ANNOUNCEMENTS

Call for Proposals: Manuscript Workshop

The Society for French Historical Studies seeks to support scholars in the completion of book manuscripts for publication at transformational moments in their careers. To that end, we invite historians of France and the francophone world to apply.

Commenters may include scholars with methodological affinities as well as topical expertise. We thereby hope to enable scholars to broaden their reflections on the significance of their work through temporal and geographical comparison. At the same time, this breadth would avoid replicating the peer review process of academic presses. The workshop will take place at the SFHS annual conference.

Eligibility: Topics related France and francophone world. This opportunity is limited to scholars who do not have institutional support for a manuscript workshop. 50% of the ms completed.

Application Process: Submit a two-page book proposal and cv to sfhs.ms.workshop@gmail.com by January 15, 2024

Call for Papers: Society for French Historical Studies

Annual Conference, March 14-16, 2024, Hofstra University, Hempstead Long Island
From the Interstices: Geographies, Identities, Solidarities, and Institutions in France, the Francophone World, and Beyond

We understand interstices (noun) to mean: a small opening or space between things or events, especially adjacent objects or objects set closely together: as between atoms in a crystal.

The March 2024 meeting of the Society for French Historical Studies will explore the complex considerations of and methodologies for examining the intersections of historical inquiry. For example, how do we lift up and make visible the spaces between geographies, intersectional identities, social solidarities, and/or the relationships between institutions and their constituents? As always, our program committee welcomes submissions on any aspect of French History, but we particularly encourage submissions that explore our theme of “From the Interstices: Geographies, Identities, Solidarities, and Institutions in France, the Francophone World, and Beyond” which we conceive as broadly as possible. We are also committed to creating a welcoming, antiracist, and diverse conference that embraces our Society’s anti-discriminatory mission of inclusiveness, political education, and equitable empowerment.

We seek a wide range of presentations, in English or French, including traditional panels (discussants optional – we are encouraging commentary from the audience), roundtables, or lightning sessions that reflect the variety of recent scholarship, pedagogical concerns, and contemporary issues. Innovative sessions, such as Critical Karaokés / Choreographies / Performances, Pecha Kucha or poster displays, are especially welcome. While Hofstra University and its partners areis underwriting many of the conference costs, we are still seeking funding to support the human and technological resources for teleconferencing a limited number of virtual sessions during the annual meeting without raising costs for members. We will also accommodate as many colleagues as possible using resources in place, including pre-conference Zoom panels on French Presse. Finally, we are committed to providing subsidies for graduate students and underemployed scholars to expand participation in this largely in-person conference, a sustaining feature of the Society’s identity.

To submit a panel, lightning session, roundtable or other format, submit a cover letter that briefly describes the panel and lists all panel participants, relevant affiliations, and their contact information. Panels typically consist of three paper presenters, a chair, and an optional discussant. Reminder: each presenter should also include a single-page paper proposal and an equally short CV.

Please submit proposals (preferably in Word or PDF) by October 1, 2023 to sfhs2024Hofstra@gmail.com. We cannot accept proposals for material that has already been presented or published, or that has been submitted for presentation in another forum.

Participants must be members of the Society for French Historical Studies in good standing at the time of the conference and must pay conference fees. Membership dues should be paid directly to Duke University Press. The Long Island Marriott Hotel will be the conference hotel; we will post and distribute information about rates as soon as they become available.

Questions? Concerns? Please contact Sally Charnow and Jeff Horn at sfhs2024Hofstra@gmail.com.

Topics might include: migrations, borderland geographies/histories; trans/ non-binary / queer gender histories; networks; art and politics / political art makers; alternative and imagined spaces; geographies of dissent, and/or resistance, and/or reconciliation; affinities; geographies of innovations and technologies/technological change; legal frameworks; visual culture including museums/exhibitions; cartoons, photographs, images, ephemera; religious communities and/or apostates, defectors, critics; media and politics; social movements and their constituents; leadership authority/authorship; teaching history/interdisciplinary studies at the intersections; human cyborg / monsters; inter-empire histories and/or histories that go between empire and metropole (or former colonies/former metropole); interdisciplinary artistic expressions.

Sponsored by the Department of History at Hofstra University. Additional sponsorship by Manhattan College.

