French Studies

French Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of France about their new books.

Ana I. Oancea, "Dangerous Creations: The Inventor Novel in Fin-de-siècle France" (U Toronto Press, 2025)

May 6, 2026

Dangerous Creations

Ana I. Oancea
Hosted by Gina Stamm

Dangerous Creations: The Inventor Novel in Fin-de-siècle France (U Toronto Press, 2025) presents a master narrative of the inventor in fin-de-siècle F…

Richard Ivan Jobs and Steven Van Wolputte, "In the Land of the Lacandón: A Graphic History of Adventure and Imperialism" (McGill-Queen’s UP, 2025)

May 2, 2026

In the Land of the Lacandón

Richard Ivan Jobs and Steven Van Wolputte
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In the mid-1930s the amateur French ethnographer and filmmaker Bernard de Colmont ventured into the mountainous state of Chiapas to study the Lacandón…

Ida Susser, "The Yellow Vests and the Battle for Democracy: Taking to the Streets of Paris in the 21st Centurythe Yellow Vests" (Routledge, 2026)

April 26, 2026

The Yellow Vests and the Battle for Democracy

Ida Susser
Hosted by Jolon Timms

Written under the shadow of growing authoritarianism in the United States and Europe, this book is an effort to understand resistance movements of the…

Mattie Fitch, "The People, the Workers, and the Citizens: Antifascist Cultures and the Popular Front in France, 1934–1939" (Routledge, 2025)

April 24, 2026

The People, the Workers, and the Citizens

Mattie Fitch
Hosted by Keith Rathbone

Today we are joined by Mattie Fitch, Associate Professor at Marymount University and author of The People, The Workers and the Citizens: Antifascist C…

Drew Flanagan, "From Occupation to Integration: Recivilizing the French Zone of Post-Nazi Germany, 1945-1955" (LSU Press, 2026)

April 22, 2026

From Occupation to Integration

Drew Flanagan
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

After the collapse of the National Socialist regime in May 1945, France became one of four principal occupying powers in a defeated Germany. Within th…

Aurore Spiers, "Archiving the Past: Women's Film History in France, 1927–1978" (U California Press, 2026)

April 20, 2026

Archiving the Past

Aurore Spiers
Hosted by Alix Beeston

What happens when we assume women’s presence in film history instead of their absence? This is the question at the heart of Archiving the Past: Women’…

Penny Roberts, "Huguenot Networks: Truth and Secrecy in Sixteenth-Century Europe" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

April 17, 2026

Huguenot Networks

Penny Roberts
Hosted by Elspeth Currie

Huguenot Networks: Truth and Secrecy in Sixteenth-Century Europe (Cambridge UP, 2025), Penny Robert's latest book, takes us into the world of secret i…

Andrew W. M. Smith, "Make Cheese Not War: Transnational Resistance and the Larzac in Modern France" (Manchester UP, 2026)

April 16, 2026

Make Cheese Not War

Andrew W. M. Smith
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In 1971, the French government announced a massive extension of its military base on the Larzac plateau in southern France. Land was to be expropriate…

Michaela Hulstyn, "Unselfing: Global French Literature at the Limits of Consciousness" (U Toronto Press, 2022)

April 7, 2026

Unselfing

Michaela Hulstyn
Hosted by Gina Stamm

Altered states of consciousness – including experiences of deprivation, pain, hallucination, fear, desire, alienation, and spiritual transcendence…

Marta Lorimer, "Europe As Ideological Resource: European Integration and Far Right Legitimation in France and Italy" (Oxford UP, 2024)

April 5, 2026

Europe As Ideological Resource

Marta Lorimer

How did the far right go from illegitimate fringe to contender for public office, and did Europe have anything to do with it? Europe As Ideological Re…

The Club: Where American Artists Found Refuge in Belle Epoque Paris

April 2, 2026

The Club

In Belle Époque Paris, the Eiffel Tower was newly built, France was experiencing remarkable political stability, and American women were painting the …

Arthur W. Gullachsen, "The Defeat and Attrition of the 12. SS-Panzerdivision Hitlerjugend: Volume II: Operations Martlet, Epsom, Windsor and Charnwood 11 June-12 July 1944" (Casemate, 2026)

March 31, 2026

The Defeat and Attrition of the 12. SS-Panzerdivision Hitlerjugend

Arthur W. Gullachsen
Hosted by Boris Karpa

Following the Normandy landings, Rommel rushed Heeresgruppe B reserves towards the coast in order to crush the bridgehead and drive the Allied forces …

Claire Goldstein, "Sun King's Cosmos: Comets and the Cultural Imagination of Seventeenth-Century France" (Northwestern UP 2025)

March 24, 2026

In the Sun King's Cosmos

Claire Goldstein
Hosted by Gina Stamm

In the Sun King's Cosmos: Comets and the Cultural Imagination of Seventeenth-Century France (Northwestern University Press 2025) explores the relation…

Michael Bycroft, "Gems and the New Science: Matter and Value in the Scientific Revolution" (U Chicago Press, 2026)

March 11, 2026

Gems and the New Science

Michael Bycroft
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In Gems and the New Science: Matter and Value in the Scientific Revolution (U Chicago Press, 2026), Dr. Michael Bycroft argues that gems were connect…

Maud Anne Bracke, "Reproductive Rights in Modern France: Reproductive Rights in Modern France: Feminism, Contraception, and Abortion, 1950-1980 (Oxford UP, 2025)

March 9, 2026

Reproductive Rights in Modern France

Maud Anne Bracke
Hosted by Gina Stamm

The introduction of the principle of women's reproductive liberty in France, tentatively by the family planning movement after 1960 and explicitly by …

Richard Vinen, "The Last Titans: How Churchill and De Gaulle Saved Their Nations and Transformed the World" (Simon & Schuster, 2026)

March 4, 2026

The Last Titians

Richard Vinen
Hosted by Charles Coutinho

A compelling dual biography of Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle that shines new light on two of the greatest figures of the 20th century.Winsto…

Jennifer Boum Make, "Decolonial Care: Reimagining Caregiving in the French Caribbean" (Rutgers UP, 2025)

March 4, 2026

Decolonial Care

Jennifer Boum Make
Hosted by Gina Stamm

Decolonial Care: Reimagining Caregiving in the French Caribbean (Rutgers UP, 2025) examines the relationship between the legacies of colonialism and t…

E. T. Dailey, "Radegund: The Trials and Triumphs of a Merovingian Queen" (Oxford UP, 2023)

March 2, 2026

Radegund

E. T. Dailey
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

A princess born to the Thuringian royal house. A captive in war, forced to marry the Frankish king who killed her family. A queen, who renounced her p…

Veronique Boone, "Le Corbusier on Camera: The Unknown Films of Ernest Weissmann" (Birkhaüser, 2024)

February 27, 2026

Le Corbusier on Camera

Veronique Boone

Le Corbusier on Camera: The Unknown Films of Ernest Weissmann (Birkhaüser, 2024) is based on amateur films, shot by the architect Ernest Weissmann (19…

Michèle Schaal, "Grrrl Writing: Virginie Despentes's Authorial Politics" (Peter Lang, 2026)

February 24, 2026

Grrrl Writing

Michèle Anne Schaal
Hosted by Gina Stamm

When Virginie Despentes (1969) published her provocative debut novel Baise-moi in 1994, no one could have anticipated how she would gradually become a…