Yann Robert, PhD
Associate Professor and Head
French and Francophone Studies
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Contact
Building & Room:
1615 UH
Address:
601 S. Morgan St.
Office Phone:
Email:
Related Sites:
About
Yann Robert is an Associate Professor in the Department of French and Francophone Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His book, Dramatic Justice: Trial by Theater in the Age of the French Revolution, was recently published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. In 2018, he was awarded UIC’s Rising Star Award in the Humanities, Arts, Design and Architecture. His research examining the interaction between theater, justice, and politics in Enlightenment and Revolutionary France has received support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, notably through a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University and a one-year research fellowship at the Newberry Library, as well as from the Jacob K. Javits and the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundations.
Selected Publications
Books
- Dramatic Justice: Trial by Theater in the Age of the French Revolution. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018.
- Laya, Jean-Louis, L’Ami des lois, ed. Mark Darlow and Yann Robert, London: Modern Humanities Research Association, collection “Phoenix,” 2011.
Articles
- “Des Acteurs au barreau ou l’invention de l’avocat moderne,” Dix-huitième siècle, Vol. 49 (2017)
- “Mercier’s Revolutionary Theater: Reimagining Pantomime, the Aesthetic of the Unfinished, and the Politics of the Stage,” Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture, Vol. 44 (2015): 185-206.
- “De la Fête et du théâtre : Politique du spectacle chez Mme De Staël et Michelet,” Dix-neuf, Vol. 18, 1 (April 2014): 1-18.
- “« Allouma » et « Le Horla » : Textes miroirs et colonialisme chez Maupassant,” Nouvelles Études Francophones, Vol. 28, 1 (2013): 44-60.
- “The Everlasting Trials of Jean Calas: Justice, Theater and Trauma in the Early Years of the Revolution,” in Representing Violence in France, 1760-1820, ed. Thomas Wynn, Oxford, UK: Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century (SVEC), 2013.
- “De l’Absorption et de l’identification chez Diderot: illusion et participation du spectateur au dix-huitième siècle,” in La Scène, la salle et la coulisse dans le théâtre du XVIIIe siècle en France, ed. Pierre Frantz and Thomas Wynn, Paris: Presses de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne, 2011.
- “The Enticement of the Origin: History, Science and Religion in Flaubert’s Temptation of Saint Antony,” Crossings: A Counter-Disciplinary Journal, Vol. 9/10 (2010): 49-75.
- “‘La Politique Spectacle’: A Legacy of the French Revolution?,” French Politics, Culture and Society, Vol. 27, 3 (Winter 2009): 104-115.
- “De la Moralité des tragédies: Le Saint Genest de Rotrou et la Querelle du théâtre,” Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature, Vol. 35, 69 (2008): 573-588.
- “La Claque et la représentation politique au XIXe siècle,” Romantisme: revue du dix-neuvième siècle, Vol. 136, 2 (2007): 121-133.
- “« Interprète ce que voudras »: Disposition silénique, obsession oculaire et « plus hault sens » dans le Gargantua de Rabelais,” French Forum, Vol. 31, 2 (Spring 2006): 1-14.
- “The Theatre and the London Liberties: The Place of the Sacrificial Stage,” University of Toronto Quarterly, Vol. 74, 4 (Fall 2005): 957-963.
Service to Community
Created and leads a collaborative project with the “French Revolution Pamphlets Digital Initiative” at the Newberry library. Under his supervision, students (more than fifty so far) visit the Newberry and consult centuries-old manuscripts, which they then study, contextualize, and translate. The students’ work is displayed on a website hosted by the Newberry.
Notable Honors
2020-2021, Faculty Fellow, UIC Institute for the Humanities
2018, Rising Star Award in Humanities, Arts, Design, and Architecture, UIC Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research
2018, Teaching Recognition Program Award, UIC Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs
2013-2014, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship at the Newberry Library, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Education
PhD, Princeton University
B.A., University of Arizona