Position: MHRA Research Scholar
Department/Section: French, Faculty of Modern & Medieval Languages & Linguistics
Email: ejs86@cam.ac.uk
Location: Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages, Raised Faculty Building, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 9DA, United Kingdom
About
Eleanor is a postdoctoral researcher working on her first monograph, Propaganda by the Tale: Anarchisms and the Short Story in Fin-de-Siècle France, 1871-1901. This is supported by an MHRA Research Scholarship in Modern European Languages and based on her PhD thesis. Eleanor first came to Cambridge in 2017 for the MPhil in European, Latin American and Comparative Literatures and Cultures and she remained here for her PhD, which was supervised by Dr Claire White and was awarded in 2023. She obtained her B.A. in Modern Languages and Cultures (French and Italian) from University of Durham in 2016.
Research
Eleanor’s research explores the seemingly privileged relationship between the short story and anarchism in France at the end of the nineteenth century. She investigates this topic through the short fiction of non-canonical authors Villiers de L’Isle-Adam and Octave Mirbeau, as well as the little-explored literary works of anarchist activists Louise Michel and Jean Grave. Although literary in focus, Eleanor’s research also engages with intellectual history and anarchist print culture (pamphlets and newspapers).
Teaching
Eleanor supervises and lectures on the Part IB paper ‘FR5: Revolutions in Writing, 1700-1900’. She also teaches on the part IA paper ‘FRB2: Translation from French’.
Scholarships/Prizes
| 2024 | MHRA Research Scholarship in Modern European Languages |
| 2022 | Society of Dix-Neuviémistes’ ECR Publication Prize for my article, ‘Villiers de L’Isle-Adam’s Anarchism: A Legacy of the Paris Commune’, published in the peer-reviewed journal, Dix-Neuf |
| 2021 | Society of Dix-Neuviémistes’ Postgraduate Essay Prize for my paper entitled: ‘The Anarchism of Villiers de L’Isle-Adam: A Legacy of the Paris Commune’ |
| 2019 - 2022 | Jebb Fund Studentship (PhD funding), University of Cambridge |
| 2017 - 2018 | Newton College Masters Award (jointly funded by Isaac Newton Trust and Robinson College), University of Cambridge |
Selected publications
| Propaganda by the Tale: Anarchisms and the Short Story in Fin-de-Siècle France, 1871-1901 (monograph, in preparation) | |
| Forthcoming | ‘Anarchist Tales for Rebel Children: Reading, Writing, and Revolution in Louise Michel’s Children’s Stories’, French Studies |
| 2024 | ‘Femmes et genre en exil au XIXe Siècle ed. by Delphine Diaz, Alexandre Dupont, and Antonin Durand (2022)’, Nineteenth-Century French Studies, 52.3-4 (Book review) |
| 2022 | ‘Villiers de L’Isle-Adam’s Anarchism: A Legacy of the Paris Commune’, Dix-Neuf, 26:1, 1-17, DOI: 10.1080/14787318.2021.2010167 |
Conference papers
| 2024 | ‘Conspiracy or Community? Transnational and Transgenerational Solidarity in Louise Michel’s La Chasse aux loups (1891)’, Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Modern & Contemporary France, Southampton, 6 September |
| 2023 | ‘Away with the Fairies: Anarchist Lessons in Reading, Writing, and Revolution in Jean Grave’s Les Aventures de Nono (1901)’, 21st Annual Conference of the Society of Dix-Neuviémistes, Oxford (Christ Church), 29 March |
| 2022 | ‘Lessons in Anarchy: Reading, Writing, and Revolution in Louise Michel’s Children’s Stories’, 47th Annual Nineteenth-Century French Studies Colloquium, New York City, 3 November |
| 2022 | ‘Anarchist Tales for Rebel Children: Anarchism in Louise Michel’s Children’s Stories’, 63rd Annual Society for French Studies Conference, Belfast, 28 June |
| 2022 | ‘Learning to (Re-)Read and (Re-)Write: Educational, Political, and Literary Anarchism in Louise Michel’s Children’s Stories’, Oxford Graduate Research Seminar, 7 June |
| 2021 | ‘Anarchism(s) and the Short Story in Fin-de-Siècle France, 1871-1901: The Curious Case of Villiers de L’Isle-Adam’, Cambridge Nineteenth-Century French Seminar, 17 May |
| 2021 | ‘The Anarchism of Villiers de L’Isle-Adam: A Legacy of the Paris Commune’, 19th Annual Conference of the Society of Dix-Neuviémistes, St. Andrews, 24 March |
| 2021 | ‘Anarchism in Fin-de-Siècle France: The Curious Case of Villiers de L’Isle-Adam’, Cambridge French Graduate Research Seminar, 25 February |
