French Institute of Texas A&M University
Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs
About Us
The French Institute of Texas A&M University (Center d’Excellence) was founded in 2008 with the support of the French Cultural Services, the French Embassy, and the Office of the Provost at Texas A&M University. The French Institute of Texas A&M University is one of seventeen Centres d’Excellence or Centers of Excellence created by the French Cultural Services with prestigious American partner universities. The purpose of the French Institute and the Centers of Excellence is to foster Franco-American cultural and intellectual exchanges through sponsored lectures and colloquia involving French and American scholars, public intellectuals, and others. The Centers also encourage and contribute to curricular enhancements and student and teacher exchanges with France.
The French Institute of Texas A&M University hosts distinguished French historians, philosophers, activists, journalists and writers, including François Hollande, Former President of the French Republic, France’s famed Nazi hunter and lawyer Serge Klarsfeld, the philosopher Pascal Bruckner, the journalist Annette Levy-Willard, historians Henry Rousso and Stephane Audouin-Rouzeau, the novelist Laurent Binet, among many others.
Housed in the Bush School at the Scowcroft Institute, the French Institute of Texas A&M University works with other entities within the University including the Glasscock Center for Humanities Research, the Department of International Studies, and the Dean of Faculties Office in sponsoring events on campus. The Founding Director of the French Institute of Texas A&M University is Distinguished Professor and Senior Scowcroft Fellow Richard J. Golsan. The Advisory Board consists of Andrew Natsios, Director of the Scowcroft Institute; Leslie Ruyle, Associate Director of the Scowcroft Institute; Associate Provost and Professor of Spanish Sarah Misemer; and Department Head of International Studies and Associate Professor of German Stefanie Harris.
Our Team
Richard Golsan
Director of the French InstituteAdvisory Board
Past Events
On November 15, 2022, the French Institute of Texas A&M University (Center d’Excellence) and the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at the Bush School hosted “A Musical Salon, featuring tenor Benjamin Alunni and pianist Fernando Polomeque.”
On November 14, 2022, the French Institute of Texas A&M University (Center d’Excellence) and the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at the Bush School hosted “A Musical Salon Lecture featuring special guest Vincent Giroud.”
On February 6, 2020, the French Institute of Texas A&M University (Center d’Excellence) and the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at the Bush School hosted a round table discussion on the genocide of Rwandan Tutsi and its aftermath.
Recent Guest Speakers:
- Serge Klarsfeld, Lawyer and Activist, Paris
- Pascal Bruckner, Philosopher and Novelist, Paris
- Stéphane Audouin-Rouzeau, EHESS, Paris
- Anette Levy-Willard, Journalist, Paris
- Susan Suleiman, Dillon Professor of French, Harvard
- Lynn Higgins, Professor of French and Film, Dartmouth
- Brett Bowles, Associate Professor, Indiana University
- Helene Dumas, Senior Researcher, CNRS, Paris
- Pierre Lemaitre, Novelist, Paris
- Laurent Binet, Novelist, Paris
- Debarati Sanyal, professor of French, UC-Berkeley
Papers
Scowcroft Paper 14 | Crimes Against Humanity and Their Discontents: The French Case By Dr. Richard J. Golsan
Crimes Against Humanity and Their Discontents: The French Case
Dr. Richard J. Golsan
Richard J. Golsan is the Director of the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research and serves as University Distinguished Professor for the Department of International Studies and Distinguished Professor of French at Texas A&M University. His research interests include the history and memory of World War II in France and Europe and the political involvements of French and European writers and intellectuals with anti-democratic and extremist politics in the 20th and 21st centuries. Golsan served as a Visiting Professor at the University of Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle in 2001. He has been recognized by the Italian government in being named to the Ordina Della Stella Della Solidarieta Italiana and by the French government by being awarded the Palmes Academiques. He has served as Editor of the South Central Review (SCMLA) since 1994, and is also Director of the France/TAMU a Centre Pluridisciplinaire, funded by the French government.
Dr. Golsan has over 48 works in 186 publications and is currently at work on a book-length study entitled Corruptions of Memory: Crises of Post-Holocaust Remembrance in Contemporary France. His most recent publications include French Writers and the Politics of Complicity (Johns Hopkins, 2006), The Vichy Past in France Today: Corruptions of Memory (Lexington Books, 2016), and The Trial That Never Ends: Hannah Arendt’s ‘Eichmann in Jerusalem’ in Retrospect (University of Toronto Press, 2017).
Additional Papers
