rdbrown5@uchicago.edu
Wieboldt 219
Office Hours:
Monday 1-2 p.m.
Advisor(s):
Robert Morrissey
Subject Area:
French and Francophone Studies
Research Interests:
Enlightenment studies; Autobiography studies; Memory studies; Old Regime legal studies; Rousseau; Voltaire
My dissertation research focuses on the uses of proof in Old Regime autobiographies, specifically in the works of Rousseau, Voltaire, and Madame d’Épinay. I argue that the period between the 1750s and 1780s is marked by a particular need felt by public figures to defend themselves in their public-facing works of self-writing. As these writers sense that their reputations are on trial, they rely on old and new conceptions of proof to defend their lives before their readers.
I hold BAs with High Honors in French and History from UC Berkeley.
Selected Publications
- Brown, Ryan. “The Autobiographer as Jurist: Rousseau’s Confessions, the Practice of Judicial Proof, and the Court of Public Opinion.” Le Pouvoir En Procès. Opinion Publique et Légitimité Politique Des Lumières Au Premier Empire, edited by Maximilien Novak and Ryan Brown, Classiques Garnier, Paris. (2024).
- Novak, Maximilien, and Ryan Brown, editors. Le Pouvoir En Procès. Opinion Publique et Légitimité Politique Des Lumières Au Premier Empire. Classiques Garnier. (2024).
Recent Courses in RLL
- FREN 10200 Beginning Elementary French (Autumn 2022)
- FREN 10300 Beginning Elementary French (Winter 2023)
- FREN 23724 Law and Letters in France (17th-20th Century) (Spring 2024)