Jean-Luc Fournet is a papyrologist specializing in the Protobyzantine period (4th-7th centuries).
After a stay in Egypt as a scientific member of the IFAO in Cairo (1992-1996), where he familiarized himself with Egypt, its sites and papyrological collections, and took part in various archaeological missions (Tebtynis and the Eastern Desert), he was recruited by the CNRS as a research fellow, attached to the UMR 7044 in Strasbourg. His work earned him the CNRS bronze medal in 1999. In 2004, he was elected Director of Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Historical and Philological Sciences section) in Greek papyrology, then, in 2015, Professor at the Collège de France in the Written Culture in Late Antiquity and Byzantine Papyrology chair. He is a member of the " Monde byzantin " team at UMR 8167 " Orient et Méditerranée ". Since 2017, he has also been cumulative director of studies at the École pratique des hautes études. Among other editorial activities, he co-edits the journal Archiv für Papyrusforschung and directs the Studia Papyrologica and Aegyptiaca Parisinaseries .
As a papyrus editor, he has developed a holistic approach to documentation, focusing on the interactions between literary and documentary texts. More generally, he works on the culture of Late Antiquity - including multilingualism and the modalities of written culture.