Our Blog
Images: Past and Present
This year’s edition of the joint event between the ASMCF and SSFH, held online on 23 April 2022 was a resounding success. The theme, ‘Images: Past and Present’, attracted a fantastic array of papers on images as fixed or moving visual represent...
Working with Archives PG Study Day
In June 2021, for the very first time, ASMCF and the Society of Dix-Neuviémistes (SDN) held a collaborative study day for postgraduates. Including reflections from an archival curator and an academic on their archival work, as well as five postgradu...
ASMCF workshop on Outreach in French studies
On April 28th, the ASMCF ran an online workshop to discuss the principles, strategies, and challenges of designing and delivering outreach activities in French Studies. We were delighted to welcome Dr Daniel Finch-Race who talked about h...
‘Enjoy learning French outside the classroom’: tips from Dr Ashleigh Harris (QUB)
This post is part of a series on bridging the gap between secondary and higher education. It is intended for students and teachers from both systems to reflect on how to make the transition smoother. Dr Ashley Harris is a Lecturer in Fre...
Preparing to study French at university: the view from students in England
Preparing to study French at university: the view from students in England This post is part of a monthly series on bridging the gap between secondary and higher education. It is intended for students and teachers from both systems to reflec...
Preparing to study French at university: tips from Cristina Johnston and Hannah Grayson
This post is part of a monthly series on bridging the gap between secondary and higher education. It is intended for students and teachers from both systems to reflect on how to make the transition smoother. Cristina Johnston is a Senior...
Preparing to study French at university: tips from Marjorie Huet-Martin
This post is part of a monthly series on bridging the gap between secondary and higher education. It is intended for students and teachers from both systems to reflect on how to make the transition smoother. Marjorie Huet-Martin is a Sen...
Preparing students to study French at university: tips from Antonia Wimbush
This post is part of a monthly series on bridging the gap between secondary and higher education. It is intended for students and teachers from both systems to reflect on how to make the transition smoother. Dr Antonia Wimbush is a Teach...
ASMCF-funded project report: Theatre on the Move in Times of Conflict, 1750-1850
This two-day conference took place on 18th and 19th September at Magdalen College, Oxford, and was co-organised by Annelies Andries (University of Oxford) and Clare Siviter (University of Bristol). It brought together scholars from the fields of thea...
ASMCF-funded project report: Queen University Belfast’s A-Level French Day
On 25 January 2019, 150 AS-Level pupils and their teachers from across Northern Ireland participated in a major outreach day hosted by French Studies at Queen’s University Belfast, funded by the ASMCF's Schools Liaison & Outreach Activities Fun...
‘Entre les murs’: studying French politics through cinema
This post is part of a series on outreach projects undertaken by ASMCF members and how their research can be of use to teachers. Martin O'Shaughnessy has taken his work out to a range of non-University audiences. He has introduced films ...
2018 ASMCF Schools Liaison & Outreach Funding awarded to French Studies at Queen’s University Belfast
Dr Steven Wilsonhas been awarded £480 to organise two French Outreach Days to be held for AS-Level pupils at Queen's University Belfast in February 2019. This collaboration between French Studies at QUB and NICILT (Northern Ireland Centre for Inform...
Douglas Johnson Memorial Lecture 2019
The Society for the Study of French History and The Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France and Institut Français, Royaume-Uni present the Douglas Johnson Memorial Lecture, Monday 14th January 2019. Too hot to handle? Flora Tris...
Outreach Project and Teaching Resources: Life Under Occupation
This post is part of a series on outreach projects undertaken by ASMCF members. Dr Wendy Michallat’s work on British student Madelaine Blaess's papers offer a fantastic opportunity for schools to integrate historical documents and the latest aca...
ASMCF-funded: Schools event organised by French at Stirling
Dr Fiona Barclay and her colleagues at the University of Stirling organised an event for pupils in the local area to discover what studying French at university is like and the careers it can lead to. Meanwhile, their teachers attended two CPD sessio...
