Education
Ph.D, History, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor (2000)
Dissertation: "Mayhem for Moderns: The Culture of Sensationalism in France, c. 1900"
M.A., History, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor (1993)
Fields: Modern Europe, Modern France, Early Modern Europe, North African History and Anthropology, French Literature
B.A., English and Philosophy, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor (1988)
Highest Distinction, Phi Beta Kappa, Hopwood Writing Award (Minor Essay)
Thesis in English, with Highest Honors; "Voices from the Abyss: The Early Novels of John Barth"
Additional studies at:
Université de Paris I - Sorbonne (Seminar of Alain Corbin, 1994-5)
Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (Seminar of Jean-Yves Mollier, 1994-5)
University of California at Berkeley (History and Italian, 1990-1)
Scuola Lorenzo de' Medici in Florence (Italian Language and Culture, Fall 1988)
Harvard University (Psychology/Philosophy/Computer Science, 1983-5)
Assistant Professor, Department of History, College of Wooster (2001 to present)
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Michigan (2000)
Graduate Student Instructor, Great Books Program, University of Michigan (1997-1999)
Graduate Student Instructor, Department of History, University of Michigan (1992-3 and 1996)
English Composition Board Teaching Assistant, Department of History, University of Michigan (1994)
Teaching Interests
Politics, culture and society in Europe, especially France, from the eighteenth century to the present. Historical approaches to mass culture; the newspaper; the history of violence; the modern urban experience. North African history and anthropology. European colonialism and imperialism. Problems and methods of cultural history. Historical approaches to visual culture.
Publications
"The Flâneur, the Badaud, and the Making of a Mass Public in France, circa 1860-1910," American Historical Review 109:1 (February 2004).
"The Flâneur, the Badaud, and the Making of a Mass Public": Erratum
"The Mass Public in France, c. 1900," essay and virtual
gallery (2005). The Crowds Project. At
the Stanford Humanities Laboratory. http://shl.stanford.edu/Crowds/.
Research in Progress
Mayhem for Moderns: The Sensationalism of Violence
and the Making of a Mass Public in France, circa 1900 (book manuscript under revision).
Revisiting the Spectacle of the Scaffold: The Public
Execution in France, 1832 to 1939 (new
research project)
"How to Make an Anarchist Terrorist: The Social Imaginary in Late Nineteenth-Century France"
(article project)
"In Search of the Origins of the Anti-Detective Novel"
(article project)
Book Reviews
Review of Mary Gluck, Popular Bohemia: Modernism and
Urban Culture in Nineteenth-Century Paris. Harvard University Press, 2005. Journal of Modern History 79:1 (March 2007).
Invited Research Talks
"How to Make an Anarchist-Terrorist: Anarchism and the
Social Imaginary in Fin-de-Siècle France."
Faculty Research Luncheon. College of Wooster. November 21, 2005.
"La foule, le boulevard, et l'attroupement à la fin du
XIXème siècle."
Culture urbaine? L'exemple de
Paris è la Belle Epoque. Journée d'étude at the Centre d'Histoire de
Sciences-Politiques and le Centre
d'histoire du XIXè siècle des Universités de Paris I et Paris IV.
November 7, 2005.
"Revisiting the Spectacle of the Scaffold: The Public
(and the Not-So-Pubic) Execution in Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century France."
Stanford Humanities Center. Stanford University. May 10, 2005.
"Marcel Proust and the Abominable and Voluptuous Act of
Reading the Newspaper."
Bay Area French Culture Workshop. Stanford University. October 21, 2004.
"Morbid Curiosity in the Longue Durée."
European History Colloquium. Cornell University. February 1, 2001.
"The Politics and the Poetics of Sensationalism."
Centre for the Study of Social History. University of Warwick, England. March 5, 1998.
"Early Twentieth-Century Antiquarians of Old Paper:
Collectors of the Popular."
Followed by roundtable discussion with Susanna Barrows, Howard Lay and Denis
Martin: "Re-reading Nineteenth-Century French Popular Imagery."
Images d'Epinal: Exhibition at the University of Michigan Museum of Art.
November 23, 1996.
