Academia Tocqueville 2024

Academia Tocqueville

French Political Thought

30 June - 12 July 2024 | Paris, France

The IHE and Academia Tocqueville are pleased to announce the 2024 Academia Tocqueville seminar.

Academia Tocqueville provides an intensive introduction to French political thought, examining the response of historically Catholic France to political and social change, from the Revolution to the present. This intellectually and culturally rich program builds lasting bonds between young scholars on both sides of the Atlantic.

Through rigorous seminars and excursions to historical sites in Paris, participants will consider a long succession of French political thinkers, and encounter the legacy of venerable Catholic saints.

Reading formative works with expert faculty, Academia Tocqueville scholars will consider key questions of constitutional order and fundamental themes in Catholic Social Teaching.

Faculty

Luke Foster is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the University of Notre Dame and a former Visiting Research Fellow at Sciences Po Paris. His research and teaching concern American and French political thought on aristocracy, democracy, meritocracy, and education. He is currently completing a book manuscript entitled Excellence for the Democratic Age: Liberal Education and the Mixed Regime. His work has appeared in The Tocqueville Review/La Revue Tocqueville, American Political Thought, and the Political Science Reviewer. He holds a BA in English and History from Columbia University and an MA and PhD from the University of Chicago (Committee on Social Thought), and has received fellowships from the France Chicago Center, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, and the Institute for Humane Studies.

Laurent Frémont is a French political scientist and consultant. He teaches history of political thought at the Institut d’Etudes Catholiques de Paris, as well as constitutional law at the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po). He was an advisor to François Fillon (2017 presidential candidate) and worked as an attaché at the French embassy in the United States. He holds a BA in Political Science and an MA in Public Affairs from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), an MA in Political Theory from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), as well as an LLM in Public Law from La Sorbonne (Université Paris 1). He writes on ethics and institutions.

Nathan Pinkoski is Assistant Professor at the Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida. His research and teaching cover 20th-century, early modern, and classical political thought. He has published in various academic and popular journals, including First Things, Perspectives on Political Science, and The Review of Politics. He holds a BA (Hon) from the University of Alberta and an MPhil and DPhil in Politics: Political Theory, from the University of Oxford. He had held research fellowships and lectureships at Princeton University, the University of Toronto, and the Zephyr Institute. He recently translated Alasdair MacIntyre: une biographie intellectuelle (Alasdair MacIntyre: An Intellectual Biography), by Émile Perreau-Saussine (University of Notre Dame Press). He is a Contributing Editor for Compact: A Radical American Journal and a Senior Fellow with the Edmund Burke Foundation.

Program Costs

The registration fee is $750 for students or $1000 for young professionals. This fee represents a small fraction of the total cost of the program., the majority of which is covered through the generosity of valued donors. Some scholarships are available to assist students in financial need.

Reading material will be made available free of charge to the accepted applicants a month before the seminar.

Classes will take place in Saint-Germain-des-Prés (6e arrondissement) in a prestigious venue. Accommodation will be provided a short distance away from the classrooms on site.

All meals will be provided at the seminar, though lunches and dinners will not be provided when participants are free to explore Paris on their own.

Participants are expected to arrange their own travel to Paris. They should plan to arrive on the evening of June 29th and depart on the morning of July 12th. Some travel stipends are available to help students in financial need.

Who Can Apply

The seminar is open to advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and young professionals who work in areas related to French political thought.

The program will be conducted in English. Knowledge of French is not expected.

How To Apply

Submit an application containing the following to contact@academia-tocqueville.org:

The application deadline is Friday, 22 March 2024 at 4:00 p.m. (ET).

Space is limited; early applications will be given priority.

For questions about the seminar, please contact: contact@academia-tocqueville.org

For further information, please visit www.academia-tocqueville.org

Testimonials

“Hearing from world-class experts, journalists, and practitioners, I learned more in a week than I did in semester-long seminars on the topic. Socially and intellectually, this program offers ideal conditions and unmatched opportunities.”

“Academia Tocqueville strikes the balance between cultural experience and intellectual rigor in a way unlike any other summer seminar.”

“Between masterclasses with leading French and American academics, privileged cultural excursions around Paris, and opportunities to meet students and professionals from both sides of the Atlantic, Academia Tocqueville offers a truly ideal experience.”