Staff Profile
Dr Elodie Duché
Senior Lecturer: Modern History
PhD in History (Warwick)
MA in History and Heritage Studies - Distinction (Clermont-Fd, France)
BA in History and English Literature (Clermont-Fd, France)
FHEA
Prior to joining York St John University in 2015, I studied both in France and Britain, and completed a PhD at the University of Warwick (2011-2014), funded by the Chancellor’s Award (former WPRS). This doctoral project traced the transnational and global contacts induced by war captivity in Napoleonic France, a topic which I further explored during a postdoctoral project, as Alan Pearsall Junior Research Fellow, at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London (2014-2015).
I am particularly interested in the social and cultural history of mobility and seclusion in Europe and beyond, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
My research has so far focused on coerced journeys and the experiences of British prisoners of war in Napoleonic France and Mauritius. I have published on aspects of this research, particularly on: female companions of war captives, grassroots and transnational charity networks created for prisoners, and ego-documents penned by detainees (see list of publications). As part of this research, I have developed an interest in Digital Humanities methods and co-founded the interdisciplinary Prisoner of War (POW) Studies Network, which now gathers over sixty scholars across Europe, Northern America, South Africa and Australia.
Further information about recent research projects and publications can be found on RAY (Research at York St John).
I also act as Study Abroad Academic Advisor for History, American Studies and War Studies.
- School – School of Humanities
- Email – e.duche@yorksj.ac.uk
- Phone – 01904 876 269
Peer-reviewed publications
Articles
Duché, Elodie (2017) 'Captives in plantations: British prisoners of war and visions of slavery in Napoleonic France and Mauritius'. French History and Civilization 7. pp. 108-124
Duché, Elodie (2014) Charitable Connections: Transnational Financial Networks and Relief for British Prisoners of War in Napoleonic France, 1803-1814. Napoleonica. La Revue, 3 (21). pp. 74-117.
Book chapters
Duché, Elodie (2019) Prisoners of war. In: Forrest, Alan, (ed.) Cambridge History of the Napoleonic Wars. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press (in Press)
Duché, Elodie (2017) Revolutionary Ruins: The Re-imagination of French Touristic Sites during the Peace of Amiens. In: Sweet, Rosemay and Verhoeven, Gerrit and Goldsmith, Sarah, (eds.) Beyond the Grand Tour: Northern metropolises and early modern travel behaviour. Routledge. pp. 203-221.
Duché, Elodie (2016) L’otium des captifs d'honneur britanniques à Verdun sous le Premier Empire, 1803-1814. In: Beaupré, Nicolas and Rance, Karine, (eds.) Arrachés et déplacés. Réfugiés politiques, prisonniers de guerre, déportés (Europe et espace colonial 1789-1918). Presses Universitaires Blaise Pascal (PUBP). pp. 117-144.
Duché, Elodie (2016) ‘A sea of stories’: Maritime imagery and imagination in Napoleonic narratives of war captivity. In: Mathieson, Charlotte, (ed.) Sea Narratives: Cultural Responses to the Sea, 1600–Present. Palgrave. pp. 47-79. (Nominated for the 2017 Mountbatten Maritime Award for Best Literary Contribution)
Duché, Elodie (2014) The Missing Spouse: The Wives of British Prisoners in France under Napoleon, Their Lives and Writings. In: Probert, Rebecca, (ed.) Catherine Exley’s Diary: The Life and Times of an Army Wife in the Peninsular War. Brandram. pp. 106-122
Current research project
Social and cultural history of Napoleonic war captivity
My current research project focuses on the cultural and social significance of war captivity on parole in the early nineteenth century. Her thesis has explored parole detention as a site of transnational and global exchange through a case study of Verdun, a central parole ‘depot’ (as they were called at the time) for British civilian and military prisoners of war in Napoleonic France. I have since expanded this study geographically during her postdoctoral fellowship at the IHR, by investigating the significance of maritime ties in shaping the experiences of British prisoners of war on parole in Napoleonic Mauritius.
I have published aspects of this research in both English and French, particularly on topics including gender in Napoleonic war captivity, transnational charity networks for prisoners of war, and the visual and material culture of Napoleonic captivity (see list of publications). I am currently preparing a monograph based on this doctoral and postdoctoral research.
Undergraduate teaching
I convene three BA courses dealing with social, cultural and transnational approaches to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: ‘the eighteenth-century Atlantic World’, ‘Early Victorian England’ and ‘Europe in the Age of Nationalism’. I also contribute to other first- and second-year modules on topics related to the cultural, social and global history of the long eighteenth century. Topics include: ‘Global sea voyages’, ‘Gender roles in modern Britain’, ‘Material culture’, ‘Historiography in the modern period’.
I am interested in supervising third-year dissertation students wanting to explore:
- social and/or cultural history
- British/French/European history in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
- history of captivity and prison writings
- global and/or transnational history
- history of borders and migrations
- gender history
- material culture
- maritime history
- life-writing
Please do not hesitate to get in touch with me to discuss dissertation ideas related to these topics.
PhD students and postgraduate supervision
I am currently co-supervising (with Dr Sarah Lawson-Welsh) an interdisciplinary doctoral project conducted by Lorraine Paylor on Victorian meanings of friendship and the social network of Geraldine Jewsbury (see details below).
- Lorraine Paylor, PHD student (History and English Literature), ‘Mentoring and Friendship in the Production of Geraldine Jewsbury’s Writing’ (part-time, start date: 2016)
Please do not hesitate to get in touch to discuss PhD or MA project ideas related to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Awards and funding
2017:
- Erasmus+ funding for a partnership with the University of Copenhagen (Denmark)
- Nominated by students for the Students Union ‘You’re Extraordinary’ Award and the ‘Teaching Excellence’ Award, York St John University (12/05/2017)
2016:
- ACU (Association of Commonwealth Universities) Early Career Fellowship for a research project in Sydney (Australia).
- Shortlisted with Dr Anne-Marie Evans (YSJ Literature) and Dr Kaley Kramer (YSJ Literature) for the Women’s History Community Prize for an interdisciplinary public engagement project entitled ‘Muses on the Map: Charting Women’s History in York’.
- ‘Students as Researchers’ grant (co-investigated with Dr Graeme Callister): competitive funding to supervise and employ three undergraduate history and English literature students as part-time researchers for a year-long oral history project at York St John University.
2015:
- BSECS (British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies) Early Career Visiting Research Fellowship, University of York
- NMM (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich), Junior Caird Research Fellowship.
2014:
- Institute of Historical Research Junior Research Fellowship (Alan Pearsall postdoctoral fund, Oct. 2014- Sept.2015)
- Humanities Research Centre Transatlantic Fellowship (for a research project in Canada).
2013:
- International Federation for Research in Women's History postgraduate grant for a paper on female prisoners of war (Sheffield Hallam University, 01/09/2013).
- Royal Historical Society, Humanities Research Centre, Centre for the History of Medicine, Warwick IAS Oral History Network and Department of History grants for the co-organisation of the first conference of the POW Network (University of Warwick, 09/11/2013).
2012:
- Society for the Study of French History Research Grant for a research project in Nancy.
2011:
- 3-year Warwick Postgraduate Research Scholarship (Chancellor’s doctoral award, 2011-2014). Doctoral project supervised by Professor Carolyn Steedman FBA.
2010-2011
- Erasmus funding and French scholarship (Bourse d’étude du Conseil Régional d’Auvergne) to study for a year at the University of Warwick, as part of an MA at the Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, France.
