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Dominic Thomas

Madeleine L. Letessier Professor

E-mail: dominict@humnet.ucla.edu Office: Royce Hall 224A Fields of interest: European politics, immigration, racism, globalization, Francophone Africa

Dominic Thomas is Madeleine L. Letessier Professor in the Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies. He is CNN/CNN International European Affairs Commentator, and author, co-author, editor or co-editor of works on contemporary African and European culture and politics, including Black France (2007), Museums in Postcolonial Europe (2010), La France noire (2011), Francophone sub-Saharan African Literature in Global Contexts (2011), Africa and France (2013), Racial Advocacy in France (2013), Colonial Culture in France since the Revolution (2014), Francophone Afropean Literatures (2014), Afroeuropean Cartographies (2014), The Invention of Race (2014), The Charlie Hebdo events and their aftermath (2016), Vers la guerre des identités (2016), The Colonial Legacy in France (2017), Global France, Global French (2017), Sexe et colonies (2018), Sexualités, identités, et corps colonisés (2019), and Visualizing Empire: Africa, Europe, and the Politics of Representation (2021). Scholarly articles and essays have appeared in journals such as Modern Languages Notes, French Forum, Research in African Literatures, Occasion, French Cultural Studies, and Contemporary French Civilization. He edits the Global African Voices series at Indiana University Press that focuses on translations of African literature into English, and has translated works by Aimé Césaire, Sony Labou Tansi, Alain Mabanckou, Emmanuel Dongala, and Abdourahman Waberi. He has held fellowships, residencies, and visiting professorships in Australia, France, Germany, Mali, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He was elected to the Academy of Europe in 2015 and promoted to the rank of Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques in 2016.

Education

  • PhD, Yale

Featured Works

Selected Publications

Books

Co-authored books

Edited books

Edited journals

Translations

  • Alain Mabanckou. The Tears of the Black Man (Le Sanglot de l’Homme Noir). Indiana University Press, Global African Voices series (2018).
  • Emmanuel Dongala. Jazz and Palm Wine (Jazz et vin de palme). Indiana University Press, Global African Voices series (2017).
  • Abdourahman Waberi. Harvest of Skulls (Moisson de crânes). Indiana University Press, Global African Voices series (2017).
  • Sony Labou Tansi. The Shameful State (L’état honteux). Indiana University Press, Global African Voices series (2016).

Fellowships, Residencies and Other Appointments

  • Visiting Fellow, CRASSH, Cambridge University, U.K., 2004
  • Visiting Professor, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris, France, 2009
  • Invited Researcher, Musée Quai Branly, Paris, France, 2010
  • German-American Fulbright Commission Award (Germany and Belgium), 2011
  • Inaugural Magnet Scholar, Amherst Five-College Faculty Seminar, April 2011
  • Research Professor, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany, 2011-2012
  • Visiting Fellow, Humanities Research Centre, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, 2015
  • Distinguished Foreign Visiting Scholar, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea, 2015
  • Visiting Scholar, Faculty Enhancement Program, University of Montana, March 2016

Honors & Awards

  • Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques, French government, 2016
  • Elected to the Academy of Europe (Academia Europaea), September 2015
  • German-American Fulbright Commission Award (Germany and Belgium), 2011
  • Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques, French government, 2007

Editor