From 2000 to 2008 he was the director of the Institute for the history of the French Revolution, a center of academic research and teaching, connected to Pantheon-Sorbonne University.

[1] For some years his research has focused on understanding violence, the contribution of gender history and the role of religion and religiosity in the revolutionary process.

[2] In 2016, he categorically denies (calling it "sacrificial"), the interpretation of the Marseillaise that "qu'un sang impur abreuve nos sillons!"

In recent years, his research has focused on understanding violence, the contribution of gender history and the role of religion and religiosity in the revolutionary process.

He refuses to consider the operations ordered in Vendée by the National Convention, whether the infernal columns or the drownings at Nantes, as genocide.