Latest News
ASMCF North West AGM and postgraduate workshop, University of Liverpool, Wednesday 19 June 2013 CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS
The ASMCF North West AGM will be held at 4pm at the University of Liverpool on Wednesday 19 June 2013 (Seminar Room 102/2, Eleanor Rathbone Building).
The AGM will be preceded by a postgraduate workshop, to which all MA and PhD students working on modern and contemporary France and the wider French-speaking world are invited to contribute. The event will provide a constructive forum for discussion of and comment on postgraduate work in progress. There is no specific theme for the workshop, and we invite presentations on history, literary and cultural studies, film and media studies, and the political and social sciences. We are also pleased to accept proposals for presentations with a transnational or comparative dimension, as well as those addressing aspects of the French Empire or France's relations with the wider world. Students with an interest in modern and contemporary France in History, Politics and other subject areas outside French/studies Modern Languages are also very welcome to submit.
Please send proposals for twenty-minute presentations together with a brief CV to Charles Forsdick (craf@liv.ac.uk) by Friday 24 May 2013.
‘The Hollande presidency one year on’
Added 9th April 2013
Conference organised by Ben Clift (Warwick) and Raymond Kuhn (QMUL)
Friday 3 May from 9am to 5pm
Institute for the Study of Journalism
13 Norham Gardens
Oxford
This one-day conference examines key aspects of the presidential tenure of François
Hollande one year after his victory over Nicolas Sarkozy. Presenters include: Gérard
Grunberg (Sciences Po, Paris), Philippe Marliere (University College London), Andy
Knapp (University of Reading), Raymond Kuhn (QMUL), Ben Clift (University of
Warwick), Magnus Ryner (Kings College, London), Sue Milner (University of Bath),
Emiliano Grossman (Sciences-Po, Paris) and Alistair Cole (Cardiff University).
Registration is free. However, because of the nature of the venue, space is very
limited. If you are interested in attending please contact Raymond Kuhn for further
details:
r.kuhn@qmul.ac.uk
The organisers gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the
University of Warwick, Queen Mary University of London, the French Politics
specialist group of the PSA and the Association for the Study of Modern &
Contemporary France.
'Race, Memory and the Image in Jean-Luc Godard's Histoire(s) du cinéma'
Added 21st February 2013
Friday 22nd February 2013, 2pm, M49
Professor Max Silverman
Max Silverman is Professor of Modern French Studies at the University of Leeds. His most recent work is on post-Holocaust culture, colonial and postcolonial theory and cultures, and questions of memory, race and violence. He has just completed a book on connections between the Holocaust and colonialism in the French and Francophone cultural imaginary entitled Palimpsestic Memory: the Holocaust and Colonialism in French and Francophone Fiction and Film (Berghahn, 2013). His co-edited book with Griselda Pollock Concentrationary Cinema: Aesthetics as Political Resistance in Alain Resnais’s ‘Night and Fog’ was published in 2011 (Berghahn).
This is an event hosted by the Ethnicity, ‘Race’ and Racism Seminars at Edge Hill University and the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France – North West
Lectureship in French and European Politics
Added 22nd January 2013
King's College London is inviting applications for a Lecturership in French and European Politics as a joint appointment between the Department of French and the Department of European & International Studies.
The successful candidate will have research interests in contemporary French politics, including the countryâ?Ts role in European integration and multi-level governance. We are looking to recruit scholars with an internationally excellent publications record or the clear potential for such future publications in line with College expectations. You are able to advance your research through attracting funding and to contribute to the vibrant research environment in your home departments as well as to Politics@King's.
You will have the ability to teach to the highest professional standards in French politics and history at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. In particular, you will be expected to contribute to the French pathway of the BA in European Studies, but also to the BA programmes in French and European Politics and MA degrees in both departments as required. You will have pastoral duties as a tutor for students on the French pathway of the BA in European Studies and support them in their year abroad at 'Science Po' in Paris.
Your contribution will help to increase departmentsâ?T international and research student intake. Experience of PhD supervision may be an advantage.
For an informal discussion about the post please contact the Heads of Department of European Studies or French: Professor Christoph Meyer via email at Christoph.meyer@kcl.ac.uk or Professor Patrich ffrench at patrick.ffrench@kcl.ac.uk . Further details and application packs are available on the College's website at www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs
The closing date for receipt of applications is 28 January 2013.
Equality of opportunity is College policy
Douglas Johnson Memorial Lecture, 2013
Added 27th November 2012
Ruth Harris, Professor of European History and Fellow of New College, Oxford
Rolland, Gandhi and Madeleine Slade: Spiritual Politics, France and the Wider World
6.00pm, Wednesday 16 January, Senate Room, Senate House, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1.
