Gender in France: Theories and Controversies with Anne Berger

05/26/22 • 99 min

In this episode, Anne Berger is Laurent Dubreuil’s guest. Far from being only a concern for the “ivory tower,” practices and theories of gender are being hotly debated in the French-speaking public sphere—from the mariage pour tous and manif pour tous movements to the translation of #MeToo into #BalanceTonPorc to the ongoing dispute about the spelling and orthography of the French language in relation to “inclusive writing” (écriture inclusive).Together, and with a in a trans-Atlantic viewpoint, Berger and Dubreuil consider these topics as well as the recent rise of gender studies in French Academia.

Dr. Anne Berger is a Professor Emerita of French Literature and Gender Studies at the Université Paris-8 as well as an Adjunct Professor of French at Cornell.

Dr. Anne Berger is a Professor Emerita of French Literature and Gender Studies at the Université Paris-8 as well as an Adjunct Professor of French at Cornell.

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Being Black in France with Mame Fatou Niang

In this episode, Mame Fatou Niang is Laurent Dubreuil’s guest. Together, they explore some aspects of what it means to “be black” in France, paying a particular attention to questions of history, memory, symbols, and representation. They also exchange on their own biographical trajectories in an attempt to explain a certain malaise that they both feel vis-à-vis French society today.

Dr. Mame-Fatou Niang is an Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Carnegie-Mellon University.

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Contemporary Returns of the French Revolution: The Gilets Jaunes Movement and Beyond with Sophie Wahnich

In this episode (in French), Sophie Wahnich is Laurent Dubreuil’s guest. Together, they explore the manifold repercussions of the myths and realities of the French Revolution on contemporary political life in France. In particular, this discussion considers the current reactivation of revolutionary moments in grassroot activism, including the Gilets Jaunes/Yellow Vest movement.

Dr. Sophie Wahnich is a Director of Research in History at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique.