People

Julia Douthwaite

Professor of French

Degrees

B.A., M.A., University of Washington; Certificat de Maitrise, Faculté des Lettres, Université de Nantes, France; M.A., Ph.D., Princeton University

Research Profile

Julia V. Douthwaite teaches and writes on the literature and history of the French Enlightenment and the Revolution, voyage literature, women’s writing, and French-English relations. Her present research focuses on how key events of the French Revolution—in political history, history of science, and women’s history—left their imprint on fictions published from 1789-1803. Past recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Lilly Foundation, in 2006 she received a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to support the research and writing of The Frankenstein of 1790 and Other Missing Links of Revolutionary France. For the avant-premiere of this new work, see article by Douthwaite, with Daniel Richter (MA, Univ. Notre Dame '08): "The Frankenstein of the French Revolution: Nogaret's Automaton Tale of 1790," European Romantic Review, 20, 3 (July 2009): 381-411.

Other books include The Wild Girl, Natural Man, and the Monster: Dangerous Experiments in the Age of Enlightenment (University of Chicago Press, 2002) and Exotic Women: Literary Heroines and Cultural Strategies in Ancien Régime France (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992). With Prof. Mary Vidal (UCSD), she co-edited the 2005 volume, The Interdisciplinary Century, SVEC 4; with Prof. David Lee Rubin (U of Virginia), she co-edited the special issues of EMF: Studies in Early Modern France dedicated to Cultural Studies, vols. 6-7 (2000-01). She is author of articles in journals such as Annales de la Société Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Eighteenth-Century Studies, Romanic Review, Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, and chapters in books such as Etre dix-huitiémiste 2, ed. Blum (2007); Littérature et engagement pendant la Révolution française, eds. Brouard-Arends and Loty (2007); L’Engagement littéraire, ed. Bouju (2005), and Emile ou de la praticabilité de l'éducation, eds. Dupont and Termolle (2004).

Among her contributions to the profession, she is currently a member of the Executive Board of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies and the Advisory Board of SVEC (Oxford). She has also served on the editorial boards of Eighteenth-Century Studies, French Forum, and Eighteenth-Century Life. Since 2003, she has served as membre associé of the groupe de recherche CELAM, Université de Rennes 2; and was pleased to launch in 2008 the M.A. exchange program between Notre Dame and Rennes 2. She has served on the Executive Committee, MLA Division on Comparative Studies in 18th-c. Literature (2001-05).

As Assistant Provost for International Studies at Notre Dame from 2003-09, Douthwaite managed the 30+ programs for undergraduates in 40+ countries around the world, and oversaw the strategic planning process for internationalizing the university.

In 2008, she organized and hosted the bilingual French-American colloquium, “New Paradigms in Revolutionary Studies” (co-chaired with Lesley Walker, Indiana University South Bend, 10/08): http://www.nd.edu/~colloque/index.html. 03/09

For more on her teaching and research, see Douthwaite's weblog: http://revolutioninfiction.wordpress.com.

Contact Information

120 Decio Faculty Hall
631-9302
Julia.V.Douthwaite.1@nd.edu