Yvette Duval

Yvette Duval (née Benchettrit; 25 April 1931 – 8 November 2006) was a Moroccan-born French historian who specialised in North Africa during Antiquity and the Early African church during Late antiquity.

Yvette Duval née Benchettrit was born on 25 April 1931 in Oujda to an Algerian-Moroccan Jewish family.

She was allowed to study at the local Collège de jeunes filles despite the Vichy segregation rules due to her strong academic record.

Having finished her studies in Rabat, she moved to Paris where she studied first at the Lycée Fénelon and then at the École normale supérieure de jeunes filles.

After her graduation, she worked at the Lycée Français de Carthage.

Duval married French historian and archaeologist Noël Duval in 1954.

In 1962, Duval was named assistant to Roger Rémondon, the chair of ancient history at the Université Lille III.

Two years later, following his retirement, she moved to Paris-Nanterre as the assistant to André Chastagnol.

Duval began work on her thesis in 1965 under Henri-Irénée Marrou and received her doctorate soon after his death in 1977 under the supervision of Charles Pietri; it was published five years later as ''Loca sanctorum Africae.

Le culte des martyrs en Afrique du IVe au VIIe siècle''.

In 1971, she was invited to help establish the History department at the Université Paris-Est-Créteil-Val-de-Marne where she was soon named professor.

She remained until her retirement and was elected to serve on the Conseil national des universités and supervised at least three doctoral theses.

In 2000, she received a Festschrift titled Romanité et cité chrétienne permanences et mutations, intégration et exclusion du Ier au VIe siècle: mélanges en l'honneur d'Yvette Duval.

She died on 8 November 2006 in Paris.