PG Showcase: Alison Marmont, Intersectional “Othering” in Contemporary France and the Novels of Linda Lê and Marie NDiaye
Across Europe we are witnessing an increasing prevalence in right-wing, exclusionary discourses which foster hostility towards those who are designated as foreign and, therefore, not belonging within the conglomerate’s national borders. Linda Lê a...
ASMCF Annual Conference
Lancaster University, Thursday 13–Friday 14 September 2018: New Forms of Expression in the French and Francophone Worlds The programme for the 2018 annual conference alongside further information can be found here: http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/lan...
Outreach Funding Initiative
The ASMCF's Schools Liaison and Outreach Funding Initiative offers up to £500 to support members of the Association who organise teacher- or pupil-focused events which fulfill the following objectives: promote the learning of French in its s...
‘Identity in Conflict’ – ASMCF/SSFH PG Study Day
The first panel of postgraduate papers of the 2018 Postgraduate Study Day comprised three papers examining approaches to identity by literary figures across three centuries. Presented in chronological order, the first paper was given by Jessica Kasje...
“L.O.V.E, and Other Disaffections” – Conference Report
On the 4th November 2017, Benjamin Dalton and Dr Adina Stroia hosted the London French Postgraduate Conference “L.O.V.E, and Other Disaffections” at the Senate House Library, with help from the generous funding made available by the ASMFC. The ai...
Researching in the BiFi – The Peter Morris Memorial Travel Prize
My thesis examines a group of contemporary French films which I locate as the continuation or evolution of the well-studied New French Extremity trend of the 1990s and 2000s. The New French Extremity has been criticised as an arbitrary grouping, but ...
ASMCF-SSFH Postgraduate Study Day 2018: Conflict – Programme and Registration
Registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/asmcf-ssfh-postgraduate-study-day-2018-conflict-tickets-42167848169 3rd March 2018, IMLR, Senate House, London 9.30-10.00: Registration 10.00: Welcome Prof. Chris Tinker, ASMCF Presi...
IMPACT FOR RESEARCHERS: THEMES AND WORKS STUDIED BY PUPILS AGED 16-18 IN THE UK
This post explains some of the broad themes and suggested texts and films studied in schools across the country. For more ideas on disseminating your research in secondary education, see the three-part series on working with schools. The ASMCF off...
CfP: ASMCF Annual Conference, New Forms of Expression in the French and Francophone Worlds
Lancaster University, Thursday 13 - Friday 14 September 2018 We invite proposals for papers that critically examine the innovation and experimentation that characterise new and emerging forms of expression in the French and Francophone worlds. The...
Eighth Douglas Johnson Memorial Lecture in French History
The Society for the Study of French History and The Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France and Institut Français, Royaume-Uni Present: The Douglas Johnson Memorial Lecture, Monday 8th January 2018. How the French and B...
CONFLICT. CfP for the ASMCF-SSFH PG Study Day 2018
3 March 2018 The Institute of Modern Languages Research University of London, Keynote: Emile Chabal (Edinburgh) Deadline for abstracts: January 12 2018 Contemporary society is riven by conflict, be it in the public, political or intell...
A Date With History
On the 9th June, the French Embassy and the Institut français du Royaume-Uni launched an exciting new collaboration with York Festival of Ideas - “A Date with History”. Bringing together leading historians from France and the UK, A Date ...
What is Europe?
Matthew Brown and Howard Chae On 9th June, leading historians from France and the UK were invited by the French Embassy and the Institut français du Royaume-Uni to York to participate in an exciting and novel collaborative enterprise. Entitled ...
Europe: A History of Migrations
Megan Crane and Alastair Brunton The fourth and final session of the day began with a reminder by Robert Winder, author of Bloody Foreigners: The Story of Immigration to Britain, and David Bates, author of William the Conqueror, about the long d...
Perspectives on Franco-British Relations
Nigel Ritchie and Katherine Barrowman Renaud Morieux (Cambridge) discussed the notion of ‘foreigners’ in eighteenth century Britain and France. There were times when states could sharpen their distinctions, such as through the creation of the...
