CURRICULUM VITAE (Abridged)
JEAN-VINCENT BLANCHARD, PhD
Professor of French Studies
Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures (1997- )
I. EDUCATION AND AWARDS
Programs
1992-1997, Yale University, Ph. D. French Studies
1991-1992, Université de Montréal, M.A. French and Québec studies
1988-1991, Université de Montréal, B.A. French and Québec studies
Other
2003 School for Criticism and Theory at Cornell University (T. Conley’s seminar)
1997 Dartmouth College, Institute for French Cultural Studies
1994-1995 École Normale Supérieure, rue d’Ulm, Paris: Pensionnaire étranger
Prizes, Grants, and Fellowships
2004 Fédération canadienne des sciences humaines (FCSH): aide à l’édition savante.
1994 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship
II. RESEARCH
INTERESTS
History of rhetoric in early modern France
Late Renaissance and Seventeenth-Century culture, history, and literature
Military writing
PUBLICATIONS
Monographs and edited volumes in early modern studies:
Éminence: Cardinal Richelieu and the Rise of France. Walker and Co/Bloomsbury USA, September 2011. Reviewed in: The Wall Street Journal. French version published under the title Richelieu: La Pourpre et le Pouvoir in Paris: Éditions Belin, 2013.
L’Optique du Discours au XVIIe siècle: De la rhétorique des jésuites au style de la raison moderne (Descartes, Pascal). Presses de l’Université Laval, Québec, Collection La République des Lettres, 2005.
L’Invraisemblance du Pouvoir: Mises-en-scènes de la souveraineté au XVIIe siècle. Schena-Presses de l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 2005 (edited volume with H. Visentin of Smith College).
Digital edition in early modern studies
La Princesse de Clèves/The Princess of Clèves: A Bilingual and Critical Edition for the Digital Age. The Lever Press, Ann Arbor, 2018. With: H. Bilis, Wellesley College; D. Harrison, Grinnell College; H. Visentin, Smith College. My contribution focuses on feminist approaches to the novel, including how to understand the 2006 controversy about La Princesse, raised by the then candidate N. Sarkozy.
Other monograph:
At the Edge of the World: The Heroic Century of the French Foreign Legion. Bloomsbury Publishing, April 2017. Italian: Legione di Eroi. Piemme, 2018. Reviewed in: The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, The Times (London), The Daily Mail, The Washington Independent Book Review, Military Review, etc.
Articles:
“Monumentalisme et rhétorique.” Presses Universitaires de Rouen, 2019.
“Les Promenades de Richelieu de Jean Desmarets et la modernité du théâtre à machines.” Dix-septième siècle, 2018.
“Rhétorique,” “Littérature.” Forthcoming in Dictionnaire des Jésuites, ed. B. Pierre. Paris, Laffont.
“Beyond Belief: Sovereignty and the Spectacle of Martyrdom in Early Modern France.” French Seventeenth-Century Studies, vol. XXXVI, no 2, December 2014.
“De quoi donner une jaunisse à Richelieu: Autour d’une lettre de Descartes à Guez de Balzac.” Littératures classiques, no 82, 3-2013, p. 219-232.
“La Description des Grandes Cascades de Saint-Cloud,” in Corps et Interprétation (XVIe-XVIIIe siècle), ed. C. Thouret and L. Wajeman, Amsterdam, Rodopi, 2012.
“Dies Irae: le Coup d’État de Louis XIII, les pamphlets et l’institution du public.” Littératures classiques, no 68, 1-2009, p. 31-42.
“Claude-François Menestrier and the Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes.” Biblio 17, no 71, 2009, p. 507-514.
Public Lectures
Invited lectures and conferences
“La Guerre de la mère et du fils,” NYU French, October 12, 2018.
“La politique de Descartes et les émotions publiques,” MLA panel, 2018.
“La Notion de propagande à travers l’œuvre rhétorique et architecturale des frères Perrault,” Conference La propagande existe-t-elle? Universités de Picardie et Nantes, Amiens, Avril 26-27, 2017.