Conference Papers and Presentations
"When the Clues Lead Us Astray: In Search of the Origins
of the Anti-Detective Story."
Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Associations Annual
Meeting. Albuquerque, NM. February 17, 2007.
"Asmodeus and the History of the City," Comment on
"Culture, Class, and the City in the Era of Revolution."
Society for French Historical Studies. Stanford, CA. March 2005.
"Revisiting the Spectacle of the Scaffold: The Execution
Crowd in Late Nineteenth-Century France."
Society for French Historical Studies. Milwaukee, WI. April 2003.
"Close-up on Catastrophe: The Spectator and the Railway
Disaster in Nineteenth-Century France."
The Character of
Nineteenth-Century Visual Culture. The University of Rotterdam and the
Huizinga Institute of Cultural History, Amsterdam, Netherlands. November 2002.
"Reading the Illustrated Newspaper, c. 1900."
Society for French Historical Studies. Chapel Hill, NC. March 2001.
"Mayhem and Mass Culture in Late Nineteenth and Early
Twentieth-Century France."
Society for French Historical Studies. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. March 1998.
"Reading Sensationalism, Paris 1906–8."
Blurring the Boundaries: Politics and Culture in the French Third Republic. Ann
Arbor, MI.October 1997.
"Writing Catastrophe in Fin-de-Siècle France: A Rhetoric
of Horror."
Western Society of French History. Charlotte, NC. November 1996.
General Talks
"The Anarchists of Paris and the Dawn of Modern
Terrorism"
Alumni Weekend Faculty Lecture. College of Wooster. June 8, 2007.
"Film and the First Year Seminar: Teaching Critical
Viewing"
Presentation and Faculty Panel for First Year Seminar Instructors.
College of Wooster. May 16,
2007.
"Of Hope and Despair: The French Presidential Elections
of 2007"
Presentation and Panel Discussion, Deciphering the French Presidential
Elections. College of Wooster.
April 18, 2007.
"History at the College of Wooster Today: A Talk for the
Reunion of the Class of 1946"
Class of 1946 Class Lunch. College of Wooster. June 10, 2006.
"Teaching Film and History"
Teaching Matters. College of Wooster. March 3, 2006.
"Riots, Mobs, Crowds: Historical Perspectives on
Collective Violenceé
Guest Lecture, Political Science 247: Large Scale Political Violence.
College of Wooster.
February 7, 2006.
"Writing Assignments that Work"
Presentation and Faculty Panel for First Year Seminar Instructors. College
of Wooster. May 2003.
"France and the United States: A History of Mutual
Misunderstanding?"
Babcock International Program. College of Wooster. February 2, 2004.
Fellowships
Fellowship, Stanford Humanities Center (2004-2005)
Research Leave, The College of Wooster (Fall 2004)
Society for the Humanities Fellowship, Cornell University (2000-2001)
Horace H. Rackham Dissertation Fellowship, University of Michigan (1997)
Andrew Mellon Dissertation Fellowship, University of Michigan (1995-6)
Georges Lurcy Fellowship for Study in France, Georges Lurcy Trust (1994-5)
Other Experience
The
Western Experience (1997)
Research Assistant. Assisted Ray Grew with the revision of The Western
Experience, a textbook of European history.
History and Instructional Technology Project
(1996)
Researcher. Surveyed and reported on digital resources (document collections,
websites, databases, and games) that might be used with the introductory
surveys to European history. Project supported by the Department of History at
the University of Michigan.
Excavation at Bir Ftouha (1994)
Database Programmer and Fieldworker at the Archaeological Excavation of the
Fifth-Century Basilica at Bir Ftouha, La Marsa, Tunisia. Directed by Susan
Stevens, Randolph-Macon Women's College.
University of Michigan Summer in Florence Program (1992)
Resident Assistant at the Villa Corsi-Salviati in Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.
Ziff-Davis Press, Emeryville, CA (1990-1)
Systems Administrator and Production Assistant for computer book publisher.
Individual, Inc., Cambridge, MA (1989-90)
Database Programmer and Marketing Assistant for high-technology start-up.
These pages last updated on June 12, 2007.