Appel à communications: Société des études historiques françaises

Conférence annuelle, 14-16 mars 2024, Hofstra University, Hempstead Long Island

Sur des interstices dans le cadre des géographies, des identités, des solidarités et des institutions dans le monde francophone et au-delà

Nous entendons par le terme de interstice la possibilité ou l’existence d’une petite ouverture ou espace entre des choses ou des événements. C’est le cas, par exemple, lors de l’observation d’un cristal où apparaît l’existence d’un espace entre ses atomes.

La réunion de mars 2024 de la Société des études historiques françaises explorera les enjeux complexes et les méthodologies adéquates pour examiner les intersections dans le cas des enquêtes historiques en posant la problématique suivante : comment mettre en relief et rendre visibles les espaces entre les géographies existantes, les identités intersectionnelles, les solidarités sociales, ou encore les relations entre les institutions et leurs constituants ? Comme toujours, notre comité de programme accepte des soumissions sur tous les aspects de l'histoire française, mais nous encourageons particulièrement les soumissions qui explorent notre thème "Des interstices" : Géographies, identités, solidarités et institutions dans le monde francophone", que nous concevons de la manière la plus large possible. Nous nous engageons également à créer une atmosphère de conférence accueillante, antiraciste et diversifiée, qui s'inscrit dans la mission antidiscriminatoire de notre Société, à savoir, l'inclusion, l'éducation politique et l'autonomisation équitable.

Bien que Hofstra University et ses partenaires subventionnent la majorité des frais de la conférence, nous sommes encore à la recherche de fonds pour financer les ressources humaines pour qu’un certain nombre de participants puissent participer virtuellement à quelques sessions pendant la conférence annuelle sans augmenter la contribution de ses membres. De plus nous accueillerons autant de collègues que possible grâce aux ressources déjà disponibles, y compris des réunions virtuelles qui auront lieu dans les semaines qui précèdent le week-end new yorkais en utilisant la plateforme « French Presse ». Enfin, nous nous engageons à subvenir autant que possible aux frais de conférence et de voyage des chercheurs étudiantes et de nos collègues sous-employés pour élargir la participation à cette conférence principalement en personne, une caractéristique essentielle de l'identité de la société.

Pour proposer un panel, une séance éclair, une table ronde ou un autre format, il convient de soumettre une lettre d'accompagnement décrivant brièvement le panel et énumérant tous les participants au panel, leurs affiliations et leurs coordonnées. Les panels sont généralement composés de trois présentateurs, d'un président et d'un discutant facultatif. Rappel : chaque présentateur doit également inclure une proposition de communication d'une page et un CV tout aussi court. Veuillez soumettre vos propositions (de préférence en format Word ou PDF) avant le 1er octobre 2023 à l'adresse suivante : sfhs2024Hofstra@gmail.com. Nous ne pouvons pas accepter de propositions pour des documents qui ont déjà été présentés ou publiés, ni pour ceux qui ont été soumis pour présentation dans un autre forum.

Les participants doivent être membres en règle de la Society for French Historical Studies au moment de la conférence et doivent payer les frais de conférence. Les cotisations doivent être payées directement à Duke University Press. L'hôtel Long Island Marriott sera l'hôtel de la conférence ; nous afficherons et distribuerons des informations sur les tarifs dès qu'ils seront disponibles.

Des questions ? Veuillez contacter Sally Charnow et Jeff Horn à l'adresse sfhs2024Hofstra@gmail.com.

Les thèmes abordés pourraient être les suivants

- les migrations - les géographies/histoires des pays frontaliers - les histoires de genre trans/non-binaires/queer - les réseaux - l'art et la politique / les créateurs d'art politique - les espaces alternatifs et imaginaires - géographies de la dissidence, et/ou de la résistance, et/ou de la réconciliation - affinités - géographies des innovations et des technologies/changements technologiques - cadres juridiques - la culture visuelle, y compris les musées/expositions, les bandes dessinées, les photographies, les images, les documents éphémères -communautés religieuses et/ou apostats, transfuges, critiques - médias et politique - mouvements sociaux et leurs composantes - autorité des dirigeants/auteurs enseignement de l'histoire/études interdisciplinaires aux intersections - humain cyborg / monstres - histoires inter-empires et/ou histoires entre empire et métropole (ou anciennes colonies/anciennes métropoles) - expressions artistiques interdisciplinaires.

