Session 1: Beauvoir and her readers

[La session est en anglais mais les sous-titres en français peuvent être activés sur Youtube]

The first session of our Webinar Series took place on October 16th and gathered 130 participants (300 registrants). We are delighted by this huge interest in Beauvoir and in this project. Thank you!

​This first session the series was opened by Dr. Jennifer McWeeny, and Dr. Claudia Bouliane, the Editor-in-Chief and Assistant Editor, respectively of the academic journal Simone de Beauvoir Studies and members of the International Simone de Beauvoir Society. More about the journal: HERE

The rest of the webinar was dedicated to how Beauvoir was read by her thousands of readers from around the world. Their letters are kept at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and for this session, two scholars who have been working on them have shared their insights.

The historian Dr. Judith Coffin, the first academic to publish a groundbreaking paper in 2010, recently published a book at Cornell University Press titled Sex, Love and Letters: Writing Simone de Beauvoir (2020). Dr. Coffin paved the way for the research of Ms. Marine Rouch, Communication Coordinator of the SdB Society, who is currently writing her PhD dissertation on the influence of Beauvoir's work on "ordinary" women (see her research blog). Dr. Coffin and Ms. Rouch engages in a fascinating conversation about their common interest in the letters.

Their conversation was followed by Dr. Marella Ada Bolaños' response to the conversation.

​The session was brilliantly moderated by Dr. Gina Opiniano, head of the projet. 

---
​
If you wish to buy Dr. Coffin's book, Cornell University Press offers you this discount code: CS09FLYER (combinedacademic.co.u)

If you wish to contribute to Marine Rouch's research blog (about Beauvoir and more widely, gender studies), please see the call for contributions: https://lirecrire.hypotheses.org/pour-contribuer-to-contribute