Research projects
International Research Network on
Postcolonial Print Cultures (IRNPPC)
The International Research Network on Postcolonial Print Cultures brings together scholars working in the fields of postcolonial studies and literatures, book and art history, print and material cultures from 8 different institutions : the CNRS, the University of Chicago, Newcastle University, University of the Witwatersrand, NYU and NYU Abu Dhabi, Jadavpur University and the Center for Studies in Social Sciences in Calcutta.
Scholars of the IRNPPC are interested in the production, circulation, and consumption of print as an agent in social, cultural, and political life, and look at the practices, institutions, and networks that have shaped writing, reading and publishing in colonial and postcolonial contexts.
The network aims at developing a comparative and transnational framework to understand how genres, forms and actors long considered ‘footnotes of literary history’ (periodicals and newspapers, tv and radio broadcasts, pamphlets, advertising material etc.) have in fact been instrumental to the development of literary cultures in the Global South, instrumental forces of postcolonial and decolonial struggles, and sites of North/South and South/South transnational exchanges.
Funded by the CNRS (2023-2027) with additional funding from the University of Chicago Center in Paris (2023-25), it is coordinated by Laetitia Zecchini (UChicago-CNRS HumanitiesPlus IRL).
Veridicality, Rhetorical Tropes, and
Epistemic Vigilance in On-line Communication:
Semantic and Pragmatic Underpinnings
This project will examine what semantic and pragmatic conditions must be met for an individual to recognize that a claim made online requires investigation and cannot be taken at face-value, as well as what epistemic conditions must be met for individuals making genuine truth claims to anonymous collectives. Using methodologies from linguistics and from the philosophy of language, the team will examine whether or not social media reshapes what users consider “evidence” to be, what specific interactions between evidence and truth arise in a social media environment that do not arise in normal speech, and what kinds of evidence serve to form the basis of judgements of truth value and trustworthiness.
Funded in part by the UChicago-CNRS PhD Joint Program, this project is being led by Anastasia Giannakidou, Frank J. McLoraine Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Chicago, and Alda Mari, Director of Research at Institut Jean Nicod, Paris.
The Struggle Against Infant Mortality: Chicago, Lille and Manchester, 1900-1980
Since the early 20th century, western countries have achieved dramatic progress in life expectancy. The epidemiological transition, constant improvements in medical knowledge and social policies have had a dramatic impact on mortality rates and resulted in ever larger numbers of people living to an old age. Yet longstanding efforts at reducing socio-economic differentials in health have partly failed, and a steep social gradient still characterizes patterns of mortality in the same countries. Recent reports suggesting that life expectancy is stalling or declining for low-income people in some countries have bestowed additional urgency to the issue. So have other reports indicating that infant mortality, which took center stage in early 20th century efforts to fight social inequality, has started rising again. While the importance of the social and racial determinants of health and mortality has been established beyond doubt, the historical dynamics of this association have been neglected by historians.
Taking up this challenge, this interdisciplinary project offers an innovative history of health inequality during the twentieth century by focusing on infant mortality in three industrial cities —Chicago, Lille and Manchester from 1900 to 1980. If economists and political scientists have explained the rise and fall of inequality, they have mainly used macro-quantitative data that tends to overemphasize structural trends and overlook social and local differences. By combining the tools of social history and social epidemiology, this project will add social and local “thickness” to the history of inequality and provide a new perspective on the impact of social policy through the lens of infant mortality.
Funded by the CNRS (2025-27), this International Emerging Action (IEA) is coordinated by Professors Clarisse Berthezène (Université Paris Cité), Jean-Christian Vinel (Université Paris Cité), and Gabriel Winant (University of Chicago)