Ronald Schechter
Lyon Gardiner Tyler Department of History
The College of William and Mary
Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795
U.S.A.
phone: 757-221-1443
fax: 757-221-2111
email: rbsche@wm.edu
Education
Harvard University, Ph.D. History November 1993
University of Chicago, M.A. History June 1988
University of Michigan, B.A. History May 1987
Current appointment Associate
Professor
of History
Honors and Grants
2005 Leo Gershoy Award, for "the most outstanding work in English on any aspect of the field of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century western European history," presented by the American Historical Association, for Obstinate Hebrews: Representations of Jews in France, 1715-1815 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003)
2004
David Pinkney Prize for the best book on French history by a North
American
scholar,
awarded by the Society for French Historical Studies
Finalist for the Koret Jewish Book Award in the category of History
2001 William and Mary Faculty Summer Grant
1999 William and Mary Faculty Summer Grant
1998 William and Mary Faculty Summer Grant
1996
German Research Foundation Post-doctoral Fellowship,
Graduiertenkolleg "Religion und Normativität,"
Ruprecht-Karls-Universität
Heidelberg
1992-93
Chateaubriand Scholarship Program Research Fellowship in the Social
Sciences
Harvard Whiting Fellowship in the Humanities
1991-92 Cultural Exchange Fulbright Fellowship (IIE)
1990-91 Harvard Lurcy Travelling Fellowship
Harvard Krupp Foundation Fellowship for European Studies
1987 Phi Beta Kappa
High Honors in History
Past appointments
1993-96 Lecturer, Committee on Degrees in History and Literature, Harvard University
1994-96 Lecturer, Harvard Extension School
1993-94
Lecturer, Department of History, Harvard University
Books and edited volumes
Ed., The French Revolution: The Essential Readings (Oxford: Blackwell, 2001).
Obstinate Hebrews: Representations of Jews in France, 1715-1815 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003).
Nathan the Wise by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing with Related Documents: Translated, Edited, and with an Introduction by Ronald Schechter (Boston and New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2004).
<>Ed., Crossing the Line: New Perspectives on the Jews of Modern France, a special issue of Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques (forthcoming, Spring 2006).Journal articles and chapters in edited volumes
"Translating the 'Marseillaise': Biblical Republicanism and the Emancipation of Jews in Revolutionary France," Past and Present 143 (May 1994): 108-135.
"Gothic Thermidor: the Bals des victimes, the Fantastic, and the Production of Historical Knowledge in Post-Terror France," Representations 61 (Winter 1998): 52-68.
"The Jewish Question in Eighteenth-Century France," Eighteenth-Century Studies 32 (Fall 1998): 84-91.
"Rationalizing the Enlightenment: Postmodernism and Theories of Anti-Semitism," Historical Reflections/Réflexions historiques 25 (Summer 1999): 281-306. Republished in Daniel Gordon, ed., Postmodernism and the Enlightenment: New Perspectives in Eighteenth-Century French Intellectual History (London and New York: Routledge, 2001), 93-116.
"A Festival of the Law: Napoleons Jewish Assemblies, 1806-1807," in Judith Miller and Howard Brown, eds., Taking Liberties: Problems of a New Order from the French Revolution to Napoleon (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2002), 147-65.
“Terror
and the West,” History Compass 1 (2003). [electronic
journal,
no page numbers]
http://www.history-compass.com/print.asp?type=4&ref=1077
Encyclopedia
entry
Published conference papers
"Competing Proposals for the Regeneration of the Jews," in Barry Rothaus, ed., Proceedings of the Western Society for French History: Selected Papers from the Annual Meeting, vol. 24 (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 1997), 483-93.
"Impression Management, Cultural Performance and Jewish
Self-Presentation
in Napoleonic France," in Barry Rothaus, ed., Proceedings of the
Western
Society for French History: Selected Papers from the Annual Meeting,
vol. 25 (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 1999), 219-28.
Book reviews
Review of Michael Broers, Europe under Napoleon 1799-1815, for H-France, August 1997.
Review of T.C.W. Blanning, The French Revolutionary Wars 1787-1802, for H-France, April 1998.
Review of Marilyn Morris, The British Monarchy and the French Revolution, for The William and Mary Quarterly 55 (October 1998): 654-56.
Review of Susan Dunn, Sister Revolutions: French Lightning, American Light, for The William and Mary Quarterly 57 (October 2000): 880-83.
“’From the German of Doctor Ralph’”: Two New Translations of Voltaire’s Candide,” Eighteenth-Century Studies 35 (Summer 2002): 635-37.
Review of Lenard Berlanstein, Daughters of Eve: A Cultural History of French Theater Women from the Old Regime to the Fin de Siècle, for Theatre Journal 54 (December 2002): 666-68.
Review of Xavier Martin, The French Revolution and Human Nature: From the Enlightenment to the Napoleonic Code, for H-France, January 2003.
