Elizabeth Della Zazzera

Assistant Professor in Residence

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Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

Associate Director, University of Connecticut Humanities Institute

Areas of Specialty

Modern French history, with an emphasis on revolutionary and post-revolutionary Paris and the history of texts, ideas, and cultural movements.

Current Research Interests

Elizabeth’s current book project is tentatively titled The First Modern Culture War: Romantics, Classicists, and the Battle for Restoration France. It traces the bataille romantique—the conflict between romantics and classicists—through the press, literary societies, and the theater, demonstrating how a seemingly literary conflict took on significant political salience in an era of political censorship. She is also working on a project about the relationship between new urban technologies and ideas in pre-Haussmann Paris, and one about the cultural origins of the French invasion of Algiers.

Biography

Elizabeth received her Ph.D. in 2016 from the University of Pennsylvania. Before joining the University of Connecticut, she was an ACLS/Mellon Public Fellow at the magazine of history and ideas Lapham’s Quarterly and Margaret and Wallace McCain Postdoctoral Fellow at Mount Allison University. Her article “Translating Revolutionary Time: French Republican Almanacs in France and the United States” received the 2015 Book History Essay Prize. Her research has been supported by several fellowships, including a Doris G. Quinn Foundation Dissertation Completion Fellowship and a Chateaubriand Fellowship.

She also serves as the Associate Director of the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Articles

“The Illumination of Restoration Paris.” French Historical Studies (forthcoming).

“Translating Revolutionary Time: French Republican Almanacs in the United States.” Book History 18 (2015): 75–102

Public History

“The Power of Flawed Lists: How the Bookman Invented the Best Seller.” Roundtable, Lapham’s Quarterly, July 27, 2020.

“The Weather Record: Weather Collectors and Prognosticators.” Roundtable, Lapham’s Quarterly, September 19, 2019.

“Incidents in the Life of Harriet Jacobs.” Roundtable, Lapham’s Quarterly, April 15, 2019. Named Story Map of the Month for May 2019 by Esri.

“The Geography of the Odyssey: Or, How to Map a Myth.” Roundtable, Lapham’s Quarterly, February 27, 2019.