I am a historian of modern France and modern Europe, specialising in the history of the world wars, international relations, soft power and the history of gender. I also work on transnational history; the history of European migrant communities; the history of the French in Britain.

I moved to the University of Bristol in August 2023 after holding research fellowships at Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions / Horizon 2020) and the University of Manchester (British Academy postdoctoral fellowship). Before that I held lectureships at the University of Manchester, the University of Warwick and Queen Mary, University of London. I have also taught at King’s College London, the University of London Institute in Paris, and Sciences Po Paris.  I was educated in France and completed my BA and MA at Paris 1 Sorbonne Panthéon and Paris 7 Denis Diderot, before moving to the UK to complete my PhD in History at Queen Mary, University of London (awarded in 2016).

My first book Propaganda, Gender and Cultural Power: Projections and Perceptions of France in Britain c1880-1944 (OUP, 2022) considers how images of France in modern Britain have been shaped by governments and members of civil society. By analysing literary and artistic works, but also French cultural institutions in France and abroad, it brings innovative cultural and transnational approaches to cultural diplomacy. In addition, the book revisits the idea that diplomacy was a male-dominated world centred around foreign offices; it shows how the origins of cultural diplomacy were deeply gendered.

This book project will offer the first examination of transnational competition and collaboration for cultural diplomacy in France, Britain, and Germany (1870-1940). This project assesses whether and how France, often described in scholarship as a pioneer in the field, shaped European cultural diplomacy practices and discourses. I won fellowships in Germany and the US to conduct archival research for this book, alongside a British Academy postdoctoral fellowship and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual fellowship.

The history of the world wars is central to my ongoing research. My first monograph and current book project consider the history of propaganda and ‘cultural propaganda’ during these periods of conflict. In 2015-2016, I was co-investigator on a First World War outreach project sponsored by the AHRC and the French government’s First World War centenary programme which involved working with francophone pupils at the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle in West London and NewVic College in East London. This project examined Francophones in London during the First World War. I have also co-organised several academic events in the UK and France on the French Resistance and with Laure Humbert, I co-edited a special issue of European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire entitled ‘Beyond London and Beyond de Gaulle: the French external Resistance and its international networks’ (2018). I am currently co-editing a book on the identity and diversity of members of the French external resistance, under contract with the Presses Universitaires de Rennes.

In 2020, I developed an impact project on contemporary cultural politics in French and European contexts through which I have built collaboration with French, British and European policy-makers. My work on the topic was published in a report (funded by an ESRC grant), an article for Journal of International Cultural Policy and has been publicised beyond the academy (The Guardian, The Telegraph, Radio France, Le Soir...). In partnership with Dr Biyun Zhu (University of Manchester) I am leading a related project funded by Creative Manchester’s “social responsibility” programme. In this work we analyse how European cultural diplomacy is engaging with sustainable development and issues around climate change.

Teaching

In the department of French, I teach on the first-year unit ‘Francophone Cultures in Context.’ I also run a second-year unit ‘France during the Second World War’, and a fourth-year unit ‘Culture, soft power and diplomatie d’influence’. In the School of Modern Languages, I convene a second-year unit ‘Popular Representation: Institutions of Culture’.

Supervision

I welcome enquiries about postgraduate work especially in the following fields:

-cultural diplomacy, soft power and propaganda in modern France and Europe

-gender in French and global history

-the world wars in France and Western Europe and imperial spaces

-transnational approaches to modern and contemporary Europe

-migration, migrant communities and transnational identities in the Francophone world

-international approaches to histories of education and universities

-evacuee and refugee children during the world wars

I’d love to hear from you if you would like to discuss research plans.