Call for Papers: Science, Technology, and Medicine in French and Francophone Histories

The editors of French Historical Studies seek articles for a special issue on the histories of science, technology, and medicine to appear in 2025. Topics may range chronologically from the medieval period forward; they may focus on France or move beyond the hexagon, exploring colonial, imperial, transnational, or global dimensions.

Ideally, the articles selected for this special issue will suggest the richness of scholarship on these topics in French and francophone contexts, reflect current concerns and approaches, and indicate productive future directions. We are particularly interested in papers that address the following themes, though authors are by no means limited to these:

Materials, materialism, and materiality
Epistemology and ontology
Data and archives
Affect, emotion, and sensory history
Circulation and mobilities

Scholars with questions about whether their research would fit into the special issue are encouraged to contact the guest editors, April Shelford (shelfor@american.edu) and Peter Soppelsa (peter.soppelsa@ou.edu).

To submit an article, visit www.editorialmanager.com/fhs/default.aspx. After registering, follow the submission instructions under “Instructions for Authors” on the website. Articles may be either in English or in French but must in either case conform to French Historical Studies style and must be accompanied by 150-word abstracts in both French and English. Manuscripts may be between 8,000 words and 12,000 words. For illustrations, stills, or film clips, authors must obtain written permission for both print and online publication from the relevant rights-holding persons or individuals.

Deadline for submission of papers to FHS is August 21, 2023.

Appel à articles : Les Savoirs scientifiques, technologiques, et médicaux dans l’histoire de la France et du monde francophone

Les éditrices de French Historical Studies lancent un appel à articles pour un numéro spécial de la revue sur l’histoire de la science, la technologie, et la médicine, à paraître en 2025. Toutes les périodes de l’histoire entrent dans notre champ d’investigation, de l’époque médiévale à nos jours. Les perspectives métropolitaines, coloniales ou transnationales ainsi que des approches pluridisciplinaires sont encouragées.

Les articles choisis pour ce numéro spécial vont représenter la richesse de la recherche et des approches actuelles dans ces domaines, tout et en indiquant des pistes de recherche prometteuses pour le futur. Une liste non-exclusive des thématiques envisagées comprend :

Matériaux, matérialisme, matérialité
Epistémologie et ontologie
Les données et les archives
Histoires des émotions, des sens et des sensibilités
Migrations et mobilités

Pour soumettre un article, veuillez consulter www.editorialmanager.com/fhs/default.aspx. Après vous être enregistré.e, suivez les instructions de la section « Instructions for Authors ». Les articles peuvent être soumis en anglais ou en français, mais, dans les deux cas, ils doivent être conformes au style de FHS, et doivent être accompagnés d’un résumé ou abstract de 150 mots, dans les deux langues. Les manuscrits doivent comporter entre 8 000 et 12 000 mots. Concernant les illustrations, prises de vue, ou extraits de film, les auteurs doivent obtenir la permission écrite de les publier sous forme papier et digitale de la part des personnes dépositaires des droits sur ces images ou extraits audiovisuels, ou de la part des responsables des institutions d’où les images sont originaires.

Les questions sont à adresser aux directrice et directeur du numéro spécial : April Shelford (shelfor@american.edu) et Peter Soppelsa (peter.soppelsa@ou.edu).

La date limite pour soumettre les articles est fixée au 21 août 2023.

SFHS and WSFH Annual Meeting
Boundaries and Encounters
Detroit, Michigan, March 16-19th, 2023

The Society for French Historical Studies and the Western Society for French History invite proposals for papers, panels, and other presentations for a joint conference in Detroit, MI. As a city built on a series of crossroads – both literal and figurative – Detroit offers a unique setting to explore this year’s theme: “Boundaries and Encounters.” Much of the history of France and the Francophone world incorporates the negotiation of boundaries between groups sharing spaces while ostensibly separated by class, ethnicity, race, gender, culture and other markers of identity. Detroit itself developed out of the interactions among French settlers, Indigenous peoples, and English military forces. This year’s conference will explore the ways that interactions, peaceful ones as well as those marked by violence, have shaped French and Francophone history. It also will interrogate how the meetings of varied cultures and groups shaped French culture in the metropole as well as in France’s global settlements.

