Venita Datta

I am a specialist of French cultural and intellectual history of the 19th and 20th centuries and am especially interested in the intersection of politics and culture, in particular, the relationship of gender and national identity. My first book is entitled Birth of a National Icon: The Literary Avant-Garde and the Origins of the Intellectual in France (1999). I recently completed a book called Heroes and Legends of Fin-de-Siecle France: Gender, Politics, and National Identity (Cambridge University Press, 2011).

I teach courses in French language as well as in French Cultural Studies. In addition to the introductory course in French Cultural Studies, I offer Myth and Memory in Modern France; La Belle Epoque, 1880-1914: Politics, Society and Culture; America through French Eyes; and Occupation and Resistance: The History and Memory of World War II in France. I taught a Wintersession course in Paris in 2010 called Pleasures of Paris: Paris in the Age of Mass Culture, 1860-1930. I am currently the director of the French Cultural Studies major.

I have served as president of the Western Society for French History (2000-2001) and am currently a co-editor of H-France, an online review of French history books. I am also a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Mary Isabel Sibley Fellowship Committee.

I enjoy cooking, which means I have to run. I also love mystery novels.