Dr Cyrielle Maingraud-Martinaud

Researcher & Deputy Director, IFRA-Nigeria

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As a doctor in political science from Sciences Po Bordeaux, I study the interactions between political systems and identity politics, focusing especially on religion.

My PhD research was conducted between 2013 and 2018 in Tanzania. I’ve analyzed the ways in which the liberalization of the 1980s and the return to multipartism in 1990s have been articulated to a reconfiguration of identity politics in a semi-competitive context. By means of an ethnographic-type qualitative survey, as well as semi-structured interviews carried out in four districts of mainland Tanzania, my focus has been on the dynamics of religiosity in contemporary Tanzanian politics. I’ve analyzed the mechanisms of regime legitimation, the processes of mobilisation and co-optation of intermediary elites, and the relations between the government and the citizen.

 As a researcher at IFRA, I currently study the politicization of religion in Nigerian politics, in a comparative perspective with Tanzania. I am especially interested in understanding the field of institutional « inter-faith dialogue » that has emerged since the beginning of the 2000s, both at the local, national and international levels.

In the meantime, as the deputy director of IFRA Nigeria, I am taking part to the administration of the Institute, along with the organisation of academic events such as guest lectures, book launches, conferences, etc. Finally, I participate actively in the educational activities of IFRA, by organizing and teaching within monthly methodological workshops and masterclasses.