A specialist of nineteenth- and twentieth-century French cultural and intellectual history, Vinni Datta is interested in the relationship of politics and culture, particularly in the formation of national identity.  She is the author of Heroes and legends of Fin-de-Siècle France: Gender, Politics and National Identity (2011) and Birth of a National Icon: The Literary Avant-Garde and the Origins of the Intellectual in France (1999). She has recently begun work on a new book project on French images of Americans and the United States in Belle-Epoque France. Professor Datta teaches a variety of courses in cultural history, among them French 332, “Myth and Memory in Modern France,” French 349, “La Belle Epoque,” French 229, “America Through French Eyes: Perspectives and Realities;” and French 207, the introductory course in French Cultural Studies. Professor Datta is a past president of the Western Society for French History (2001) and is currently the co-Editor of the H-France Forum and a member of the editorial board of French Historical Studies.