All are most welcome to attend this lecture, which will be followed by a reception.
Synopsis
Between 6 and 11 December in 1931, a remarkable meeting occurred between Mahatma Gandhi, the French intellectual and international pacifist Romain Rolland, and Madeleine Slade, the daughter of a British admiral. The encounter took place in Switzerland, after Gandhi had left the unsuccessful second Round-Table Conference on India in London. They came together through the good offices of Slade (re-named Mira Behn by Gandhi), who had been given as a ‘gift’ by Rolland to the Mahatma, and who now lived at the centre of Gandhi’s intimate entourage.
I will use this meeting to explore how the protagonists sought spiritual and aesthetic solutions to the encroaching global crisis, and to analyse the place of French intellectual culture in a worldwide interwar context. Rolland's analysis of European and world affairs was ultimately ignored or misunderstood by the leader of the Indian national struggle, while the Frenchman also misconstrued Gandhi’s doctrine of non-violence (ahimsa). Although they shared many spiritual hopes, Rolland wish that Gandhi would take up the pacifist struggle against European fascism was proved a fantasy. In addition, neither man could appreciate the intimate yearnings of the aristocratic English woman whose personality was effaced by their explicit desire to make her a human bridge between East and West.
The connections between Rolland, Gandhi and Slade provide a way to examine the many links between world political systems, novel social experiments and individual spiritualities. Rolland’s privileged place as Gandhi’s French (and European) interlocutor reveals their mutual attempt to recover spirituality in order to bring the globe back from the brink of self-destruction. Their inability to align their efforts demonstrates the minefields of shifting political alignments and the problems posed by immense cultural divides.
'Mémoires des migrations et temps de l'histoire' Conference
added 11th November
Conference 'Mémoires des migrations et temps de l'histoire' at the Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration, Paris, 22-24 November 2013
AMCF North West Regional Group
Added 26th October
Programme Autumn 2012Friday 26 October, 6pm at
Alliance Française de Manchester
Round Table:
What’s so French about Francophone cinema?
with Isabelle Vanderschelden (Manchester Metropolitan University), Darren Waldron (University of Manchester) and Joseph McGonagle (University of Manchester)
Venue: Third Floor, 55 Portland Street, Manchester M1
Free, open to all, but booking required: please contact Alliance Française (0161 236 7117)
In association with The French Connection? Movies From The French-Speaking World, a film season at the Cornerhouse (in partnership with the Alliance Française and the University of Manchester), 18 October - 15 November: see http://www.cornerhouse.org/film/film-events/the-french-connection for details
Monday 10 December, 4pm at
Liverpool University
Annual Charles Bonnier Lecture
Martin Munro (Director, Winthrop-King Institute for Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, Florida State University)
Title to be announced
Venue: Room 209, Second Floor, Cypress Building, Chatham Street, Liverpool L7
Free, open to all: for further details please contact Ian Magedera, magedera@liv.ac.uk
In association with Liverpool University Department of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies
ASMCF NW Workshop and Annual Meeting
Wednesday 19 September 2012
Department of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies University of Liverpool Cypress Building, Room 401
Invited speaker: Dr Joseph McGonagle (University of Manchester)
PROGRAMME
13.30 – 14.00: Welcome and introduction
14.00 – 14.30: Joe McGonagle, 'Childhood Memories of the Algerian War: Towards a Visual Economy'
14.30 – 15.00: Questions and discussion
15:00 – 15:30 Coffee Break
15:30 – 16:30 ASMCF NW AGM
Cypress Building is 108 on the campus map, available here: http://www.liv.ac.uk/files/docs/maps/liverpool-university-campus-map.pdf
Please notify Charles Forsdick (craf@liv.ac.uk<mailto:craf@liv.ac.uk>) by Monday 17 September if you would like to attend.
McCaughey Professor of French Studies
The University of SydneyThe Department of French Studies at the University of Sydney is seeking to make an appointment to the McCaughey Professor of French Studies. The McCaughey Chair was created in 1920 and the department is the oldest and the largest French department in Australia with around 1200 students. The department has a distinguished reputation in French studies internationally. Its staff are actively involved in research over a broad range of fields including literature, cinema, social sciences, linguistics, translation, medieval studies and francophone studies.
To succeed you will be a scholar of international distinction with an outstanding record in teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level and in academic administration. You will provide academic leadership, enhance the research profile of the department nationally and internationally and contribute to its ongoing teaching and research supervision.
You will be expected to represent the whole discipline internationally and in the local community, to work with members of the department, the Head of School, Professor Jeffrey Riegel, and the Professor of European Studies, Professor Peter Morgan, in devising and implementing innovative teaching programs and research collaborations.