Review of Isser Woloch, Napoleon and His Collaborators: The Making of a Dictatorship, for The Historian 65 (Spring 2003): 777-78.
Review of Frederic Cople Jaher, The Jews and the Nation: Revolution, Emancipation, State Formation, and the Liberal Paradigm in America and France, for The American Historical Review 109 (February 2004): 148-49.
Review
of Adam Sutcliffe, Judaism and Enlightenment, for H-France,
March 2004.
Dissertation
"Becoming French: Patriotic Liturgy and the Transformation of Jewish
Identity in France, 1706-1815."
Professional talks
"Imagining the Liberator: The Jews and Napoleon, 1797-1815," The Jews in Modern Europe Study Group, at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University, 9 March 1994.
"Translating the 'Marseillaise': Biblical Republicanism and the Jews of Revolutionary France," Corcoran Department of History, University of Virginia, 30 January 1995.
"Jews and Frenchmen: Perceptions and Presentations, 1715-1815," Workshop of the Graduiertenkolleg "Religion und Normativität," Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, 19 April 1996.
"Competing Proposals for the Regeneration of the Jews," 24th Annual Conference of the Western Society for French History, Charlotte, N.C., 2 November 1996.
"Performances of Patriotism: Jewish Participation in Dynastic Festivals in Eighteenth-Century Metz," Workshop of the Graduiertenkolleg "Religion und Normativität," Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, 18 November 1996.
“Napoleon’s Religious Policy,” Pembroke College, Oxford, 23 May 1997.
"Impression Management, Cultural Performance and Jewish Self-Presentation in Napoleonic France," 25th Annual Conference of the Western Society for French History, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, 17 October 1997.
"Between State and Society: The Jews of Eighteenth-Century Metz," 29th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, University of Notre Dame, IN, 1 April 1998.
"Useful Professions, Useful Citizens: Jews and the Language of Regeneration in Eighteenth-Century France," 23rd Annual Meeting of the Social Science History Association, Chicago, IL, 20 November 1998.
"Napoleon, the Grand Sanhedrin and the Language of Law," 26th Annual Conference of the Western Society for French History, Monterey, CA, 1 November 1999.
"Festivals of the Law: Napoleon and the 'Second Emancipation' of the Jews," Symposium: "The Impossible Settlement: Problems of a New Order in Post-Revolutionary France," Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 13 November 1999.
"An Impossible Necessity: Protestants in France after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes." The Huguenot Society of Virginia, Williamsburg, VA, 28 October 2000.
"Cultuurgeschiedenis: Een Amerikaanse Uitvinding?" Ninth annual meeting of the Netherlands American Studies Association, Leiden, Netherlands, 2 March 2001.
"Textbooks: An American Industry," Vereniging Oud-Geschiedenisstudenten Leiden. Leiden, Netherlands, 31 March 2001.
"Koppige Hebreeërs: De Beeldvorming over Joden in Frankrijk, 1715-1815," History Department, Universiteit Leiden, Leiden, Netherlands, 4 April 2001.
“The ‘Jewess’: Reflections on a Cultural Category in Modern Europe,” History Workshop in Technology, Society, and Culture, University of Delaware Department of History, Newark, DE, 15 October 2002.
“Terror as a Political Concept in Pre-Revolutionary France,” Department of History, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, 17 January 2003.
“The Jewish Question in the French Revolution,” Meeting of the Eighteenth-Century Ireland Society, Dublin, Ireland, 4 May 2003.
“The Jewess Syndrome: Sexuality, Gender and the Jewish Question in
Modern
Europe,” Department of History, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN,
23
February 2004.
"Cassirer
reads Lessing: The Search for Truth and The
Philosophy of the Enlightenment," 120th Annual Meeting
of
the Modern Language Association,
"The Jewess: Thoughts on a Social Category in Europe, 1600-1945," Program in Jewish Studies, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, 31 January 2005.
"Jewish Processions in Eighteenth-Century France," delivered at "Processions: Between Religion and Politics," Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Bad
Courses
"France, 1648-1800"
"The Old Regime and the French Revolution"
"Europe from 1715"
"The Age of Revolution in Europe (1789-1871)"
"Europe to 1715"
"The European Enlightenment"
"France from 1800"
Editorial positions
Section editor in early modern Europe for History Compass
Advisory editor for Eighteenth-Century Life
Tutorials
"Europe, 1648-1815"
"Topics in European History"
"History and Memory in Modern France"
"Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century German Intellectual History"
"The Enlightenment in France and Britain"
"National Identity in France and Germany, 1750 to the Present" (two
semesters)
"Politics and Culture in France and Britain, 1750 to the Present" (two
semesters)
"State, Society and Culture in Europe, 1500 to the Present" (two
semesters)
"State and Society in Germany, 1500-1815"
Languages
Fluency in French and German, near fluency in Dutch.
Reading proficiency in French, German, Dutch, Latin, Hebrew, Yiddish,
Spanish and Italian.