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French Studies
French Studies September 23, 2023

Queering the Enlightenment

Kinship and Gender in Eighteenth-Century French Literature

Tracy Rutler

Hosted by Roxanne Panchasi
Tracy Rutler's Queering the Enlightenment: Kinship and Gender in Eighteenth-Century French Literature (Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment, Liverpool UP, 2021) explores the imaginaries of novels and plays from the "liminal" period …

French Studies

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Interviews with scholars of France about their new books.

Military History September 17, 2023

Bismarck's War

The Franco-Prussian War and the Making of Modern Europe

Rachel Chrastil

Hosted by AJ Woodhams
Among the conflicts that convulsed Europe during the nineteenth century, none was more startling and consequential than the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. Deliberately engineered by Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck …
Literary Studies September 14, 2023

Plutarch's Prism

Rebecca Kingston

Hosted by Benjamin Phillips
Throughout the early modern period, political theorists in France and England drew on the works of Plutarch to offer advice to kings and princes. Elizabeth I herself translated Plutarch in …
Literary Studies September 12, 2023

Spiritual and Material Boundaries in Old French Verse

Contemplating the Walls of the Earthly Paradise

Jacob Abell

Hosted by Becky Straple-Sovers
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The Earthly Paradise was a vibrant symbol at the heart of medieval Christian geographies of the cosmos. As humanity’s primal home now lost through the sins of Adam of Eve …
Medieval History September 11, 2023

Medieval Communities and the Mad

Narratives of Crime and Mental Illness in Late Medieval France

Aleksandra Nicole Pfau

Hosted by Jana Byars
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The concept of madness as a challenge to communities lies at the core of legal sources. Aleksandra Pfau, Medieval Communities and the Mad: Narratives of Crime and Mental Illness in …
French Studies August 27, 2023

France on Trial

The Case of Marshal Pétain

Julian Jackson

Hosted by Richard Northrop
There was a time when French people put up picture of Marshal Philippe Petain on their walls. He is a figure of immeasurable stature to the country of France. Victor …
Psychoanalysis August 19, 2023

Sartre’s Existential Psychoanalysis

Knowing Others

Mary Edwards

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman
Thinking of the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, it is hard to think of him without imagining him in very particular contexts. One will likely imagine him in a Parisian …
Irish Studies August 18, 2023

No Way Out

The Irish in Wartime France, 1939–1945

Isadore Ryan

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
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The experiences of the Irish in France during the war were overshadowed by the threat of internment or destitution. Up to 2,000 Irish people were stuck in occupied France after …
Biography August 12, 2023

Napoleon

The Decline and Fall of an Empire, 1811-1821

Michael Broers

Hosted by Mark Klobas
In 1811, Napoleon stood at his zenith. He had defeated all his continental rivals, come to an entente with Russia, and his blockade of Britain seemed, at long last, to …
Medieval History August 11, 2023

Medieval Communities and the Mad

Narratives of Crime and Mental Illness in Late Medieval France

Aleksandra Nicole Pfau

Hosted by Jana Byars
Listen:
The concept of madness as a challenge to communities lies at the core of legal sources. Aleksandra Nicole Pfau's book Medieval Communities and the Mad: Narratives of Crime and Mental Illness …
Intellectual History August 9, 2023

A History of Nihilism in the Nineteenth Century

Confrontations with Nothingness

Jon Stewart

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
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Nihilism - the belief that life is meaningless - is frequently associated with twentieth-century movements such as existentialism, postmodernism and Dadaism, and thought to result from the shocking experiences of …
General History August 8, 2023

The Violence of Colonial Photography

Daniel Foliard

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
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The late nineteenth century witnessed a rapid increase in colonial conflicts throughout the French and British empires. It was also the period in which the first mass-produced cameras became available …
World Christianity August 5, 2023

Birthing Revival

Women and Mission in Nineteenth-Century France

Michèle Miller Sigg

Hosted by Byung Ho Choi
The nineteenth century witnessed a flurry of evangelical and missionary activity in Europe and North America. This was an era of renewed piety and intense zeal spanning denominations and countries …
French Studies August 2, 2023

Modern France and the World

Darcie Fontaine

Hosted by Sarah Miles
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As she taught university-level courses on modern French history, Darcie Fontaine felt like she could not find a textbook that provided an up-to-date narrative about the ways in which France …
African Studies July 23, 2023

Invoking the Invisible in the Sahara

Islam, Spiritual Mediation, and Social Change

Erin Pettigrew

Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi
In Invoking the Invisible in the Sahara: Islam, Spiritual Mediation, and Social Change (Cambridge UP, 2023), Erin Pettigrew utilizes invisible forces and entities - esoteric knowledge and spirits - to …
French Studies July 23, 2023

Reimagining the Family

Lesbian Mothering in Contemporary French Literature

Robert Payne

Hosted by Salvador Lopez Rivera
Robert Payne's Reimagining the Family: Lesbian Mothering in Contemporary French Literature (Peter Lang, 2021) is the first book-length study of representations of lesbian mothering in French literature. Focusing on female-authored …
Early Modern History July 22, 2023

The Global Refuge

Huguenots in an Age of Empire

Owen Stanwood

Hosted by Elspeth Currie
Owen Stanwood's newest book, The Global Refuge: Huguenots in an Age of Empire (Oxford UP, 2019), places the history of Huguenot refugees in a global context, the first truly international history …
Art July 10, 2023

Outrage

The Arts and the Creation of Modernity

Katherine Giuffre

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
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A cultural revolution in England, France, and the United States beginning during the time of the industrial and political revolutions helped usher in modernity. This cultural revolution worked alongside the …
French Studies July 8, 2023

Tracing the Shadow of Secrecy and Government Transparency in Eighteenth-Century France

Nicole Bauer

Hosted by Sarah Miles
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Between September 1793 and July 1794, the French politicians and even the general public seemed positively overcome by the urge to denounce their peers: helping so-called crimes, devious machinations, and …
General History July 6, 2023

The Rise of Devils

Fear and the Origins of Terrorism

James Crossland

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
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In the dying light of the nineteenth century, the world came to know and fear terrorism. Much like today, this was a time of progress and dread, in which breakthroughs …