French Studies

French Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of France about their new books.

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 …

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…

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…

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…

Andrea Mansker, "Matchmaking and the Marriage Market in Postrevolutionary France" (Cornell UP, 2024)

February 24, 2026

Matchmaking and the Marriage Market in Postrevolutionary France

Andrea Mansker
Hosted by Mariam Olugbodi

Matchmaking and the Marriage Market in Postrevolutionary France (Cornell UP, 2024) gives an historical account of the evolution of the matchmaking bus…

Sally Frances Low, "Colonial Law Making: Cambodia Under the French" (NUS Press, 2023)

February 22, 2026

Colonial Law Making

Sally Frances Low
Hosted by Patrick Jory

In 1863 the French established a protectorate over the kingdom of Cambodia. The protectorate, along with Vietnam and Laos, later became part of the co…

Mélanie Lamotte, "By Flesh and Toil: How Sex, Race, and Labor Shaped the Early French Empire" (Harvard UP, 2026)

February 18, 2026

By Flesh and Toil

Mélanie Lamotte
Hosted by Lewis Wade

From the beginning of the seventeenth century, French colonies and trading posts sprawled across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In the first pan-impe…

Claire Nicolas, "Une si longue course: Sport, genre, et citoyenneté au Ghana et en Côte d’Ivoire (années 1900-1970)" (Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2024)

February 11, 2026

Une si longue course

Claire Nicolas
Hosted by Keith Rathbone

Today we are joined by Claire Nicolas, a chercheuse du Fonds National Suisse at Basel University, a holder of a prestigious Ambizione Research Grant, …

Cindy Anh Nguyen, "Bibliotactics: Libraries and the Colonial Public in Vietnam" (U California Press, 2026)

February 6, 2026

Bibliotactics

Cindy Anh Nguyen
Hosted by Jen Hoyer

Libraries in French colonial Vietnam functioned as symbols of Western modernity and infrastructures of colonial knowledge. Yet Vietnamese readers purs…

Olivier Esteves et al., "France, You Love It but Leave It: The Silent Flight of French Muslims" (Polity, 2025)

February 6, 2026

France, You Love It But Leave It

Olivier Esteves, Alice Picard, and Julien Talpin
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Their names are Mohamed, Samira, sometimes Matthieu or Sophie. They were born and bred in France and are highly qualified, but they have decided to go…