Papers and Talks
“Literary Property and Literary Sociability in the French Revolution: The Societe des auteurs dramatiques, the law of January 1791 and Public Domain,” American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies; Boston, MA; March 28, 2004.
“‘Ceci n’est pas un livre’ but ‘This is a History Book’: Reflections on Historiography in the Age of Electronic Scholarly Publication,” American Historical Association; Washington, DC; January 7, 2004.
“Beaumarchais and the Bastille: Social Identities and Political Change in 1789,” Western Society for French History; Newport Beach, CA; October 20, 2003.
“The End of Western Civilization as We Know It: Perils and Potentials of the Hybrid History Survey,”
Society for the Integration of Technology in Teacher Education; Albuquerque, NM; March 27, 2003.
“Spectacle of Letters: Visualizing Playwrights in 18th-Century France,” Clark Library conference on “Rousseau and the Visual,” Los Angeles; October 4, 2002.
“La liberté du théâtre (1789 – 1791): pouvoir, censure et propriété littéraire,” Musée de la Révolution française colloquium, “La Révolution française et les arts de la scène;” Grenoble, France; June 13, 2002.
“Les Règlements de la Comédie Française et les régles du jeu,” Collège de France seminar on “Droits d’auteur au XVIIIe siècle”; Paris, France; November 5, 2001.
“Social Hierarchy and Self-Image in the Age of Enlightenment: The Utility of Norbert Elias for 18th-Century French Historiography,” UCLA Interdisciplinary Forum on Early Modern and Medieval Studies; Los Angeles, CA; April 21, 2001.
“Reconsidering the Censorship of Gens de lettres in Old Regime France,”
American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies; New Orleans, LA; April 19, 2001.
“Becoming an Abolitionist: The Authorial Strategies of Olympe de Gouges
and her Esclavage des noirs, 1783-1792,”
American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies; Philadelphia, PA; April 14, 2000.
“Using the Internet to Teach the Humanities,” San Francisco State University; March 5, 2000.
“The Coming of the French Revolution in Multi-Media,” American Historical Association;
Chicago; January 9, 2000.
“Abolitionism and Self-Fashioning in Revolutionary Paris: Olympe de Gouges and the “‘Esclavage des noirs’,”Western Society for French History; Monterrey, CA; November 4, 1999.
“Beaumarchais and the Société des auteurs dramatiques in Cultural History and Historiography,” International Congress on the Enlightenment; Dublin, July 31, 1999.
“Playwriting for the Comédie Française, 1757 – 1780: Règlements and Rules of the Game,” King’s College, London; July 9, 1999.
“Do Plays Make Revolutions?”; Society for French Historical Studies; Washington, DC; March 20, 1999.
“Fashioning Intellectuals and honnête hommes in Pre-Revolutionary France,”
University of Nevada – Las Vegas; Las Vegas, NV; February 9, 1998.
“Of ‘Grand Masters’ and Grand-Daughters: Beaumarchais, Marie Antoinette and the Protection of Writers in late Old Regime France,” Society for Eighteenth-Century French Studies; Boston, MA; December 14, 1997.
“The Man of Letters between Court and Public in the Age of Enlightenment,” Hobart and William Smith Colleges; Geneva, NY; June 4, 1997.
“Invocations of the Public: Authorial Uses of Print and the Cultural Politics of Playwriting in France, 1771 – 1775,” American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies; Nashville, TN; April 10,1997.
“The Printing and Censoring of Dramatic Literature in the French Old Regime,” American Historical Association; New York; January 3, 1997.
“Theater and Public in Old Regime French History and Historiography,” East-Central Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies; Washington; November 3, 1996.
“Dramatic Authorship as a Strategy for Social Mobility in Eighteenth-Century Paris,”
Society for French Historical Studies; Boston, MA; March 23, 1996.
“Authorial Status and Strategies in the Theatrical Field of 1780,” NYU Graduate Student History Workshop; New York; March 7, 1996.
“Playwrights, Print and Cultural Politics in Old Regime France: The Société des Auteurs Dramatiques and the Comédie Française,” Yale University; February 13, 1996.
“Playwriting and Cultural Capital,” IXth International Congress of the Enlightenment; ; Munster, Germany; July 25, 1995.
“Negotiating Cultural Capital in the Old Regime,” Northeast-American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies;
New York, NY; October 7, 1994.
“Utopia, Criticism and Political Discourse in the French Enlightenment,” The Society for Utopian Studies; Baltimore, MD; November 22, 1992.