“Descartes et l’optique de l’économie politique,” Conference La Vision comme opérateur de figurabilité, Université de Louvain-la-Neuve, June 12-14, 2014.
“Richelieu: Machiavellian despite himself,” NEH seminar on Machiavelli, Hood College, March 26, 2014.
“Cardinal Richelieu: History’s Favorite Villain.” Cooper Union, September 16, 2011; Yale University, February 14, 2012.
“La Correspondance Descartes-Guez de Blazac: De quoi donner une jaunisse à Richelieu.” Regards Croisés Conference, Harvard U., 2010.
“Interprétation et monumentalité: la Description des Grandes Cascades de la Maison Royale de Saint-Cloud (1709).” Corps et interprétation Conference, Paris VII and Paris IV-Sorbonne, 2010.
Conferences
“La Guerre de la mère et du fils,” SE17, U. Fribourg, December 2018.
“Le Mercure Galant, Architecture, and the Public Sphere,” SE17, UC Long Beach, November 8-10, 2013.
Conference Direction and Organization
SE17 – 2009 The Society for French Interdisciplinary Seventeenth-Century Studies Annual Meeting, Philadelphia and Swarthmore, October 22-24. 45 speakers and 2 guest-speakers (A. Zanger and J. Soll).
Conference panel chair
MLA, January 2017, Philadelphia (PA), session: “Biographies.”
MLA, January 2016, Austin (TX), session: “Secrecy.”
SE17, November 2017, Oakland and Palo Alto, session: “Figures exemplaires.”
SE17, October 2015, New Brunswick (NJ), session: “Voix libertines.”
SE17, October 2014, London (Ontario), session “Centres et marges.”
Other:
Co-Organizer: AALAC collaborative workshop “Blended Learning Approaches to Teaching Early Modern France in a Liberal Arts Context,” Wellesley College, October 16-17, 2015.
This is now an ongoing project aiming to produce a website featuring blended approaches to teaching La Fayette’s La Princesse de Clèves—Our group met in the summer of 2017 at Grinnell College to work on the project, and in November 2018 at Swarthmore. We received a book contract at the Lever Press in 2018 after peer-review.
III. PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES AND EXPERIENCE
Executive Committee member MLA, French Literature, XVII-Century Division (Conventions: 2016 to 2020; will chair the committee in 2018).
Editor, Cahiers du dix-septième, An Interdisciplinary Journal.
Executive Committee (ex officio), SE17, The Society for French Interdisciplinary Seventeenth-Century.
President, SE17, The Society for French Interdisciplinary Seventeenth-Century (2009-2010).
Member at large, Executive Committee, North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature (2007-2009).
MANUSCRIPTS AND PEER REVIEWS
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (post-doctoral fellowships, research grants)
EMF, Comparative Literature (article manuscript reviews); University of Toronto Press.
Tenure/promotion reviews: Barnard College, CUNY Hunter College, Wellesley College, New York University, University of Pittsburgh, University of Minnesota, Vanderbilt University, UNC Charlotte.
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE SERVICE
2018-2019: Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures.
2017-2018: Working Group 5 in the Middle-States Self-Study (full review of the assessment record)
2016-2017: AdHoc Committee on the Provost’s Search
2014-2015: Interdisciplinary Programs Representative and COFP.
2013-2014: Interdisciplinary Programs Representative.
2011-2012: Faculty Mentor
2010-2011: Chair of Division of the Humanities
2009-2010: Faculty Secretary.
2007-2008 Interdisciplinary Programs Representative
2005-2008 Assessment Planning Committee
2002-2004: College Judiciary Committee/alternate
2002-2003, 2006-2008: Interpretation Theory Program Coordinator
Spring 2001: Associate Provost Search Committee
1999-2000, Sager Committee Chair
Permanent Committees: Interpretation Theory, Comparative Literature.
Jean-Vincent Blanchard 