A three-year collaborative project between UCLA and the Université François Rabelais of Tours (France) has been launched, based on a research program, "From Passions to Emotions: Non-Fictional Representations of the Individual (1680-1850)." It is being financed jointly by the PUF (Partner University Fund USA-France), and by the two partner universities, according to the UCLA College Division of the Humanities.
The program, spearheaded by UCLA professor of French and Francophone studies Malina Stefanovska and literature professor Marie-Paule De Weerdt-Pilorge of the University of Tours, is aimed at studying passions and emotions in non-fictional writings, such as memoirs, journals, correspondences and all artistic forms of self-representation in an age witnessing profound changes for the individual and for society.
It will include faculty and graduate student exchange, organization of scholarly conferences and publication of research findings. The program will be kicked off this spring by an international scholarly conference in Tours on the topic of “Representations of the self and networks of sociability (1680-1850).”
The Partner University Fund is a unique transatlantic initiative launched in 2007 by the French Embassy in the United States to foster forward-looking research collaboration at the highest level. Funded by French and American donors, the Partner University Fund unites cutting-edge labs and universities on both sides of the Atlantic to tackle critical challenges of the 21st century.
By linking the most talented scholars from France and the U.S. and training a new generation of young leading researchers, the fund seeks to boost the quality of scientific and humanistic research and accelerate breakthroughs while building sustainable institutional partnerships.
The Partner University Fund is a program of the FACE Foundation, an American nonprofit (501C3) partner organization of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States that strives to generate and promote French-American collaboration in the arts, education, and cultural exchange through innovative projects between creative professionals from both countries.