Research themes
- History of the early American Republic (United States)
- Antislavery movements in North America 18th & 19th centuries
- African American Thought and History 18th & 19th centuries
- African American Slave Narratives 18th & 19th centuries
- Tocqueville’s Journey in the United States 1831-32
- African American Historians during Segregation 1850-1960
Current Project
My current project (with Laurence Cossu-Beaumont and Augustin Habran) is to replace Tocqueville’s book De la démocratie (1835) in the American context of the 1830s, a period which has been radically revisited by recent historiography.
Replacing Tocqueville’s visit in this troubled context raises questions about relationships between text and context, but more importantly reveals what Tocqueville may have missed or misinterpreted, and what he also rightly underlined. De la démocratie thus strikes one as more than a treatise on democracy, it also appears as a conflicted document on the travails of the new type of régime established in the United States.
Research Supervision:
- United States Slave Narratives 18th & 19th centuries
- History of the Early American Republic and the Antebellum Period (1815-1860)
- African American History and Historians During Segregation
Education and Academic Positions:
A former student of the ENS (Sèvres-Ulm), I hold a PhD from Université de Paris (American Studies, 1990) and defended an HDR (habilitation) in 1997. I have been an associate professor at Université de Paris between 1991 and 1998. From 1998 to this day, I have been a Professor at Université de Paris.
Administrative Responsibilities:
I was Dean of International Relations between 1999 and 2002, then was elected as Dean of Education (2002-2006). Between 2008 and 2013, I designed the CFDIP, the part of Université de Paris graduate school in charge of professional training. Between 2012 and 2019, I sat on the University’s Board of Administrators, heading several committees.
I have also been involved with various scholarly societies : in 2008 I was one of the founders of EEASA (European Early American Studies Association), from 2012 to 2019, I was one of the vice-presidents of SEAA1718. I am currently one of the vice-presidents of GIS IDA (Institute of the Americas).
Anthologie de la pensée noire Etats-Unis et Haïti - XVIIIe s-XIXe s Date de publication : 07/04/2023
Selected Publications:
- 2023 : Anthologie de la pensée noire. Etats-Unis et Haïti (XVIIIè-XIXè siècles), dirigée avec Michaël Roy avec Marlène L. Daut et Cécile Roudeau, Marseille, Hors d’atteinte.
- 2022 : Noirs et Blancs contre l’esclavage. Une alliance antiesclavagiste ambiguë aux Etats-Unis 1754-1830, Paris, Karthala-CIRESC.
- 2021 : avec Marjolaine Boutet et Laurence Cros dir., Le Temps des Médias. Fiction historique anglo-américaine, Pouvoirs, savoirs et mémoires, n°37, hiver 2021 https://www.cairn.info/revue-le-temps-des-medias-2021-2.htm
- 2021 : « Les films fantastiques sur la guerre de Sécession : vers la défaite idéologique finale du Sud », Le Temps des médias, vol. 37, no. 2, 2021, pp. 129-146.
- 2021 : avec Marjolaine Boutet et Laurence Cros « Fiction historique anglo-américaine : culture populaire au service de l’Histoire ou derniers feux d’une hégémonie culturelle ? », Le Temps des médias, vol. 37, no. 2, 2021, pp. 6-20.
- 2019 : Marie-Jeanne Rossignol et Aurélie Razafimalala, « The Life and Dying Speech of Arthur, a Negro Man, Who Was Executed at Worcester, October 10, 1768 /La vie et les dernières paroles d’Arthur, un Nègre, exécuté à Worcester le 20 Octobre 1768 », XVII-XVIII [En ligne], 76 | 2019, mis en ligne le 31 décembre 2019, consulté le 30 avril 2020. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/1718/3870 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/1718.3870
- 2019 : « De la « dégradation » à la « respectabilité » : autour d’une des facettes de la résistance des esclaves nord-américains », p. 11-124, in Revue du Philanthrope. Histoire et mémoires de la traite négrière, de l’esclavage et de leurs abolitions en Normandie., n°9, 2020 « Actes de résistance des esclaves. Hommage au professeur Sudel Fuma ». Etudes réunies par Bruno Maillard, Frédéric Régent et Erick Noël. Mont Saint-Aignan, PURH.
