Anne O’Neil-Henry

Assistant Professor of French
Age: 34
Hometown: Walla Walla, Wash.
Education: B.A. University of Pennsylvania, French; M.A. Middlebury College, Spanish; Ph.D. Duke University, Romance Studies
Area of Research: 19th century French culture
Time at Georgetown: 3 years
Courses: “19th Century Bestsellers,” “Parisian World Fairs,” “Paris Underground”

How did you come to narrow your focus to 19th century French culture?
I was already very interested in studying the city of Paris. I started getting interested in that when I did my first study abroad program in Paris in 2000, and I really enjoyed studying the history of the city of Paris, and it changed dramatically over the course of the 19th century, so that was what started my interest. I also have always been really interested in the literature from that time period. When I started working on my Ph.D., I knew it was going to be focused on the 19th century, but I got especially interested in these guidebooks from the 19th century in Paris, which is what I ended up writing my dissertation on — popular representations of the city of Paris in the 19th century — and I still mix the guidebooks into all of my classes.

What’s your favorite piece of French literature?
“Sentimental Education” by Gustave Flaubert.

What’s the most fascinating question in the field of French studies today?
The National Library has digitized a huge number of newspapers and magazines and journals from the 19th century. For me, the biggest question is: How is the availability of basically the entirety of the press in the 19th century going to change what people study and how they have access to different topics? Are they still going to go to France to study them? Or is everybody going to access everything online? And how will what we change be affected by what’s newly made available to us?

What would be your ideal course to teach?
I feel like I’ve already taught it. The World Fair class was an amazing experience, and I’m really looking forward to teaching this Paris Underground class, but I love classes that combine literature and popular culture from the 19th century.

What’s something you wish more students would take away from your courses?
I would hope that people would know that even if they’re studying a topic that seems a little esoteric, you know, culture from 19th century France, that there’s still so much that you can connect to in your everyday life — the political stuff from the time period and the cultural stuff from the time period, all the themes come back today, and it’s very interesting to think of connections between the two periods. I would hope that students would come away with an ability to connect what they learned in the 19th century to apply it to what’s going on in their lives today. 

Interview by Emma Hinchliffe