Jules Grange Gastinel
PHD student at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), affiliated with Aix-Marseille University, the Center for Economic, Legal and Social Studies and Documentation in Cairo (CEDEJ) and The Institute of Research and Study on the Arab and Islamic Worlds (IREMAM).
PhD school 355 Espaces, Cultures, Sociétés
Contact: julesgrangegastinel[at]gmail.com ; jules.grangegastinel[at]proton.me
Recherche
Disciplines: Political science, history, anthropology, political sociology.
Focus: Yemen
Member of the Social Sciences research group
Research topics
Governance in war and public policy in civil war; political crises, conflicts and regime change; international state-building; reconfigurations of politico-religious movements in the test of power.
Research project
The Houthi State's factory in the Yemen war
This research thesis traces the conditions of statehood of the Houthi movement, focusing on its lightning rise and its seizure of the Yemeni State apparatus since 2014. It examines the process of institutionalization of an armed non-state movement following the seizure of central power, its paradoxical fabrication of the State, and its ability to build international notability. It thus questions the transformation of the structure of the national protest movement towards the formation of a politico-religious project with a regional vocation. To this end, the PhD examines the sources of Houthi communication, its political and ideological production, as well as the strategies for perpetuating the political project and the articulation of local referential with transnational Arab-Islamic and Third World referential. It analyzes the effects of the multiplication of governing institutions and of their integration into the State on competition between administrations.
Keywords: Houthis, Ansar Allah, contemporary Yemen, political Islam, Shiism, Zaydism, institutional governance, State in war.
Research themes
The PhD research focuses on three major themes:
1/ the restructuring of a “revolutionary” armed group facing the test of State administration,
2/ the articulation of the movement with the Shia references of the “Axis of Resistance”,
3/ the consolidation of Ansar Allah's administration through the construction of a “national vision” and the reforms it implies.
Education
2024: Master in international relations (MRIAE) from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
2024: Diploma from Sciences Po Aix. Research dissertation in history on the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria (1989-1992).
2024: Master in Comparative Politics “Africa/Middle East” (PCAMO), Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Research dissertation on educational reform in Yemen (Sanaa).
2022: Diploma in standard Arabic from the Bourguiba Institute of modern languages in Tunis.
2021: Diploma in standard and Egyptian dialectal Arabic from the French Institute in Cairo.
Publications
BONNEFOY, Laurent and GRANGE GASTINEL, Jules, 2024. “Yemen: threats in the Red Sea. The Houthis, in the Red Sea and beyond”. In: DE MONTBRIAL, Thierry and DAVID, Dominique, Ramses 2025 "Entre puissances et impuissance". Paris: Dunod. Hors collection, p.86-89. DOI : 10.3917/dunod.ifri.2024.01.0086.
GRANGE GASTINEL, Jules, 2024. “Training a generation of revolutionaries. Education in the service of legitimizing Ansar Allah’s project in Yemen (2014-2024)”, Master 2 thesis under the supervision of Olivier GROJEAN and Sabrina MERVIN, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris.
GRANGE GASTINEL, Jules, 2022. “The emergence and rise of the Algerian Islamist movement through the prism of the recruitment methods of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) from 1989 to 1992”, Master 1 thesis under the supervision of François DUMASY, Sciences Po Aix, Aix-en-Provence.
Recent and forthcoming communications
“The state-tested Houthis in Yemen: the rise and legitimization of a politico-religious movement with revolutionary ambitions (2014-2024)”, IREMAM doctoral students’ day, Aix-en-Provence, 08/10/2024.
“Houthi dynamics and Zaydism”, study day “Yemen: 10 years of war (2015-2025)”, Sciences Po Paris, Paris, 26/03/2025.
“Reforming Youth Education in Yemen: The Houthis and the Challenge of Primary Education”, workshop “From Past and Present to Future: Finding a Positive Path between Ideals and Possibilities in Yemen”, London School of Economic, London, 24-25/04/2025.
“Roundabouts at crossroads of politico-religious rivalries. A comparative study of the Sadrists (Baghdad) and the Houthis (Taez).” with Émilien DEBAERE, 6th Congress of the GIS-MOMM, Strasbourg, 24-27/06/2025.
Languages
French, English, Italian, Arabic.