“Thibault’s interdisciplinary approach, rooted in political ethnography, offers an anthropological lens that helps illuminate the intersections of Islam and state-building practices through a select number of Tajik informants whose lives have been directly impacted by official state responses to the “religious revival” that began in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union. This approach is a welcome respite from analyses of the region that approach Islam and governance using political science and a top-down approach centered on state institutions and their fears of radicalism as opposed to individual actors and diverse displays of piety.”
Emily O’Dell, Yale University————————————
A roundtable discussion about the book is available in Central Asian Affairs.
Reviews in Open Democracy by E. Lemon and in Politics, Religion, and Ideology by L. Direnberger.
Peer-reviewed articles
2024. “The political economy of education in Central Asia: exploring the fault lines of social cohesion”, Globalisation, Societies and Education, 1–14. With Vanessa Ozawa & Naureen Durrani.
2022. “Male sex work in Kazakhstan: A Distinct Market?”, Central Asian Affairs, (9)2-4; 378-402 .
2022. “Gender as Intersections: A Different Way of Seeing Central Asia”, Central Asian Affairs, (9)2-4; 149-175. With Svetlana Peshkova.
2022. “Where Did All the Wahhabis Go? The Evolution of Threat in Central Asian Scholarship”, Europe-Asia Studies, 74(2); 288-309.
2021. “Многоженство в Казахстане”, Edu e-History 27(3).
2021. “Online Temptations: Divorce and Extramarital Affairs in Kazakhstan”, Religions 12(8), 654; 1-20. With Jasmin Dall’Agnola.
2021. ““Are you married?” Gender and faith in political ethnographic research”, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 50(3); 395-416.
2018. “Counter-extremism, power and authoritarian governance in Tajikistan”, Central Asian Survey; 37:1, 137-159. With Edward Lemon.
2017. “Labour Migration, Sex, and Polygyny: Negotiating Patriarchy in Tajikistan”, Ethnic and Racial Studies 41(15); 2809-2826.
2015. “The Soviet Secularization Project in Central Asia: Accommodation and Institutional Legacies”. Eurostudia 10(1); 11-31.
2013. “The Secular and the Religious in Tajikistan: Contested Political Spaces”. Studies in Religion/Études religieuses 42(2); 173-189.
2009. “L’intégration d’un parti islamique comme facteur de renforcement du contrôle religieux et de la rhétorique anti-islamiste. Le cas du Tadjikistan”. Transitions 49(2); 151-171.
Books and book chapters
2024. The Political Economy of Education Research. Evidence From the Field. Naureen Durrani and Hélène Thibault (Eds). Palgrave-Macmillan.
2023. “Understanding the Political Economy of Education: Exploring Debates in Central Asia" The Political Economy of Education Research. Evidence From the Field. Naureen Durrani and Hélène Thibault (Eds). Palgrave-Macmillan; pp. 1-18.
2022. Uyat and the Culture of Shame in Central Asia. Hélène Thibault and Jean-François Caron (Eds). Palgrave-Macmillan.
2022. “Shaming as a Form of Political Accountability in Kazakhstani Politics” in Hélène Thibault and Jean-François Caron (Eds). Uyat and the Culture of Shame in Central Asia; pp. 151-173.
2022. Central Asia and the Covid-19 Pandemic. Jean-François Caron and Hélène Thibault (Eds). Palgrave-Macmillan.
2021. “Political Islam in Central Asia: from religious revival to securitization”, In Shahram Akbarzadeh (ed). Routledge Handbook of Political Islam. Routledge; pp. 139-154.
2021. Tacikistan'in Dönüşümü. Sekülerleşme Karşısında İslam (The Transformation of Tajikistan. Islam versus Secularization). Ketebe Publishing.
2019. “The Art of Managing Religion in a Post-Soviet Soft Authoritarian State”, In Jean-François Caron (ed). Kazakhstan and the Soviet Legacy Between Continuity and Rupture. Palgrave-Macmillan; 155-179.
2018. Transforming Tajikistan: State-building and Islam in Post-Soviet Central Asia. London: I.B Tauris.
2011. “Recruitement and Training of Terrorists” In James Ciment (ed). World Terrorism: An Encyclopedia of Political Violence from Ancient Times to the Post-9/11Second Edition. Armonk (NY): M.E. Sharpe. With Jean-François Ratelle and Kristian Alexander.
Non peer-reviewed
2022. “Asie centrale : entre révoltes populaires et conflits frontaliers”, Les Grands dossiers de diplomatie, Décembre-janvier, n. 71; 93-95.
2022. “L’impact de la guerre en Ukraine en Asie centrale : instabilité, méfiance et perte d’influence russe”, Le Rubicon, 14 décembre.
2022. “Plaques en mouvement en Asie centrale", Les Grands dossiers de diplomatie, Avril-Mai, n. 67; 66-69.
2021. The Political Economy of Society and Education in Central Asia. A Scoping Literature Review, PEER Working Paper 2.
2021. “The Many Faces of Polygyny in Kazakhstan”, Central Asia Program, n.225, 16 April.
2019. “Weibliche Sittsamkeit in Zentralasien: Wie Frauen das Schicksal der Nation verkörpern sollen”, Zentralasien-Analysen, n. 135; 2-5.
2017. “Asie centrale: la fin du pré carré russe?“, Grands cahiers de diplomatie, Août-septembre n. 40; 67-71.
2016. “Female virtue and State ideology in Tajikistan”. The Central Eurasia – Religion in International Affairs Brief, n. 10, January.
2020. Tajikistan on the move: statebuilding and societal transformations, Middle Eastern Studies 56(1); 142-145.
2020. “Book review roundtable: Hélène Thibault, Transforming Tajikistan: State Building and Islam in Post-Soviet Central Asia” (London: I. B. Tauris, 2018)., Central Asian Affairs, 7(3); 293-305.
2020. “Book review roundtable: Sophie Roche, The Faceless Terrorist”, Critical Studies on Terrorism, 13(2); 358-368. (With Payam Foroughi, Svetlana Peshkova, Kamoludin Abdullaev, Jonathan K. Zartman, & Sophie Roche).
2019. “Rivalries and power struggles: a portrait of the Islamic State in Khorasan”, Open Democracy, April 17.
2015. Dudoignon Stéphane A. et Noack Christian (dir), Allah’s Kolkhozes. Migration, De-Stalinisation, Privatisation and the New Muslim Congregations in the Soviet Realm (1950s-2000s), Revue des Mondes musulmans et de la Méditérranée 135.