For further information about this exciting opportunity and to apply, search by the reference number 363/0210A at sydney.edu.au/positions
CLOSING DATE: 7 October 2012
Assistant Professor of French Studies
Added 29th August 2012
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Foreign Languages and Literatures Section invites applications for a tenure-track position in French Studies at the level of Assistant Professor, to begin in Fall 2013 (employment begins July 1, 2013). Candidates must hold a completed Ph.D. or equivalent degree by the start of employment. Preference will be given to candidates with 1) two years of academic teaching experience at the college or university level and 2) clear evidence of scholarly development. Duties include: teaching courses at the undergraduate level, devising a variety of mid-tier and upper-level courses (some conducted in French, others in English), advising students, and performing scholarly research. Native or near-native fluency in French and English is required.
Applicants should have a specialization in contemporary French Studies with direct relevance to research areas such as, but not limited to, media and the arts; urban, youth and/or popular cultures; French and francophone literatures. The ideal candidate will bring strong interdisciplinary interest to French Studies in European and/or post-colonial contexts. Applicants must have significant scholarly work that is currently published or in press. The Section is looking for an innovative and imaginative scholar who is eager to engage with colleagues in fresh curricular and research initiatives.
MIT is an affirmative-action employer and welcomes applications from women and members of minority groups.
Please send letter of application, CV, four letters of recommendation (including one that specifically addresses your teaching profile), a writing sample of published or in-press scholarship (no longer than 30 pages, preferably in English), and two syllabi of courses you have taught, to be received no later than November 9, 2012, to:
https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/1515
PhD studentship in Contemporary French History
Added 22nd March 2012
Applications are invited for a PhD studentship in Contemporary French History at Edge Hill University. The studentship will include a waiver of postgraduate tuition fees, as well as £3000 research mobility funding over the course of the studentship to enable an intensive period(s) of research in France.
We invite research proposals of 1000 words on any aspect of the history of France and its former empire between 1918 and the present day.
Applicants are welcomed from those with a background in either History or French Studies, but a reading knowledge of French is essential.
For further particulars and informal enquiries, please contact Dr Daniel Gordon, gordond@edgehill.ac.uk. Applications in the form of a CV and 1000 word proposal should also be forwarded to Dr Daniel Gordon, gordond@edgehill.ac.uk. Applications should arrive no later than 13 April 2012.
AMCF North West Regional Group
Added 28thth February 2012
Programme Spring 2012Call for Papers
Added 13thth February 2012
Call for Papers : Mémoires des migrations et temps de l'histoire Colloque du 22 au 24 novembre 2012, Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration, Paris.Click to download Call for papers
The Douglas Johnson Memorial Lecture
Added 23rd December 2011
New Wine In Old Bottles, Adapting and Abusing Tradition in French Visual Culture, 1880-1910
18th January 2012, 6pm. The Chancellor's Hall, University of London
Click to download posterNorth West Regional Group
Added 27th October 2011
Programme - Autumn 2011Click to download programme
The Society For the Study of French History - 25th Annual Conference
Added 21st June 2011
Click to download flyerRecent Special Issues of Modern and Contemporary France
Added 24th May 2011
Women in French Politics
This special issue brings together a range of papers that illustrate the breadth and complementarity of research being conducted on women in French politics. The papers traverse political and cultural barriers, and look at gender from the earliest foundations of a political career through to elections to the highest office in the land.
Read the Introduction to this special issue for free
View the table of contents
Empire and Culture Now
The aim of this special issue is to explore some of the paradoxes concerning empire and its critique. At its centre is the question of the articulation of empire and culture in francophone cultures in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, an articulation that this introduction frames in terms of the models proposed by Edward Said on the one hand and Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri on the other.
Read the Introduction to this special issue for free
View the table of contents
Mai 68 Then and Now
Added 20th January 2011
Click to download posterThe Sarkozy Presidency
Added 20th January 2010
There is a special issue of Modern and Contemporary France 17/4 (2009) on the Sarkozy Presidency. This is the first collection of articles to offer a mid-term ‘bilan’ of the presidency and it will be of interest for both research and teaching purposes. Guest edited by Philippe Marlière and Joseph Szarka, it contains articles on ideology, political strategy, economics, media and European policy.
British Academy Review Follow-up Response
Added 2nd March 2009
Thank you to ASMCF members for your responses, from which I have constructed a response to the British Academy regarding endangered and emerging subject areas. If you find that you disagree or have further comments to add, please write to me at the address below or use the ASMCF Club for further discussion/debate.