We welcome papers and sessions that focus on any theme on France and Francophone history from the Middle Ages to the contemporary era. We especially welcome proposals that incorporate new voices and approaches to the study of France and the Francophone world. We invite proposals from colleagues in related disciplines and especially encourage the participation of graduate students and independent scholars. We also invite undergraduate students to submit posters for a poster session to be held during the conference.

The meeting this year is jointly sponsored by the Society for French Historical Studies and the Western Society for French History. Those participating will be invited to join both societies at a discounted rate for 2023. Sessions will take place in the Hollywood Greektown Casino Hotel in downtown Detroit between March 16 and March 19, 2023.

The program committee welcomes panels of different formats as well as individual papers. We encourage creative proposals that move beyond the traditional paper presentation including, but not limited to, roundtables, interactive workshops, pre-circulated papers, and teaching and curricular discussions.

Paper proposals should include a title, a one-paragraph abstract, an e-mail address for contact purposes, affiliation as you want it to appear on the program, and a one-page CV. Those submitting full panels should compile this material into a single document, with contact information for all participants on the first page. If you are proposing a different format, please include this information in the abstract. Please send proposals by October 21, 2022 to DetroitFrenchHistory2023@gmail.com.

We are currently planning for an in-person conference while monitoring the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, recognizing the inequities that the pandemic continues to exacerbate, the program committee is committed to offering a small number of hybrid panels. Both the SFHS and the WSFH also continue to offer free virtual events throughout the year.

We are committed to creating an accessible conference. If you might need accommodations in order to attend, please be in touch with us in advance about anything we can do to help.

The Society for French Historical Studies seeks applications for the position of Executive Director of the Society beginning 18 March 2023

Job description

The Executive Director is the Society's chief executive officer and gives continuity to the organizational life of the Society between meetings of the Executive Committee.
The Executive Director is appointed by the Executive Committee for a three-year term and may be reappointed.
The Executive Director is ex officio a member of the Executive Committee and remains a member for two years following retirement from office.

Duties

The Executive Director will lead the development of a mission statement that outlines the Society’s commitment to and goals for achieving diversity, equity, and inclusion within the Society and in its collaboration with other organizations.
The Executive Director works with the Society’s Treasurer and the Board to assure the financial stability of the Society.
The Executive Director prepares an agenda, circulating it among the governing board, in advance of each meeting of the Executive Committee.
The Executive Director chairs the awards luncheon/business session at the annual meeting.
The Executive Director works to identify sites for future conferences and future conference presidents as well as colleagues to join the Board and to staff committees.
Where appropriate, in routine matters requiring decisions between meetings of the Executive Committee, the Executive Director may poll committee members by mail, e-mail, or telephone.
The Executive Director conducts correspondence on Society affairs with all interested parties: members, officers of other organizations, and others.
The Executive Director is the Society’s designated representative to the American Historical Association and the American Council of Learned Societies and serves as liaison with the Western Society for French History, the French Colonial History Society, the Coordinating Council for Women in History.

Qualifications

Required:

Ph.D in History, or related discipline in French and Francophone Studies.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
A strong commitment to diversity, inclusivity, and transparency in organizational culture.
Demonstrated commitment to SFHS’s mission and desire to serve the Society.

Recommended/desired:

Service on the board of SFHS, the WSFHS, FCHS, or another North American scholarly organization.
Previous experience in academic leadership positions.

Workload

This position averages out to five hours of work per week, although there are times when the workload is higher (particularly around the SFHS’s annual conference).
This position is uncompensated.

To Apply

To apply, please send a statement of interest (maximum two pages) that includes the name of one-two referees to the search committee chair, Judith DeGroat jdegroat@stlawu.edu by 1 October 2022. Please address any questions about the position or process to Dr. DeGroat.

