Centre for European and International Studies Research (CEISR)

Profile

The focus of my research is modern Algerian and French history. In particular, I am interested in oral history, gender studies, and the relationship between history, memory and the construction of identities in both Europe and Africa. 

Recent field research includes interviewing Algerian women who participated in the War of Independence (1954-1962) about their experiences in post-colonial Algeria and their memories of the conflict, and carrying out a case study with students at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (teacher training college) in Algiers on the teaching of history and the transmission of memory.

I teach a wide variety of French and European Area Studies units, and also participate in French language teaching and MA units on Translation and External Relations of the EU.

Qualifications

• PhD in History, Queen Mary, University of London (2008) “To be a moudjahida in independent Algeria: itineraries and memories of women veterans of the Algerian War of Independence.” Supervisor: Professor Julian Jackson; Prof. Gilbert Meynier (Nancy II, France) and Dr. James McDougall (SOAS, University of London).
• BA Joint Honours in French and History (First Class), Balliol College, University of Oxford (2004)

Research Clusters

• Francophone Studies
• Memory Studies

Research CV

Current Research Projects

I am currently a lead member of a three-year British Academy sponsored UK-Africa Academic Partnership, investigating the participation of Senegalese soldiers in the French army during the Algerian War. This involves training postgraduate students and young scholars in Algeria and Senegal to carry out an oral history project amongst older generations who participated in both sides of the conflict. For more information on this project please click here. 

Publications

• France and the Mediterranean, edited volume with Emmanuel Godin (Peter Lang, forthcoming 2011)
• ‘Transgressing boundaries: gender, race, religion and “Françaises musulmanes” during the Algerian War of Independence’ article in French Historical Studies special issue on Race and Gender (33, 1 summer 2010)
• ‘La mémoire des femmes algériennes de la guerre de libération algérienne’ Raison présente (2010)
• ‘France, Islam and laïcité: colonial exceptions, contemporary reinventions and European convergence’ chapter in Chafer, T. and Godin, E. The End of the French Exception (Palgrave, 2010)
• ‘Colonial and post-colonial identities: women veterans of the “Battle of Algiers”’ chapter in Drapac, V. and Lambelet, A. French History and Civilisation: Papers from the George Rudé Seminar (H-France, 2009)
• Joint guest editor of a special issue of Stichproben: Vienna Journal of African Studies on ‘Fracturing Binarisms: Gender and Colonialisms in Africa,’ no. 12, Dec 2007 with Odile Georg and Marie Rodet. To view this issue please click here.  
• ‘Perceptions of France in contemporary Algeria’ (2004) on website linked to Evans, M and Godin, E, France 1815-2003. To view the website linked to the publication please click here.   
• I have also written a number of book reviews for Modern and Contemporary France and Political Quarterly. 

Conferences Organised

• Joint organiser with Emmanuel Godin of the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France (ASMCF) 30th Annual Conference on France and the Mediterranean: representations, policy, transnationalism, 3-5 Sept. 2009.
• North Africa and the Middle East: Interdisciplinary and Multimedia Perspectives University of Portsmouth, 18 March 2009. A study afternoon with an emphasis on teaching methods and interdisciplinary approaches, externally funded by the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies.
• Beyond the France/Algeria binarism? University of Portsmouth, 2 April 2008. A half-day conference bringing together international scholars, externally funded by the Society for the Study of French History and the ASMCF.

Grants Received

• British Academy UK-Africa Academic Partnerships. I played a key role in the team which successfully bid for £27,495 for a three-year project building links between the Universities of Portsmouth, Dakar and Algiers to develop a comparative and transgenerational oral history project with veterans of the Algerian War from Algeria and Senegal.
• 2004-2007: Three-year Queen Mary/Royal Holloway/University of London Institute in Paris PhD bursary.
• 2006: Royal Historical Society, for travel to the African Studies Association conference, San Francisco, US.
• 2006: Queen Mary University of London Stretton Fund, for travel to the George Rudé conference, Adelaide, Australia.
• 2005: £1,250 from the University of London Central Research fund for travel and research to Algeria.