This year's Fauvel Lecture featured a talk on "Grains of Empire, Assimilating Couscous" by Professor Sylvie Durmelat (Georgetown University). Prof. Durmelat examined how couscous, once described as "the national dish of the Arabs" has now been crowned "the favorite dish of the French." More broadly she explored how colonization, decolonization, and their enduring legacy shape everyday food choices.
Prof. Brehm's new book Kaleidophonic Modernity (Fordham UP, 2023) explores the development of mechanical sound recording technology in the nineteenth century by charting the orbits of writers, scientists, and artists in France and the United States.
Denis M. Provencher of the University of Arizona delivered a lecture with the title "Abdellah Taïa's Transfilial Myth Making and Unfaithful Realms of Memory"