Scott Gunther

My research interests include the mass media, gender and sexuality, Franco-American relations, Franco-German relations, France and the European Union, and comparative (French/American) law. My book, The Elastic Closet: A History of Homosexuality in France, 1942-Present, examines gay politics in contemporary France with a focus on the complex relationship between French republican values and the possibilities they offer for social change. My latest project looks at popular media representations of France's relations with other countries. Though these representations may not be the most reliable sources of information in terms of what they can tell us about other countries, they do provide valuable insight into how French people imagine themselves. I have just completed a study of popular representations of the Franco-German friendship and am in the early stages of a study of the French media's portrayals of Franco-Chinese relations.

I teach from a broad, interdisciplinary perspective, relying on the contributions of disciplines as diverse as law, gender and sexuality studies, anthropology, history, sociology, and cultural studies. It is gratifying for me as a specialist of contemporary French society to be in a place like Wellesley that offers me the chance to teach courses so closely related to my academic training in the interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in French Cultural Studies at NYU and to my sociological research on contemporary France.

The Elastic Closet: A History of Homosexuality in France