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Dr Madeleine Chalmers

Lecturer in French Studies

Profile picture of Dr Madeleine Chalmers

School/Department: School of Arts

Email: mcc54@leicester.ac.uk

Profile

Before joining Leicester in 2023, I completed undergraduate and postgraduate studies in French at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and held teaching positions at Wadham College (University of Oxford) and Durham University.

My research revives modern French avant-garde writings to engage critically with twenty-first-century questions in the fields of science, technology, and epistemology. By uncovering unacknowledged genealogies for our current preoccupations, I hope to articulate how highly particular texts function on their own terms – in their time and place – while allowing them a presence, now and in the future.

My first monograph, French Technological Thought and the Nonhuman Turn (Edinburgh University Press, 2024) traces a genealogy of thinking and writing about technology, while my current research project – DIY Epistemologies – deepens my exploration of eclecticism and bricolage in our digital context.

I am a member of the Institute for Digital Culture and the Leverhulme Centre for Humanity and Space. Within the School of Arts, Media and Communication, I lead the HESTIA research cluster, focused on the intersection of the humanities with health, the environment, science, and technology.


Research

Selected publications

Books

. Available for free and .

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

“Introduction: French Perspectives on Conflict,” in French Perspectives on Conflict, special issue of Journal of Romance Studies, Vol. 22, No. 3 (2022), 303-09

 

Book Chapters

“Bricolage, Wild Thought, and Automated Knowledge,” in The Human and the Machine in Literature and Culture: Cultures of Automation, ed. by Kate Foster and Molly Crozier, forthcoming with Routledge.

“Villiers de l’Isle-Adam,” in The Literary Encyclopedia, ed. Robert Clark et al.,<> (2020)

 

Edited Journal Issues

French Perspectives on Conflict, special issue of Journal of Romance Studies, Vol. 22, No. 3 2022).

 

Translations

Emmanuel Falque, “Wrestling with the Angel,” in Fragility and Transcendence: Essays on the Thought of Jean-Louis Chrétien, ed. by Jeffrey Bloechl (Washington, DC: Rowman & Littlefield, 2023), 63-81

Supervision

I would be delighted to hear from prospective graduate students who share my interests, in particular:

  • modern and contemporary French literature and thought
  • historic avant-gardes
  • intersections between science, technology, and culture

Teaching

Undergraduate

  • EN3060 Science Fiction: Exploring Space and Time
  • FR1014 20th Century Literature
  • FR2010 French Language (Post-Advanced)
  • FR2018 French Language (Post-Beginners)
  • FR2030 Politics, Technology, and Ecology in Francophone Culture
  • FR2045 Media and Cultural Practices in France
  • FR3111 French Language (Proficiency)
  • ML1015: Introduction to Modern Language Studies
  • ML1016: Thinking Conflict and Revolution in Europe and Beyond
  • ML1017: Visual and Textual Analysis across Cultures
  • MS3013 Media and the Body

I supervise:

  • ML3176 Extended Essay in Modern Languages

Postgraduate

  • MS7009 Contemporary Issues in Media and Culture
  • SY7037 Social and Cultural Theory
  • SY7043 Exploring the Social World

I supervise

  • MS7012 Dissertation in Media and Communication

I am programme director for the MA in Media, Culture, and Society.

Activities

I am the Assistant Editor of French Studies Bulletin and member of the executive committee of the Society for French Studies. Within the University, I am Director of Student Recruitment for the School of Arts, Media and Communication, admissions tutor for Modern Languages, programme director for the MA in Media, Culture, and Society. I also sit on the University's AI Strategy Group, and am a Fellow of the Institute for Digital Culture. From 2023-25, I was a member of the executive committee for Literary Leicester.

Awards

Selected awards

2025    Society for French Studies Malcolm Bowie Prize (runner-up)

2023    Durham University Discretionary Award for Excellent Contribution

2023   Paragraph Essay Prize: ‘Unconjugating Community with Fernand Deligny and Jean-Luc Nancy’

2018    Society for French Studies R. Gapper Postgraduate Essay Prize: ‘The Surreal Technics of André Breton and Gilbert Simondon’

Interests

My research interests include:

  • intellectual history
  • science and technology studies
  • mystic theology
  • avant-gardes
  • speculative fiction
  • digital and media studies

Media coverage

French Technological Thought and the Nonhuman Turn was featured on the .

In October 2024, I collaborated with the Phoenix Cinema and Arts Centre to produce a surrealism mini-season, culminating in a Surrealist Soirée event, to celebrate the centenary of the publication of André Breton's Surrealist Manifesto.

Leicester celebrates century of Surrealism

 

Qualifications

Education

 

  • D.Phil. Medieval and Modern Languages (French), University of Oxford, 2021
  • M.Phil. European, Latin American and Comparative Literatures and Cultures, University of Cambridge, 2017
  • B.A. (Hons.) Modern Languages: French, University of Oxford, 2016

 

Further qualifications

  • SEDA Supporting Learning Award, University of Oxford, 2019
  • Diploma in Translation, Chartered Institute of Linguists, 2016
  • Online Course in Subtitling, University College London, 2015

 

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