Valérie Nicolet studied hermeneutics and theology at the theology department of the University of Neuchâtel, where she obtained her “licence en théologie” (bachelor) in 2000. Her bachelor thesis was already an interdisciplinary work concentrating on Ingmar Bergman’s cinematographic work. She then started a master in biblical studies at the University of Lausanne, where she was a teaching assistant for three years. She obtained her master in 2004. After completing her master thesis, she went to Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia where she pursued her PhD in New Testament studies, under the direction of Prof. Luke T. Johnson. She defended her dissertation in 2010 and graduated the same year. Her dissertation is entitled Constructing the Self. Thinking with Paul and Michel Foucault. It was published by Mohr Siebeck in 2012.

In 2012, she was selected to be a postdoctoral fellow in New Testament at the University of Uppsala in Sweden. There she started working on her habilitation topic, which is concerned with the role of the law in Paul. It aims to reflect upon the law as an apocalyptic and political power in dialogue with readings of Paul by continental philosophers (such as Badiou, Žižek, Agamben). Since 2013, she is “maître de conférence” in New Testament at the Institut protestant de théologie in Paris, where she is also responsible, with Dr. Yala Kisukidi (University of Geneva), for the Seminar on postcolonial perspectives.