Welcome!

This is my home page, giving an overview of my research, teaching, and digital humanities projects. My research specialty is nineteenth-century France, and I am currently working on the development of primary education in the western French city of Angers.

The Social Contract Today
Podcast Available

On Monday, 27 February 2012, I had the honor of sitting in on a panel discussing The Social Contract Today at the UAA Campus Bookstore. Joining me were Alan Boraas (Anthropology) , Jason Brandeis (Justice Center), Terrence Kelly (Philosophy), and acting as moderator Paola Banchero (Journalism and Public Communications). We discussed the impact of social contract theory on western society, examining topics such as John Rawls' reconceptualization of the social contract, the possible end of the social contract brought about by emerging technology, the War on Terror, efforts to police the Internet, and corporate personhood. We had a standing room only crowd on a snowy Alaska evening to discuss these important issues.

Rachel Epstein and her team at the bookstore not only organized the event and put together the wonderful poster at right (click for a larger version), but also have produced a podcast of the proceedings.

The Social Contract Today Podcast

Institutions and Power in Nineteenth-Century
French Literature and Culture Now Available

My latest essay, "L'État comme propriétaire? Schools as Property in Nineteenth-Century France," is included in the volume Institutions and Power in Nineteenth-Century French Literature and Culture, edited by David Evans and Kate Griffiths (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi Press, 2011). The volume contains essays drawn from a conference hosted by the Society of Dix-Neuviémistes at FitzWilliam College, Cambridge University in 2007.

My contribution examines how government policy early in the nineteenth century granted a significant amount of management rights to private organizations or individuals who financed schools, effectively making schools a form of property. This conceptualization provided the basis for an effective legal challenge against state efforts to gain control over French primary education throughout the century.

Office Hours (Admin 147B)
SUMMER 2012 SCHEDULE: T-Th 11:15am - 12:15pm; W 3:15pm-4:30pm & by appointment