Decolonizing Scholarship in French and Francophone Studies with Laurent Dubois

Laurent Dubois is the John L. Nau III Bicentennial Professor in the History & Principles of Democracy and Director for Academic Affairs of the Democracy Initiative in the Department of French at the University of Virginia.

A specialist on the history and culture of the Atlantic world who studies the Caribbean (particularly Haiti), North America, and France, Dubois joined the University of Virginia in January 2021, and will also serve as the Democracy Initiative’s new co-director for academic affairs. In this role, Dubois will spearhead the Democracy Initiative’s research and pedagogical missions and will serve as the director and lead research convener of the John L. Nau III History and Principles of Democracy Lab—the permanent core lab of the Initiative which will operate as the connecting hub for the entire project.

Before coming to UVA, Dubois spent a decade at Duke University, where he founded the Forum for Scholars & Publics and taught as a professor of romance studies and history. Dubois also served as co-director of Duke’s Franklin Humanities Center Haiti Laboratory for three years.

The Nanovic Institute, with its strategic emphasis on “peripheries” and de-centering the center, is committed to fostering research and teaching that presents European studies in a new light. The Nanovic Institute is pleased to announce our spring 2023 lecture series, Decolonizing Scholarship. This series will feature scholars from various academic disciplines at the top of their fields engaging issues in disciplines including Philosophy, Theology, French and Francophone Studies, and Ethnic Studies. This event was recorded on March 31, 2023.

For more information visit the event website.