He is Professor at Gaston Berger University in Saint-Louis (Senegal), Professor of Economics and Anne-Marie Bryan Distinguished Professor of Romance and African Studies at Duke University. His work lies at the intersection of economics, contemporary African philosophy and epistemology. The author of essays, novels and plays, he has become one of the leading voices in contemporary African thought. His works include Afrotopia (Catarata, 2018), a critique of dominant models of development and a proposal to rethink the future of the African continent from its own conceptual frameworks, and Habiter le monde. Essai de politique relationnelle (Mémoire d'Encrier, 2017), a reflection on forms of coexistence and relationships in an interdependent world. In 2016, together with philosopher Achille Mbembe, he founded the Ateliers de la pensée in Dakar, a leading platform for African intellectual debate that has helped foster collective reflection on memory, culture, politics and global transformations. Several collective publications have emerged from this project, including Écrire l'Afrique-monde (2017) and Politique des temps (2019). In 2018, together with Bénédicte Savoy, he co-authored Restituer le patrimoine africain (Philippe Rey/Seuil), a report on the restitution of African heritage looted during the colonial period that reignited the international debate on African collections held in European museums. Among his most recent books is La Fabrique du présent (2026), in which he revisits the conclusions of Afrotopia to reflect on how utopias can be realised in the present and how to create the conditions for a dignified, emancipated and shared life, both in Africa and globally.