WSFH, SFHS, H-FRANCE, and FCHS Response to the Events of January 6, 2021

The Western Society for French History, the Society for French Historical Studies, H-France, and the French Colonial Historical Society endorse the American Historical Association’s powerful statement in defense of our democracy: Ransacking Democracy: AHA Statement on the Events of January 6 (see below). In addition to endorsing these remarks, however, we think it critical to foreground the dynamics of racism, antisemitism, misogyny, and religious intolerance in the events of January 6, 2021. We are outraged by the ways that structural racism and white supremacy were once again made evident in the starkly different approaches to policing in the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol versus the peaceful Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. This observation leads us to redouble our commitment to foster the teaching and study of race and racism, slavery and its afterlives, forms and legacies of colonialism, gender and sexuality, histories of law enforcement practices and criminal justice, violent insurgency and demagoguery, as well as processes that sustain free and fair elections, peaceful transitions of power, and democracy in the Francophone world and beyond.

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Ransacking Democracy: AHA Statement on the Events of January 6

Approved by AHA Council, January 8, 2021

The American Historical Association condemns the actions of those who, on January 6, stormed the United States Capitol, the seat of the nation’s legislature, the heart of its democratic form of governance. This assault on the very principle of representative democracy received recent explicit and indirect support from the White House and from certain senators and representatives themselves. Not since 1814, when the British looted and burned the Capitol, has the United States witnessed such a blatant attack on the “People’s House.”

Everything has a history. What happened at the Capitol is part of a historical process. Over the past few years, cynical politicians have nurtured and manipulated for their own bigoted and self-interested purposes the sensibilities of the rioters. We deplore the inflammatory rhetoric of all the political leaders who have refused to accept the legitimacy of the results of the 2020 election and thereby incited the mob—and this on the day when the nation reported 3,865 COVID-19 deaths, the highest number reported in a single day since the pandemic began.

We note with dismay the iconography of the banners carried by the mob—the flag with the visage of the president emblazoned on it, as if loyalty were due an individual and not the rule of law, and the flag of the Confederacy, signaling violence and sedition. Not by coincidence, those people who attacked the Capitol have been described by the current president and his advisers as “great patriots” and “American patriots.” The rioters were neither.

A day that began with two significant “firsts”—the election of Georgia’s first African American senator and that state’s first Jewish senator—ended with Congress performing its duties according to the Constitution. Yet during the day we witnessed the unprecedented spectacle of a group of Americans desecrating the sacred space of the nation’s Capitol, and terrorizing everyone in it.

As historians, we call upon our fellow citizens and elected representatives to abide by the law and tell the truth. Our democracy demands nothing less of ourselves and of our leaders.

AHA Statement on the History of Racist Violence

The Society for French Historical Studies announces that it has signed the American Historical Association's powerful statement against racist violence in the United States. Please read the text here.

Open Letter about Access to Materials at the Service historique de la Défense at Vincennes

Along with many of our fellow societies, the Society for French Historical Studies has signed the letter below to express our collective dismay at the new procedures relating to the communication of documents held by the Service historique de la Défense at Vincennes.

Monsieur Le Président de la République Emmanuel Macron,
Madame le Ministre des Armées Florence Parly,
Monsieur Le Ministre de la Culture Franck Riester,
Madame Claire Landais, Secrétaire Générale de la Défense et de la Sécurité Nationale,
Monsieur Pierre Laugeay, Directeur du Service historique de la Défense,

Chères Madames, Chers Messieurs,

Le 15 janvier 2020, le Service historique de la Défense (SHD) à Vincennes a annoncé l'application d'une nouvelle consigne surprenante du Secrétariat Général de la Défense et de la Sécurité Nationale (SGDSN): tous les documents classifiés, même ceux créés il y a plus de 50 ans, doivent désormais être formellement déclassifiés avant de pouvoir être communiqués au public. Nous, chercheurs travaillant sur la France provenant du monde entier, en sommes profondément inquiets.