Did You Say Europe? Opening Talks
Adam Rolewicz The opening talks for A Date with History were an excellent introduction to an insightful conference. The two lectures delivered by Professors Roger Chartier and Chris Clark were a powerful examination of two case studies in Europe...
ASMCF 2017: WORK AND PLAY CONFERENCE PROGRAMME Bangor University, 7-9 September 2017
DAY 1: Thursday 7 September 12:30-1:30pm Registration (Foyer, Main Arts Building) 1:30-1:45pm Welcome address (Main Arts Lecture Theatre) 1:45-3:15pm PETER MORRIS LECTURE (Main Arts Lecture Theatre) Sarah Waters (Univer...
PG Showcase: Jonathan Harris on the Berber diaspora
The Amazigh Flag, designed in Paris in 1967 and popularised by the Académie Berbère Source: Pascal Berger http://commentdire.canalblog.com/archives/2008/02/12/7919696.html France is dotted with hundreds of Berber cultural associations,...
‘Modern Mobility & Identity’ – ASMCF/SSFH PG Study Day
Session 2 of the last parallel session of the day addressed the question of identity in various ways. First with Bryony Leighton (Oxford), who explored the development of prosthetic design throughout the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries with ...
‘Recording/Remembering Mobility’ -ASMCF/SSFH PG Study Day
The panel 'Recording/remembering mobility' had a further common theme of inclusion versus exclusion across different types of mobility. Antonia Wimbush's paper, 'Postcolonial mobility: Empowerment of exile' focused on Véronique Tadjo, an Ivoirian ...
‘Mobility Politics’ – ASMCF/SSFH PG Study Day
I thoroughly enjoyed chairing the panel on ‘mobility politics’, which examined the diverse political, cultural, and religious dimensions of mobility in a range of historical and geographical contexts. The papers all spoke to each other well, with...
‘Mobility and Mental health’ – ASMCF/SSFH PG Study Day
At the ASMCF-SSFH PG Study Day, the panel entitled ‘Mobility and Mental health’ approached the topic of the study day through three rich papers that considered movement in relation to various aspects and concepts of mental illness. The first pape...
Mobilising Research beyond the Academy
The second of three professional development sessions at the ASMCF-SSFH Postgraduate Study Day 2017 consisted of two papers reflecting on the theme of impact and engagement through research on French literature, history, and culture. We heard from Ka...
Working with Schools part 3: French is not just France
This is the final post in a three-part series on working with schools. The previous posts are here and here. This two-part workshop (either in two one-hour sessions or one two-hour session) is aimed at students aged 12-15 and focuses on the fact t...
PG Showcase: Mason Norton on Resistance in Upper Normandy, 1940-44
Whether you prefer to call it ‘The French Resistance’ or ‘resistance in France’, the subject of resistance during the Second World War in France poses an interesting paradox for the historian. Whereas most historians of the 20th century work ...
Liam Innis on Flora Tristan – Brian Darling Memorial Prize
Many congratulations to Liam Innis who won the Brian Darling Memorial Prize, a prize awarded for an undergraduate essay or dissertation of distinction, which may treat any theme relevant to the Association's concerns (for more information see http://...
Thinking Work / Penser le travail: The London Postgraduate French Conference
At the annual London Postgraduate French conference ‘Thinking Work / Penser le travail’, held on Friday 4th November 2016 at the Institute of Modern Languages Research at the University of London, the organizers (Ben Dalton – KCL; Kate Foster ...
ASMCF-SSFH PG Study Day 2017: Mobility/Immobility Programme
9.30 - Registration and Coffee 10.15 - Welcome 10.30 - Professional Development Session: Funding roundtable Dr David Hopkin (Oxford) Dr Ewa Szypula (KCL/Nottingham) Dr Katherine Shingler (Nottingham) Dr Laura O'Brien (Northumbria) 11.1...
