Background

I was born in Nice (Provence, France) and partly brought up in the Sahara desert, where I have been travelling since I was a child. For that reason, I was educated through the CNED (National Centre for Distance Learning, France). During that period, I became closely associated to the activities of my father, the French desert photographer and publisher Alain Sèbe, with whom I still regularly publish photographic books. I studied for my first degree (licence) and Master’s (maîtrise) at the University of Aix-en-Provence, and for my doctorate at the University of Oxford (D.Phil in Imperial and Commonwealth History). During my time there, I also organised the Oxford University Expedition to Mauritania. My first full-time academic position was at the university of Durham, where I was a lecturer in African and imperial history (2007-8).

Teaching

I teach for both the French Department and the Culture, Society and Communication (CSC) programme. In French, I teach prose to fourth-year students and I contribute to the teaching of the ‘Cinema, Media and Visual Culture’ module. For CSC, I teach on the First Year modules ‘Media, Culture and Communication’ and ‘Cultural Analysis: Media and Cultural Research Methods’, as well as on the Second Year modules ‘Cultural Theory: Analysis and Application’ and ‘European Media Culture’. I convene with Dr Joanne Sayner the module ‘Media, Culture and Communication’ and I co-ordinate the Year Abroad dissertation students for CSC.

Research

My research interests lie mainly in the history of nineteenth and twentieth century European imperialisms, decolonization and post-colonialism, with particular emphasis on the popular reception of imperialism and Empire-related subjects in the metropolitan centres.

My doctoral research looked at the processes of selection, construction and promotion of colonial heroes in Britain and in France between 1870 and the Second World War. It has led me to consider the variety of media which were used to promote the imperial idea in the metropolises, the networks of producers and systems of patronage which sustained them, and the reception of heroic propaganda by various types of audience. Drawing upon a variety of unpublished archives, it also analysed the various political, economic and individual interests which these cultural constructions served. I am currently revising this work for publication.

With colleagues from the European Studies Centre (University of Oxford), and as part of the ‘Re-Thinking Europe in a Non-European World’ project, I work on the legacy of Europe’s colonial past upon the EU and in its relations with the rest of the world. Developing comparative approaches to European imperialisms allows us to evaluate the extent to which colonial expansion stemmed from a core of shared assumptions and values while exacerbating political and economic rivalries, and how these conflicting roots and effects are negotiated in the post-colonial world against which the EU took shape.

On a more general level, I am interested in the history of Third- and Fourth-Republic France, and in Franco-British relations since the mid-nineteenth century. My next project looks at the practice and effects of colonial and post-colonial photography in Africa from the 1860s until the 1970s.

I am also an active member of the FRANCOPOCO Network.

Areas of interest

British and French imperial history; decolonisation; post-colonialism

British and French popular imperialism

Comparative European colonialisms

History of the Sahara from 1880 to the present

Late modern French history; Franco-British relations

Publications

Doctoral thesis

“Celebrating” British and French imperialism: The Making of Colonial Heroes Acting in Africa (1870-1939), D. Phil, University of Oxford, 2007, supervised by Dr John Darwin, examined by Professors Judith M. Brown and John M. MacKenzie.

Book chapters

• ‘From Thoissey to the Capital via Fashoda: Major Marchand, partisan icon of the Right in Paris’, in J. Irons (ed.), Paris and the Right in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2006).
• Forthcoming: ‘Colonial celebrities in popular culture: Heroes of the British and French empires in the media, 1850-2000’, in R. Clarke (ed.), Celebrity Colonialism (forthcoming: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008).
• Forthcoming: ‘Aventurières et voyageuses en Afrique de l’Ouest’, in R. Little (ed.), Actes du Colloque international Lucie Cousturier, Les tirailleurs sénégalais et la question coloniale, (forthcoming: L’Harmattan (Paris), 2008).

