Alexandre Surrallés

Professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales and head researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific research (CNRS), Alexandre Surrallés is director of the Social Anthropology Laboratory of the Collège de France, which was founded by Claude Lévi-Strauss and previously directed by Françoise Héritier and Philippe Descola. A specialist in Amazonian anthropology, his field of research is the role of affectivity in defining social bonds, covering a wide range of themes including the political anthropology of Indigenous peoples in their struggle against the state, and lexicography in colonial America. In addition to more than a hundred articles in the most prestigious anthropological journals and chapters in several books, he is also author of

Au cœur du sens; perception, affectivité, action chez les Can Doshi (París, Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme and CNRS éditions, 2003 – published in Spanish as En el corazón del sentido) and La raison lexicographique: découverte des langues et origine de l'anthropologie (París, Fayard, 2023) for which he received the 2024 Georges Dumezil Prize of the French Academy. In addition to his academic studies, he is also an activist working to promote the rights of Indigenous peoples.