Meet the editorial board (I)
In this series of posts, we're introducing you to our editorial board team. In this first post, co-editors Martin O'Shaughnessy and Patrick Young. Martin O'Shaughnessy I am Professor of Film Studies at Nottingham Trent University, UK and was pr...
About the journal Modern and Contemporary France
Founded in 1980 by the Association for the Study of Modern & Contemporary France, Modern & Contemporary France is an international peer-reviewed journal, offering a scholarly view of all aspects of France from 1789 to the present day. It...
Working with schools: some ideas on cooperation (part 2 – topics)
See part 1 for an introduction to possible formats that collaboration with schools can take, and part 3 for an example. Based on preliminary scoping of teachers at comprehensive schools in England, there is great demand for support in designing ...
Toeing the line? French communists, 1956, oral histories
In this year of presidential elections, Fiona Haig talks about her article 'Democratic centralism or "centres" of power in the French Communist Party Var Federation? A glimpse of party culture in 1956' 24:1 (2016) What does this article tell read...
French cinema, Hollywood and the ‘interracial buddy comedy’
David Pettersen talks about his article 'Transnational blackface, neo-minstrelsy and the ‘French Eddie Murphy’ in Intouchables' 24:1 (2016) What does this article tell your readers about modern and contemporary France? The idea for this artic...
No money, a tiny crew, a depressing storyline – and a hit French film
Tim Palmer talks about his article ‘War and Peace in the Contemporary French Film Ecosystem: Valérie Donzelli’s La Guerre est declarée’ 25:1 (2017) What does this article tell your readers about modern and contemporary France? There are...
French colonies, intellectuals and far-right ideas
Gavid Bowd talks about his article 'Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo, Charles Maurras and colonial Madagascar' 24:1 (2016) What does this article tell your readers about modern and contemporary France? The article attempts to show the influence of far ri...
Etre mère célibataire en France à la fin du 20ème siècle : action publique, identité familiale, paroles de femmes
Entretien avec Anne-Laure Garcia, auteure de "Solitudes maternelles, solidarités publiques et entraides privées: les mères célibataires dans la France de la fin du vingtième siècle" 23:4 (2016). Qu'est-ce que votre article nous apprend sur la ...
Femmes célibataires au Maroc et en Algérie: enjeux, défis et pratiques littéraires des femmes
Entretien avec Isabelle Charpentier, auteure de 'De la difficulté (sexuelle) d’être une femme célibataire au Maghreb – Une étude de témoignages & d’œuvres d’écrivaines algériennes et marocaines' 23:4 (2015) Quels sont les sujets ...
Immigration, empire and boosting the birth rate
An interview with Alexandra Schultz, author of '"The purity of the blood": Poncet de la Grave, pronatalism and empire' 25:1 (2017). What does this article tell your readers about modern and contemporary France? In this article I hope to relate to...
Working with schools: some ideas on cooperation (part 1)
This is the first post in a three-part series on working with schools. The implementation of the new GCSE and A-Level specifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (with the first exams in 2018) offers a great opportunity to step up collab...
PG Showcase: James Illingworth on George Sand
The Mythopoetics of Bodily Representation in George Sand My research, funded by the AHRC Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership, considers the representation of the body in nineteenth-century fiction, focusing on the works of George Sand (1...
Research in the Charente: The Peter Morris Memorial Travel Award 2016
Many congratulations to Adam Spencer (Hull) who was awarded this year's Peter Morris Memorial Travel Award! Thanks to Adam for the following blog post and picture. You can read his whole report and find out more about this prize scheme here. 'Th...
Call For Papers 2017 ASMCF Annual Conference: Work and Play
Bangor University, 7–9th September Keynote Speakers Helen Abbott (University of Birmingham) Claude Boli (Responsable scientifique du Musée National du Sport, Nice) Sarah Waters (University of Leeds) From the Tennis Court Oath to Nuit...
Welcome to the Journal!
Founded in 1980 by the Association for the Study of Modern & Contemporary France, Modern & Contemporary France is an international peer-reviewed journal, offering a scholarly view of all aspects of France from 1789 to the present day. It...