Sources & Methodologies Seminar Series (ADEFFI-ASMCF)

This series focuses on the variety of sources and approaches that constitute French studies. While sources are our point of departure for interpretations and debates, their nature, their origins, their languages, and their trajectories constitute main challenges and limits that researchers have to grapple with. The sources we decide to work with determine the methodologies and the theoretical background that frames our research and our contributions.

How do we select our sources and what do we ask from them? What theories do we choose, and how do we draw on them? How do we deal with the limitations not only of our sources, but of the theories we use to interpret them as well as of our approaches to obtaining them?

We hope that the diversity of the talks will generate discussion on how to deal with the vast and interdisciplinary nature of French studies and how these are both assets and challenges for research.

The talks will consist of two 20-minute presentations followed by a Q&A (20min), via Zoom, UK/Irish time. Whilst most will take place in English, please be aware that the first session will be bilingual (ENG/FR).

Furthermore, though there are several ticket options, you only need to register for one as the same Zoom link will be used for each session.

Schedule

Session 1: Antique Collections in Modern Academia (24th February, 5:30pm-6:30pm, ENG/FR)

• Dr Catherine Emerson (University of Galway): “Back to the Fuchsia: Marginalia and the Birth of Modern Academia in the collection of Francis Douce”
• Dr Frédéric Spagnoli (L'université de Franche-Comté): "Méthodologie(s) et valorisation(s) des fonds ancien des bibliothèques de Besançon dans les mémoires du Master Rare Book and Digital Humanities”

Session 2: Thinking the Visual: Theory and Creativity (17th April, 5:30pm-6:30pm)

• Dr Barry Nevin (Technological University Dublin): “Analysing the films of Jean Renoir through film theory and archival research”
• Sophie Ellis (Newcastle University): “Visual Culture, Visionary Welcome: Thinking Creatively with Hospitality”

Session 3: Individual, Collective and the Political (4th May, 5:30pm-6:30pm)

• Atlanta Neudorf (Queen Mary University of London): "Public Texts, Private Silences: Locating the individual in the political manifesto"
• David Klemperer (Queen Mary University of London): “Factional journals, party intellectuals, and the political history of ideas”

Session 4 : Eighteenth-Century France (29th May, 5:30pm-6:30pm)

• Marie Giraud (Queen Mary University of London) : "The Matrix of Methodology(s) – Reconciling Prints, Religion, and Women"
• Tomos Watkins (University College Dublin) : "Ebony and Ivory: Issues and Opportunities in the Historical Study of Whiteness and Music"

Session 5: Conducting Archival Research: Problems and Alternatives? (12th June, 5:30pm-6:30pm)

• Dr Sarah Arens (University of Liverpool): "Paperwork Empire: Problems and Politics of Belgium's Archives Africaines"
• Dr Itay Lotem (University of Westminster): "Finding alternatives to the traditional archives in the work of the contemporary historian: the pitfalls of oral history and digital research"

Queries can be sent to asmcfpostgradrep@gmail.com or adeffipostgrad@gmail.com

Looking forward to seeing you,

Cécile Guigui (ASMCF PG Rep.) and Maika Nguyen (ADEFFI PG Rep.)