Cultural diplomacy has gained extraordinary significance in European international relations since the end of the nineteenth century as countries faced challenges in their Empire and as military force on foreign soil became increasingly contested. This project examines the making of this new aspect of foreign policy from the late nineteenth century until the beginning of the Second World War, with a focus on three case studies: Britain, France and Germany. The US will also be analysed as a battled ground for the cultural diplomacies of these western European countries. Employing an interdisciplinary approach – drawing on diplomatic and political history, cultural studies, transnationalism and textual analysis, the project will examine a broad range of private and diplomatic documents, as well as published pamphlets and media sources. The project’s first objective is to evaluate why European countries turned to foreign cultural policies as a new element of their diplomacy. Secondly it aims to reassess the chronology of the rise of cultural diplomacy, which the historiography conventionally sets to the 1920s (when cultural diplomatic bureaux opened in European foreign offices). Thirdly the project aims to renew our understanding of the policy making practices in this domain. These objectives will be met by transcending bi-national approaches that dominate the historiography of cultural diplomacy to assess the influence of entangled national competitions and asymmetric ways in which France, Germany and Britain conceptualised the significance of culture for their European and transatlantic diplomacies. Building upon theories of new diplomatic history that have stressed the significance of non-state actors, this research also goes beyond Foreign Office-centred approaches to examine the role of civil society individuals (including emigrants and transnational networks of private citizens), in shaping this area of diplomacy.

The Caribbean is defined as a vertebrate, geopolitical space where economic, political, social, cultural and human contacts flow from one island to another and on to the American continent. Inter-colonialism made this space a scene for generating new ways of thinking and living, as well as new identities. All spaces of the economic world are subject to big changes, mostly at the time they are included into it. In the Caribbean’s case, it is a space with very different internal rhythms, not only of very different speeds but also of very different characters. However, from very early on, interactions across the region can be seen which need to be known better. These gave them links not only between the Antillean archipelago islands which were governed by different European countries, but also between the Islands and the continental coasts, from the Guyanas to Yucatan and, through Panama’s isthmus and the Atrato River basin, until the Pacific coasts. It was an area that was difficult to be controlled by the state, especially when several European States were competing for that control and there were lands, or seas, "owned by no one", where activities, such as smuggling, were fruitful. While in one sense, the Caribbean was far from the political power centres of the motherlands, it was, however, the engine of the new economic power that European capitalism unleashed overseas; primarily in the Atlantic area. Slave work, land provision and capital were the factors that made it possible to generate a modern world in which Europe played a key role. This proposal is from the perspective of academic dialogue between Europe and Caribbean, focusing on new and different views and interpretations from those of the currently predominant Anglo academics.

Social critics have observed how, since the 1970s, many forms of work have become increasingly redundant due to technological advances. At the same time, Europe has witnessed economic crises, financialization, growing inequality and debt, yet also responses to these phenomena in, for example, movements advocating debt relief and a citizens’ basic income. These issues have become particularly acute in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. In France since the crisis there has been an increase in rhetoric surrounding the notion of work as well as many films engaging with this issue. My project will investigate the contemporary French critique of economy and how film and other audio-visual media have been used to communicate that critique. Responses to the crisis by intellectuals and filmmakers often involve a reconceptualization of work. A key focus will be to investigate the communicability of complex philosophical, economic and sociological ideas through films and other audio-visual media. This will encompass the appearance of intellectuals and their ideas in such forms as documentary, fiction, art film and satire, but also the use of online pedagogical videos by such individuals. Setting such ideas and media in their social, political and historical context, I will also report findings on the reception of these phenomena. While previous research on work in film has tended to focus on industrial labour, I want to make an intervention in the field by looking at contemporary forms of work, especially that of the financial sector which generally remains hidden from public view. I will develop my skills at the host institution, where cutting-edge academic work on film is being conducted, while France more generally is the site of the texts I shall study and whose authors I hope to interview. Outputs will include screenings, seminars, journal articles and a conference. These will galvanize interest and help improve understanding of an urgent problem affecting Europe.

The main question that guides this research project is: what can Europe learn about its past and present film archiving and heritage practices through collections kept abroad? Focusing on Latin America, the objective of this Fellowship is to identify how the dissemination of European film heritage informs past and present archival practices, and the understanding of both European identity and its representations. It will analyse a decade (1948–1959) of circulation of films between both continents shaped by the creation of Cinematheques affiliated with the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF). It will concentrate, more specifically, on the film exchanges between the Cinémathèque Française and the Cinematheques of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Nowadays, especially for younger generations, it is difficult to imagine the way films travelled in the 1950s. To gain a better understanding of why these four institutions entered this exchange circuit, it is necessary to analyse the actual corpus, especially now that digital technologies are making these films visible again. Adopting an inter-archival and multilingual methodology, which expands cross-continentally, this Fellowship will emphasise the transnational dimensions of film and to highlight the common connections between archival collections around the world. This innovative approach will demonstrate the value of analysing the history of exhibition abroad to review and complement the European film histories written until now. A thorough study of these channels of European film dissemination will also help to understand past European film archiving and heritage practices in order to assist present institutional and policy-making decisions related to film preservation, exhibition and accessibility more broadly.

The cultural and artistic expressions of Black minorities are still unknown, devalued, and understudied in France today where exclusion and discrimination keep growing. Therefore it is urgent to analyze and recognize the work of African and Caribbean dramatists who embody the diversity and multiculturalism of our global contemporary world. The goal of FACT (Francophone African & Caribbean Theaters) is to revisit the history of Francophone Black theaters born out of the brutal encounter of Europe, Africa and the Americas, and to evaluate the effects of colonialism and postcolonialism on contemporary France. This colonial legacy is still denied today although being an integral part of the French national history. As a specialist of Caribbean theater, I will join the Theater studies Department at the University Sorbonne Nouvelle to collaborate with Professor Chalaye, specialist of African drama, to examine plays written by dramatists from Africa and the Caribbean from the 1960s to date. We intend to show that migrations that followed decolonization have transformed, nourished and enriched the French nation. We also want to challenge not only stereotypes and prejudices against Black minorities, but also the conception of a homogeneous unique French identity. FACT will contribute to make Francophone African and Caribbean drama more visible in the field by creating a database of texts and audio/videorecordings and by developing a postcolonial analysis of the materials. The outcome of FACT will create awareness among the general public of the reality of a multi-racial and multi-cultural nation born of a shared colonial history with the ultimate goal to encourage French and European citizens to lose their fears of the “Other,” to be opened to the difference, and to welcome and celebrate the diversity of Europe.