She is a doctor in history, research director at the CNRS, at the Orient and Mediterranean laboratory and a member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres.
From 1975-1980, she attended the Ecole Normale Supérieure for young girls, and earned her Agrégation in history in 1978.
She completed her doctorate from the University Panthéon-Sorbonne with a thesis on relations between cities of the Phoenician Coast and the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah (1988) and qualified to direct research from the François-Rabelais University in Tours (1999).
[1][2] In 2016 she received the Irène-Joliot-Curie Prize for Woman Scientist of the Year for 'her research on the history of the Levant in the 1st millennium BC and the culture of Christians in the Near East, particularly through written objects, manuscripts and inscriptions.
She is also on the school's scientific council for Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (2018-2021).