Pitt to Host The Idea of France Conference Nov. 10-12

PITTSBURGH—The University of Pittsburgh Department of French and Italian Languages and Literatures in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences will host The Idea of France (L’Idée de la France) International Conference from Nov. 10 through 12 in the Cathedral of Learning, 4200 Fifth Ave., and the Holiday Inn University Center, 100 Lytton St., Oakland.

More than 75 papers will be delivered during the interdisciplinary conference that opens at 2:30 p.m. Nov. 10 with Laurence Grove, French program director and director of the Centre for Emblem Studies at the University of Glasgow. His talk is titled “The Idea of France in Comics Old and New.”

The featured speakers and the title of their presentations are:

• Domna Stanton, Distinguished Professor of French at the City University of New York (CUNY), “The Exclusive Nation Challenged: Universalism and Cosmopolitanism vs. the French Republican Subject”;

• Olivier Dutheillet de Lamothe, Conseil d’État (The Council of State), France, “Montesquieu est-il encore vivant?: Apparition et développement d’un contrôle de constitutionnalité des lois en France” (“Is Montesquieu Still Alive?: The Emergence and Development of Judicial Review in France”) delivered in French;

• Lawrence Kritzman, professor of French and Italian and comparative literature, director of the Institute of European Studies and the John D. Willard Professor of French and Oratory at Dartmouth College, “The Jews Who Are Not One: French Intellectuals, Philosophy, and the Politics of Nationhood”;

• David Bell, Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Professor in the Era of North Atlantic Revolutions and professor of history at Princeton University, “Farewell 1789: The Idea of France and the Idea of Revolution”;

• John Bowen, Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor of Sociocultural Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, on his book Can Islam Be French?: Pluralism and Pragmatism in a Secularist State (Princeton University Press, 2009); and

• Christie McDonald, Smith Professor of French Language and Literature and professor of comparative literature in the Department of Romance Language and Literature, and Susan Suleiman, C. Douglas Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France and professor of comparative literature, both at Harvard University, on their volume French Global: A New Approach to Literary History (Columbia University Press, 2010). 

For a complete list of the Pitt schools, departments, and centers that are sponsoring the conference, visit http://ideaoffrance.pitt.edu/sponsors/.

For details about the conference and to register, visit http://ideaoffrance.pitt.edu/.

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