De prime abord, cette consigne ne fait que reprendre les principes déjà énoncés par l'Instruction Générale Interministérielle 1300 sur la protection du secret de la Défense nationale de 2011. Mais en pratique, elle représente une rupture radicale. Depuis des décennies, nous avons effectué nos recherches dans les archives françaises avec des documents classifiés qui sont communicables après la limite de 50 ans déterminée par les articles L.213-1 et L.213-2 du Code du Patrimoine. Or, l’accès à ces mêmes documents qui étaient librement communicables sont maintenant restreints. En principe, cette consigne ne devrait mener que à des délais plus ou moins longs pour les chercheurs, étudiants et citoyens qui souhaiteraient consulter des archives classifiées. En pratique cette nouvelle pratique a tout simplement interrompu leur communicabilité indéfiniment. Comme la consigne est ambiguë et qu'aucune explication n'est venue accompagner pour ce changement, le SHD a tout simplement gelé l'accès à des documents essentiels aux recherches sur la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale, la guerre d'Indochine, et la guerre d'Algérie. Nos collègues effectuant des recherches à Vincennes se sont vus refusés leurs demandes de consultation sans moyen de faire appel. La recherche scientifique n'est pas juste ralentie, elle est actuellement complètement interrompue.

Quelle que soit la motivation à l'origine de cette nouvelle consigne, son effet est désastreux. Tout d'abord, le travail que ce changement implique pour le personnel des archives est énorme. Les documents portant mention de classification ne sont pas rangés à l'écart des autres documents; le même dossier ou carton d'un fonds peut contenir des douzaines de documents portant mention de classification qui devront tous être déclassifiés individuellement avant de pouvoir être communiqués. Les services d'archives étaient déjà surchargés et en sous-effectif avant cette directive. Comment pourraient-ils assumer la quantité de travail supplémentaire pour gérer le flux de demandes de déclassification qui arriveront désormais?

Deuxièmement, cette consigne, annoncée de manière abrupte, perturbe profondément l'activité des chercheurs. Si ses effets se font déjà ressentir au SHD à Vincennes, il est certain qu'elle affectera également la communicabilité de documents aux Archives Nationales à Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, aux Archives Nationales d'Outre-Mer à Aix-en-Provence, et dans bien d'autres dépôts d'archives. Jusqu'à ce que des consignes claires sur la déclassification des archives soient émises, chercheurs et citoyens ne pourront pas être certains d'obtenir l'accès à des vastes quantités de documents essentiels à leurs recherches.

Troisièmement, et c'est ce qu'il y a de plus grave, les effets de cette consigne sont profondément régressifs et contraires à la démocratie. La vaste majorité des documents concernés par cette consigne ont déjà été librement communicables depuis bien longtemps. Leur confidentialité est désormais caduque. Depuis plusieurs années, les efforts politiques et scientifiques pour ouvrir les archives sur la période de Vichy et la guerre d'Algérie au public ont mené à des recherches importantes et sont à la base de débats publics essentiels au fonctionnement de notre République. Le président de la République lui-même a reconnu l'importance de ce travail en septembre 2018, quand il a reconnu l'usage de la torture sur Maurice Audin par l'armée française en Algérie, et a demandé l'ouverture des archives à ce sujet. Et pourtant, nous voyons maintenant l'accès à ces mêmes archives effectivement interrompu. Des documents consultés depuis des années sont rescellés, et nous ne savons pas quand ou comment ils seront communicables. En pratique, cette consigne revient à annuler les décisions qui depuis plusieurs années tendent à ouvrir les archives. Elle porte un coup d'arrêt brutal à la recherche au moment précis où tant de progrès ont été réalisés, et où tant de recherches restent encore à faire. Celles-ci ne pourront s'accomplir que dans des conditions d'accès claires et apaisées.

Nous, chercheurs sur la France, professeurs, étudiants, citoyens, demandons clarification de ces nouvelles consignes sur la déclassification des documents. Surtout, nous exigeons l'accès à ces documents comme prévu par le code du patrimoine. Les documents soumis par cette consigne à la déclassification sont essentiels non pas juste pour la recherche scientifique, mais également pour le patrimoine et le bon fonctionnement de la République. Faut-il le rappeler, depuis 1794, il est un principe fondamental que les archives appartiennent à la Nation et qu'elles sont consultables par les citoyens. Ces documents ont déjà été communicables, il n'y a pas de raison que cela change.

