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 primarily on the literature and history of the French Enlightenment and the Revolution, and French-English relations in the 18th and 19th centuries. Her forthcoming book, The Frankenstein of 1790 and Other Lost Chapters from Revolutionary France (University of Chicago Press, 2012), shows how five key events of the French Revolution took shape through newspaper and imagery produced during the turmoil, and how those same events remained alive for future generations in tales published in France, England, and the USA from 1795-1910. She has received grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Lilly Foundation.  

In 2011-12, Douthwaite is organizing a lecture series and art exhibit to commemorate the tricentennial of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a pioneer of modern humanitarian thought.   Entitled Rousseau 2012, the events of January-March 2012 will involve faculty and students from over a dozen departments on campus, guest speakers in POLSCI, ROFR, HIS, and PHIL, and visits to Notre Dame of two photojournalists working for Amnesty International France.  The visual centerpiece of Rousseau 2012 is he American début of the exhibit entitled DIGNITY, co-sponsored by Amnesty International and Oeil Public, first displayed at the Hôtel de Ville, Paris, in 2010. 

An active mentor in the South Bend Community School Corporation’s “Dream Team for Unity” and a student of Creole language and culture, Douthwaite is developing new research and courses that explore humanitarian thought and activism from the 18th century to the present, and connections between the French and the Haitian revolutions.

Recent publications include: 

  • “Le roi pitoyable et ses adversaires: La politique de l’émotion selon J.J. Regnault-Warin, H.-M. Williams, et les libellistes de Varennes," La Revue d’histoire littéraire de la France 4 (2010): 917-34.
  • “On Candide, Catholics and Freemasonry: How Fiction Disavowed the Loyalty Oaths of 1789-90," Eighteenth-Century Fiction 23, 1 (2010): 81-117.
  • "The Frankenstein of the French Revolution: Nogaret's Automaton Tale of 1790," European Romantic Review, 20, 3 (July 2009): 381-411 (winner of the best article of 2009 award from the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism and ERR).

Her 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.

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

Douthwaite's C.V.

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