévi-Strauss, Vernant developed a structuralist approach to Greek myth, tragedy, and ...

, Paris, Gallimard et Éditions du Seuil, coll. « Hautes études », ; rééd. Paris, Éditions du Seuil, "Points", 1994 ; reworked and expanded edition, 2002 . This works has been translated into 12 languages. *2005: ''La chasse aux évidences : sur quelques formes de racisme entre mythe et histoire (1978–2005)''. Paris: Galaade. . ** English translation: ''Race and Erudition''. Trans. by Marie Jane Todd. Cambridge, Mass.–London: Harvard University Press, 2009. *2009: ''Race sans histoire'', Points Seuil n°620 (see ''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'' 17–18 May 2009) (in English: Race and Erudition: by Maurice Olender, published by Harvard University PressRace and Erudition
Harvard *2010: ''Matériau du rêve'', éd. IMEC, coll. "Le Lieu de l’archive", Condé-sur-Noireau. *2011: ''Réponse du muet au parlant : En retour à Jean-Luc Godard'', Seuil, with Alain Fleischer. *2013: ''Le genre humain, N° 53 : Jean-Pierre Vernant, dedans dehors'', Seuil, with François Vitrani.

Learned societies and prizes

* Member of the

Société de linguistique de Paris The Société de Linguistique de Paris (established 1864) is the editing body of the ''BSL'' (''Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique'') journal A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a met ...

* Member of the

Société asiatique The Société Asiatique (Asiatic Society) is a French learned society dedicated to the study of Asia. It was founded in 1822 with the mission of developing and diffusing knowledge of Asia. Its boundaries of geographic interest are broad, ranging ...

* Crowned by the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

in 1990 for ''Les langues du Paradis'', Hautes études, Gallimard/Seuil, 1989 *

Prix Roger Caillois The prix Roger Caillois is an annual literary prize established in 1991 in partnership with the PEN Club in France and the as well as the Society of readers and friends of Roger Caillois, awarded to both a Latin American and a French author. Sinc ...

for essays in 2007 for ''La chasse aux évidences : sur quelques formes de racisme entre mythe et histoire, 1978–2005'', Paris, Galaade, 2005

References

External links

Maurice Olender
at La Librairie du XXIe siècle
Maurice Olender, ''Les langues du Paradis. Aryens et Sémites : un couple providentiel''
on Persée
Biographical notice
on IMEC {{DEFAULTSORT:Olender, Maurice 1946 births 2022 deaths Writers from Antwerp 20th-century French historians Free University of Brussels (1834–1969) alumni École Normale Supérieure alumni School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences alumni École pratique des hautes études alumni Academic staff of the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences Academic staff of the Université libre de Bruxelles Members of the Société Asiatique 21st-century French historians 20th-century French archaeologists 21st-century French archaeologists