Signés
L’Association Charles Gide pour l'étude de la pensée économique
L'Association française d'histoire économique
Cahiers d’histoire. Revue d’histoire critique
Centre de recherches et d’études en civilisation britannique
Comité Franco-Allemand de recherches sur l’histoire de la France et de l’Allemagne aux XIXème et XXème siècles
Comité de vigilance face aux usages publics de l'histoire
Council for European Studies
The French Colonial Historical Society
The George Rudé Society
H-France
Middle East Studies Association
North American Society for Intelligence History
Revue d'histoire des sciences humaines
Société des Anglicistes de l’Enseignement Supérieur
The Society for French Historical Studies
Society for the Study of French History
Western Society for French History

Messieurs, Mesdames,

On January 15th, the Service historique de la Défense at Vincennes announced that the Secrétariat général de la défense et de la sécurité nationale had imposed a startling new policy: all classified documents – even those more than 50 years old – must be formally declassified before they can be communicated to the public. We, scholars of France from across the globe, are deeply concerned.

The policy formally enforces principles that were already outlined in the 2011 Instruction Interministérielle 1300 sur la protection du secret de la Défense nationale, but it represents a radical break in practice. For decades, we have worked in French archives with classified documents that have been released after the 50-year limit outlined by Articles L.213-1 and L.213-2 of the Code du Patrimoine. Now, those same documents that have been publicly available are once again restricted. While in principle the change in policy means only delays for scholars, students, and citizens hoping to consult classified archives, in practice the new policy has halted access altogether. A clear policy for declassifying these archives has not been articulated, and no explanation for the change has been given. Faced with this incertitude, the Service historique de la Défense (SHD) has frozen access to critical documents related to the Second World War, Indochina, and the Algerian War. Our colleagues working at Vincennes have been denied their requests for documents with no means of appeal. Scientific research has ground to a halt.

Whatever the reason for the change in policy, its effects are disastrous. First, the work implied by this change for French archival staff is enormous. Classified documents are not segregated from other documents; a single dossier or carton from any given collection may contain dozens of classified documents that will each require declassification before they can be released. Archives are already overburdened and understaffed. How will they handle the additional work of processing the flood of declassification requests that are sure to come?

Second, this policy change, announced abruptly and with little warning, is deeply disruptive for research. While its effects have already been felt at Vincennes, this policy change will also affect the communicability of documents held at the Archives Nationales in Pierrefitte, at the Archives Nationales d’Outre-Mer in Aix-en-Provence, and at dozens of other locations. Until clear policies and procedures have been outlined for the declassification of archives, scholars and citizens alike cannot be sure that they will be able to access to vast numbers of documents that are vital to their research.

Third, and most importantly, this policy change signals a deeply regressive and undemocratic shift. The vast majority of documents affected by this policy change have already been made publicly accessible, sometimes for decades. Their secrecy has been rendered moot. The efforts of policymakers and historians to open the archives on Vichy and Algeria to the public have yielded critical insights and provoked important public debates that are essential to the health of the Republic. President Macron himself recognized the significance of this task in September 2018, when he acknowledged the torture of Maurice Audin by French forces in Algeria. And yet now, we find our access restricted. Documents we have utilized for decades have been re-sealed, and we do not know how or when they will be reopened. In effect, this policy amounts to a reversal of recent decisions to open the archives on Vichy and Algeria. Our research has been arrested at a moment when so much progress has been made, and yet so much remains to be done.

We, scholars of France – professors, researchers, students, citizens – demand clarification on the new policies governing the declassification of documents. More critically, we demand straightforward access. The documents now subject to declassification are critical not only to scientific research, but to French patrimony and to the functioning of the Republic's institutions. Must we recall that since 1794, it is a fundamental principle that archives belong to the nation and can thus be accessed by citoyens. These documents have already been open to consultation, and there is no reason that should change.

Signed,
L’Association Charles Gide pour l'étude de la pensée économique
L'Association française d'histoire économique
Cahiers d’histoire. Revue d’histoire critique
Centre de recherches et d’études en civilisation britannique
Comité Franco-Allemand de recherches sur l’histoire de la France et de l’Allemagne aux XIXème et XXème siècles
Comité de vigilance face aux usages publics de l'histoire
Council for European Studies
The French Colonial Historical Society
The George Rudé Society
H-France
Middle East Studies Association
North American Society for Intelligence History
Revue d'histoire des sciences humaines
Société des Anglicistes de l’Enseignement Supérieur
The Society for French Historical Studies
Society for the Study of French History
Western Society for French History

Endorsement of AHA Statement

The SFHS has endorsed the AHA’s August 2019 statement on Domestic Terrorism, Bigotry, and History. Click here to read the statement.

