French Presse: New Books on French and Francophone History. Bring your own coffee!
This virtual series of hour-long book talks typically feature an author with a relatively new publication in French and/or Francophone history (publication date of 2020 or 2021) and an interviewer familiar with the subject matter. A moderator handles Zoom entry and takes additional questions from the audience.
We actively seek proposals for pairs of authors-interviewers that would include the title and publication information of the book, short CVs, and a list of potential themes for discussion.
We are committed to creating a welcoming, antiracist, and diverse series that embodies our Society’s anti-discriminatory mission of inclusiveness, political education, and equitable empowerment.
2021
Sunday, January 24 at 3 PM EST
Tyler Stovall, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Fordham University, will be discussing his soon-to-be-released book White Freedom: The Racial History of an Idea with Alyssa Sepinwall, Professor of History at California State University at San Marcos.
Sunday, February 28 at 1 PM EST: “Race, Gender, Colonialism, and Occupation”
Sarah Zimmerman, Western Washington University, will discuss her book Militarizing Marriage: West African Soldiers' Conjugal Traditions in Modern French Empire (Ohio University Press, 2020). Sarah Ann Frank, University of the Free State (South Africa), will discuss her book Hostages of Empire: Colonial Prisoners of War and Vichy France (University of Nebraska Press, 2021, forthcoming). Conversation with Ruth Ginio, Ben Gurion University of the Negev.
Sunday, March 14 at 3 PM EST
Itay Lotem, the University of Westminster, will discuss The Memory of Colonialism in Britain and France: The Sins of Silence (Cambridge University Press, 2021). Charlotte Faucher, a British Academy postdoctoral fellow, will begin the discussion and moderate questions from the audience.
Saturday, March 20, 2021 at 2 PM EST
“Digital Humanities: Ways Forward.” A Conference in Honor of David Kammerling Smith
Sunday, April 18 at 3 PM EST
Nimisha Barton, Diversity Consultant and Independent Scholar, will discuss Reproductive Citizens: Gender, Immigration, and the State, 1900-1945 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2020) with Emmanuelle Saada, Columbia University, who will begin the discussion.
Sunday, May 16 at 3 PM EST
Jessica Marie Johnson, Johns Hopkins University, will discuss Wicked Flesh: Black Women, Intimacy, and Freedom in the Atlantic World (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020) with Lorelle Semley, College of the Holy Cross, who will begin the discussion.
Thursday, May 27, 2021 at 12 PM EST
“Academic Libraries and Digital Humanities”
Sally Charnow, Hofstra University, moderated the discussion.
This event, originally scheduled as a breakout session for the Digital Humanities: Ways Forward conference in March 2021, explored two technologies: StoryMapJS and ImagePlot as vehicles for analyzing and presenting an array of digital material, including a personal diary recounting a French soldier and his experience during WWI. The session highlighted ways that academic libraries and librarians have taken a leading role in providing digital content from their collections.
The WWI Diary of Albert Huet was presented by Hélène Huet, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida. See here and here for more details about the project.
Visualization of French Book Covers from the Liberation Collection (1944-1946) at Cambridge University was presented by Wooseob Jeong, Emporia State University, and Irene Fabry-Tehranchi, Cambridge University Library. See here and here for more details about the project.
Sunday, June 27 at 3 PM EST
Laure Humbert, University of Manchester, will discuss Reinventing French Aid. The Politics of Humanitarian Relief in French-Occupied Germany, 1945-1952 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021) with Jessica Lynne Pearson, Macalester College, who will begin the discussion.
Sunday, July 13 at 3 PM EST
Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall, California State University at San Marcos, will discuss Slave Revolt on Screen: The Haitian Revolution in Film and Video Games (University of Mississippi Press, 2021) with Christy Pichichero, George Mason University, who will begin the discussion.
Sunday, November 21, 2021 at 3 PM EST
Jeff Horn, Manhattan College, will discuss his new book The Making of a Terrorist: Alexandre Rousselin and the French Revolution (Oxford University Press, 2021) with Jennifer J. Popiel, Saint Louis University.
Sunday, December 12, 2021 at 3 PM EST
Reflections on the life and work of Tyler Stovall