INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM: Power on Trial: Public Opinion and Political Legitimacy from the Enlightenment to the Napoleonic Era and its Modern Implications - The Franke Institute for the Humanities, University of Chicago - April 14-15, 2023

 

Power on Trial: Public Opinion and Political Legitimacy from the Enlightenment to the Napoleonic Era and its Modern Implications

International Colloquium at the University of Chicago

April 14-15, 2023

The Franke Institute for the Humanities

1100 East 57^th Street, JRL S-102

Chicago, IL 60637

Day 1 (April 14, 2023)

 

-        Panel 1: 9:30-10:30am

Theme: Public Opinion and Social Cohesion/Opinion publique et lien social

Chair: Jan Goldstein (University of Chicago: Norman and Edna Freehling Professor Emerita of History, the Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science, and the College)

Susan Maslan (University of California, Berkeley: Associate Professor of French): “Transformations of the social bond on the revolutionary stage: equality, judgment, affect”

Agathe Meridjen (Université Paris Nanterre : Doctorante en Sociologie): “Les discours aliénistes face à l’opinion publique à la fin du XVIIIe, entre promesses de réorganisation de la société, révolutionnaires pathologiques et assurances contre de « Nouvelles Bastilles »”

 

-        Panel 2: 10:30am-11:30pm

Theme: Trickery and Deception: Twisted Opinion/Tromperie et déception: l’opinion travestie

Chair: Colin Jones (Queen Mary University of London: Emeritus Professor of Cultural History; University of Chicago: Visiting Professor of History)

Doina Harsanyi (Central Michigan University: Professor of History, World Languages, and Cultures): “Wrongful Praising: flattery and strategies of survival in Napoleonic Italy”

Robert Morrissey (University of Chicago: Benjamin Franklin Professor of French Literature, and the Committee on Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities): “Mystification et Victimisation : Diderot le « Trickster » des Lumières.”

 

-        Lunch: 11:30-1:30pm

 

-        Panel 3: 1:30-2:30pm

Theme: Opinion on Trial: Legislation and Legalization/L'opinion en procès : législation et légalisation

Chair: Paul Cheney (University of Chicago: Professor of European History, Fundamentals, and the College)

Ryan Brown (University of Chicago: PhD Candidate in French and Francophone Studies): “The Autobiographer as Jurist: Rousseau's Confessions, the Practice of Judicial Proof, and the Court of Public Opinion”

Raphaël Cahen (JLU Giessen: Senior Researcher; Vrije Universiteit Brussel and École Pratique des Hautes Études: Guest Lecturer): “Les jurisconsultes du Ministère des affaires étrangères et l’opinion publique (1789-1830)”

 

-        Panel 4: 2:30-3:30pm

Theme: Representing and Measuring Public Opinion: Revolutionary Fever and its Excesses/Représenter et mesurer l'opinion publique : la fièvre révolutionnaire et ses excès

Chair: William H. Sewell Jr. (Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Political Science and History)

Maximilien Novak (University of Chicago: Humanities Teaching Fellow): “Le thermomètre de l'opinion publique : mesure de la fièvre sociale au tournant du 19ème siècle en France.”

Andrei Pop (University of Chicago: Allan and Jean Frumkin Professor, Committee on Social Thought, Art History, and the College): “‘The King’s Head or Bust’: aesthetic and political representations of popular mob beheadings”

 

-        Coffee Break: 3:30-4pm

 

-        Keynote address: 4-5pm

Keith Baker (J.E. Wallace Sterling Professor in Humanities and Professor, by courtesy, of French and Italian): “Public Opinion: Reason or Will?”

 

-        Dinner: 7pm

 

Day 2 (April 15, 2023)

 

-        Panel 5: 1-2pm

Theme: Public Opinion and Publicity: From Impostures to Posters/Opinion publique et publicité : de l'imposture aux posters

Chair: Robert Morrissey (University of Chicago: Benjamin Franklin Professor of French Literature, and the Committee on Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities)

Antoine Lilti (Collège de France: Chaire “Histoire des Lumière, XVIIIe siècle – XXIe siècle): "Charlatanism and imposture : the philosophes and the challenge of publicity"

Laurent Cuvelier (Université de Tours: Maître de conférence en histoire moderne): Walls speak : Advertisement and public opinion through 18th Century Parisian posters 

 

-        Panel 6: 2pm-3pm

Theme: New Perspectives: the development of questions around race and disability/Nouvelles perspectives : la question de la mise en valeur de la question raciale et des invalides

Chair: Yann Robert (University of Illinois Chicago: Associate Professor French and Francophone Studies)

Christy L. Pichichero (George Mason University: Associate Professor of History and French with affiliations in African and African American Studies, Women and Gender Studies, and War and the Military in Society Programs): “Public Opinion and Empire: a Black Epistemological Approach”

Thomas Ramonda (Aix-Marseille Université: Doctorant en histoire): “Prendre les invalides pour témoins : l’instrumentalisation du sort des militaires en Espagne dans le procès du système politique napoléonien”

 

-        Coffee break: 3-3:30pm

 

-        Final Roundtable: 3:30pm-4:30pm

Theme: “Public Opinion Today”

Moderator: Colin Jones (Queen Mary University of London: Emeritus Professor of Cultural History; University of Chicago: Visiting Professor of History

Participants: TBD (Open Invitation)

 

-        Concert: 6-7:30pm

Pianist: Pierre Delignies Caldéron

Location: Fulton Recital Hall (University of Chicago Campus) 5845 S. Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL, 60637