Articles

• Forthcoming: ‘In the shadow of the Algerian war: the United States and the Common Organisation of Saharan Regions/Organisation commune des régions sahariennes (OCRS), 1957-62’. Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History.
• Forthcoming: ‘Porte-drapeaux de l’Empire : la promotion des héros coloniaux français et britanniques de la conquête de l’Afrique à la Seconde Guerre mondiale’. Synergies Royaume-Uni et Irlande.
• ‘Comment écrire l'histoire contemporaine en huit questions ?’, Vingtième Siècle, No. 92, Oct.-Dec. 2006. (With other authors).

Selected non-academic publications

• Tibesti, Sahara interdit (ed., with Alain Sèbe) (Vidauban, 2005).
• Sahara, the Atlantic to the Nile, photos Alain Sèbe (London, 2003).
• Saharas, entre Atlantique et Nil, photos Alain Sèbe (Paris, 2001).
• Redjem, Libye des grands espaces, photos Alain Sèbe and Berny Sèbe (Vidauban, 2000).
• Alain Sèbe, L’Image du Sahara (Vidauban, 1999).

Conference and seminar papers

• Forthcoming: ‘Under Livingstone’s shadow? The making of French imperial heroes under the Third Republic’, Modern French Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, 2 February 2009.
• ‘Confronting or endorsing French late colonial designs? Algerian and American reactions to the Organisation Commune des Régions Sahariennes, 1957-1962’, Annual Conference of the Society for the Study of French History (SSFH), Aberystwyth, 4 July 2008
• ‘La gloire des empires français et britannique : les représentations des héros coloniaux en Afrique (1870-1939)’, Centenary of the Franco-British Exhibition (London 1908) International Conference, Arts et cultures au tournant du siècle, Institut Français du Royaume-Uni (IFRU), London, 25-27 June 2008.
• ‘Aventurières et voyageuses en Afrique de l’Ouest’, Colloque international Lucie Cousturier, Les tirailleurs sénégalais et la question coloniale, Espace culturel de Port-Fréjus, Fréjus, 13-14 June 2008.
• ‘Perspectives on European sea-borne imperialisms: the British and French experiences’, Conference “Echoes of Imperialism: Re-Thinking European Colonialisms”, University of Oxford, 9 May 2008.
• ‘British and French popular culture of Empire’, Departmental Seminar, University of Durham, 20 February 2008.
• 'Explorateurs et conquérants du Sahara’, Villa aurélienne, Fréjus, 20 November 2007.
• 'L'inscription des héros coloniaux dans le quotidien français et britannique’, Marc Bloch Centre for Social Sciences (in partnership with the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Berlin, 6 July 2007.
• ‘Celebrating British and French imperialism: The Making of Colonial Heroes acting in Africa, 1870-1939’, Imperial History Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, 5 February 2007.
• ‘Icons of Empire: British and French Imperial Heroes, 1870-1930’, 1st Conference in Imperial and Commonwealth History, Sheffield Univeristy, 25 May 2006.
• ‘Spreading universalities: British and French imperial heroes, 1850-1940’, Sixth Harvard Graduate Student Conference, Harvard University, 17-18 March 2006.
• ‘L'appel du désert’, Ecole Supérieure de Commerce, Clermont-Ferrand, 12 May 2005.
• ‘The Making of British and French Imperial Heroes (1870-1930)’, Cambridge World History Workshop, St Catharine’s College, Cambridge University, 3 February 2005.
• ‘Imperial marketing and entente coloniale: The making of French colonial heroes (1870-1930)’, Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies, Second annual conference, London, Institut français, 26-27 November 2004.
• ‘Celebrating British and French Imperial Heroes, 1870-1930’, Commonwealth History Seminar, Faculty of Modern History, Oxford University, 7 March 2003.
• I have also co-convened the conference ‘Echoes of Imperialism: Re-Thinking European Colonialisms’ (9-10 May 2008, Faculty of Modern History, Oxford University), the Durham Colonial and Post-Colonial Centre Seminar series (Epiphany and Easter terms 2008) and the Commonwealth History Research Seminar (Hilary term 2006, Faculty of Modern History, Oxford University).
• I am a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) and a member of the American Historical Association. In Birmingham, I am a member of the Centre for Second World War Studies.