Statement on Proposed Reforms to French Archival Conservation Policies

November 23, 2017

As historians of France and the Francophone world, we join our French colleagues in expressing alarm at the proposal, revealed in Le Monde on 14 November 2017, to revise the policies governing the conservation of French government archives. We are especially concerned by the concept of “archives essentielles,” advanced as the criterion for eliminating present and future archival holdings, and by the idea that digitization be substituted for the conservation of physical documents. We recognize that there are practical considerations of space and cost that go into any conservation decisions. Not everything can be preserved. But as researchers who make extensive use of the national and departmental archives overseen by the Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, we are puzzled by the sudden shortage of space so soon after the opening of the new Archives nationales site at Pierrefitte, designed specifically to expand the storage capacity of the Archives nationales now and in the future. Digitization is not a magic bullet solution to problems of space and cost, either. Initial processing and electronic storage entail considerable expense, and technological obsolescence makes digitized materials highly vulnerable to degradation and rapid inaccessibility. These risks make digitization an unacceptable alternative to physical preservation.

As representatives of the international scholarly community of historians of France, we see a real danger that undermining the guiding archival fundamental principles of transparency and accessibility will marginalize the practice of French history and endanger its leading position within the discipline of history worldwide. Because we agree that archives and the access they provide to the past are “essentielles pour les générations futures” of both the French Republic and the international research community, we urge the Ministry of Culture to consult fully with citizens, archivists, and historians before taking any steps that might result in the destruction or elimination of irreplaceable archival materials.

Signed,

Executive Committee, French Colonial Historical Society
Executive Committee, Society for French Historical Studies
Governing Council, Western Society for French History
Editorial board, H-France
Trustees, Society for the Study of French History
Executive Committee, George Rudé Society
Executive Committee, Australian Society for French Studies

A New Chapter in Society History:
The Institut Français d’Amérique Becomes Part of the SFHS

27 March 2017

The Society for French Historical Studies is pleased to announce the signing of an agreement that will, in effect, fold the venerable Institut Français d’Amérique into the SFHS. Founded in December 1926 as the Institut Français de Washington, under the leadership of Thomas H. Healy, Louis T. Rouleau, and James Brown Scott, who became its first president, the IFA was dedicated to promoting the study of French civilization, history, literature, and art in the United States, and preserving the history of French missionaries, educators, explorers, settlers, scholars, and artists in North America. The Institut established several awards to encourage the work of scholars in these areas: the Gilbert Chinard Historical Prize, awarded annually to the best American book on the history of French-American relations (on the recommendation of a committee charged by the SFHS); the Harmon Chadbourn Rorison Prize, the Edouard Morot-Sir Fellowship in French Literature; and the Gilbert Chinard research fellowships, awarded annually to doctoral candidates and untenured junior professors who need funds to underwrite research in France on French culture and history. In pursuit of these goals, the IFW (now the IFA) has benefited from many donations and gifts. A bequest of $50,000 from the Chicago industrialist Henry C. Morris in 1972 was of particular importance to the continuation of the Institute’s endeavors.

The agreement signed with the Society for French Historical Studies will allow the IFA to continue its good work under the auspices of the SFHS. The essence of this new relationship will see the monies of the Institute transferred to a fund under the control of the Society, and to which the Society will add further monies. The IFA fund thereby constituted will be disbursed for two purposes. First, it will continue to contribute one half the award for the annual Gilbert Chinard Book Prize, the criteria for which will remain unchanged. Second, the new IFA fund will provide support advanced graduate students and early-career, untenured faculty working on French history and culture, who need to do research in France, though the provision of two research fellowships annually. Responsibility for selecting the recipients will fall to the Society’s Research and Travel Award Committee. Furthermore, these fellowships will, on an alternating basis, be named, in the one case, the Gilbert Chinard Fellowship or the Harmon Chadbourn Rorison Fellowship; and in the other, the Edouard Morot-Sir Fellowship or the Catherine Maley Fellowship. In the not-too-distant future, the SFHS website will include a brief biographical note about each of these individuals, along with announcements about the prizes and, subsequently, the names and affiliations of the winners. The website will also contain a brief summary of the history and achievements of the IFA.