25 Fitzwilliam St., #4, 密桃视频 CB2 1QH (office)
Peterhouse, Trumpington Street, 密桃视频 CB2 1RD (mail)
Dr. Calhoun is University Assistant Professor of Francophone Postcolonial Studies and Fellow of Peterhouse. He teaches and works on a broad range of topics related to African and Caribbean literatures and cinemas. He is the author of听(Duke UP, 2024), which charts a long history of suicidal resistance to French colonialism and neocolonialism from the time of slavery to the Algerian war for independence to the 鈥淎rab Spring.鈥� A French translation, Mourir pour n'锚tre 脿 personne听is forthcoming from La D茅couverte (2026). Along with Cheikh Thiam, he edited the volume听听(Yale UP, 2025), which explores the convergence of literature and various audiovisual artforms within Senegal鈥檚 vibrant and dynamic media ecologies. Calhoun also completed a book-length translation of L茅opold S茅dar Senghor鈥檚 prose works, (trans. and ed. Doyle D Calhoun, Alioune Fall & Cheikh Thiam),听which will be published by Duke University Press in April 2026. Dr. Calhoun has also published articles on the history of missionary and colonial linguistics as well as historical sociolinguistics. His public-facing criticism has appeared in venues such as the Los Angeles Review of Books,听Salon听and听Public Books.听
He is the organiser of the film series and symposium ' (12鈥�14 November 2025, 密桃视频).听
He is currently working on听two new books, Africa after 1848, about how contemporary writers from Africa and the African diaspora remake conservative and teleological understandings of abolition, and听Florence, an exploration of France鈥檚听mission civilisatrice听through the biography of one of West Africa鈥檚 first women religious.
Dr. Calhoun鈥檚 articles have received several prizes, including the 2024 Malcolm Bowie Prize from the Society for French Studies, the 2024 William R. Parker Prize from the Modern Language Association, the 2021 Ralph Cohen Prize from New Literary History, and the 2016 Vivien Law Prize from the Henry Sweet Society.
Dr. Calhoun received his Ph.D. in French from Yale University in 2022, where he was also an affiliate of the Council on African Studies, after earning an M.A. in linguistics from KU Leuven. Before coming to 密桃视频, he taught for two years at Trinity College (CT). He has held academic residencies at the Fondation Camargo (Cassis) and the Biblioth猫que Marmottan (Boulogne-Billancourt) in France and studied, researched, and taught in the United States, France, Belgium, Senegal, Morocco, and the Caribbean. As an undergraduate, he studied linguistics and French literature at Boston College (USA).
Dr. Calhoun welcomes inquiries from potential MPhil and PhD students interested in working on topics in African and/or Caribbean literatures and cinemas, the afterlives of French slavery, N茅gritude and Panafricanism, and the literature of decolonization.
- Francophone African and Caribbean literature and cinema听
- Senegalese literature and cinema in French and Wolof
- The archives and afterlives of Atlantic/American and African slavery
- Abolition
- N茅gritude and African philosophy
- African transmedia
- The literature of decolonization
- The history of linguistic thought, especially missionary and colonial linguistics
Books:
- 听(Duke University Press, 2024)
- with Alioune Fall & Cheikh Thiam,听 (Duke University Press, forthcoming 2026)
- Mourir pour n'锚tre 脿 personne, pr茅face d'Elsa Dorlin听(La D茅couverte, forthcoming 2026)听 听
听
Edited volumes:
- ,听co-edited with Cheikh Thiam (Yale University Press, 2025)
听
Articles and book chapters:
- 鈥淣egritude and the Promise of African Literature,鈥� in听Intellectual Traditions of African Literature, 1960鈥�2015, eds. Cajetan Iheka and Jeanne-Marie Jackson (密桃视频 University Press, 2025), 65鈥�86
- 鈥淪enegalese New(s) Media: Transpositions and Transformations of the听Fait Divers听in Aminata Ma茂ga听Ka,"听Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry 11, no. 3听(2025): 277鈥�97.听doi:10.1017/pli.2024.20
- 鈥�'A Kind of Literary Archeology': Excavating Morocco鈥檚 Slave Past,鈥� African Studies Review 68, no. 1 (2025): 1鈥�20. doi:10.1017/asr.2024.239.
- with Jill M. Jarvis, 鈥淔ollow the Ghosts: On Teaching Mati Diop鈥檚听Atlantique(s)听Transmedially,鈥澨�Yale French Studies听144/145 (2025), 69鈥�99.
- 鈥淔lipping the Script? Native-Speaker Linguists and Colonial Orthographies in Nineteenth-Century Senegal,鈥澨�Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics听9, no. 2 (2023), 1鈥�29.
- 鈥淰ariations on听Verrition: Re/turning to the Enigmatic Final Word of Aim茅 C茅saire鈥檚听Cahier d鈥檜n retour au pays natal,鈥�听PMLA听138, no. 2 (2023), 306鈥�320. **Winner of the 2023 Malcolm Bowie Prize,听Society for French Studies; winner of the 2023 William Riley Parker Prize,听PMLA
- 鈥淒ead Narrators, Queer Terrorists: On Suicide Bombing and Literature,鈥澨�New Literary History听53, no. 2 (2022), 285鈥�304.**Winner of the 2021 Ralph Cohen Prize,听New Literary History
- 鈥淎u seuil de la grammaire: l鈥檃ppareil pr茅faciel fran莽ais dans la grammaticographie 芦 missionnaire 禄 de langues africaines 脿 l鈥櫭﹑oque coloniale, 1850鈥�1930,鈥� in听The Architecture of Grammar,听Tim Denecker, Piet Desmet, Lieve Jooken, Peter Lauwers, Toon Van Hal & Raf Van Rooy (Leuven: Peeters鈥揙rbis Supplementa, 2022), 425鈥�41.
- 鈥淟ooking for Diouana Gomis (1927鈥�1958): The Story behind African Cinema鈥檚 most Iconic Suicide,鈥澨�Research in African Literatures听52, no. 2 (2021), 1鈥�35.
- 鈥淎 Fugue for the Middle Passage? Suicidal Resistance takes Flight in Fabienne Kanor鈥檚听Humus听(2006),鈥澨�French Review听95, no. 2 (2021), 127鈥�44. doi: 10.1353/tfr.2021.0267.
- 鈥淯nearthing the Subtext of Slavery in Zola鈥檚听Germinal,鈥澨�French Studies听75, no. 4 (2021), 449鈥�67.
- 鈥�(Im)possible Inscriptions: Silence, Servitude, and Suicide in Ousmane Semb猫ne鈥檚听La Noire de鈥�,鈥澨�Research in African Literatures听51, no. 2 (2020), 96鈥�116.
- 鈥淔lowers for Baudelaire: Urban Botany and Allegorical Writing,鈥澨�Nineteenth-Century French Studies听49, nos. 1鈥�2 (2020), 17鈥�34. doi: 10.1353/ncf.2020.011.
- 鈥淔anon鈥檚 Lexical Intervention: Writing Blackness in听Black Skin, White Masks,鈥澨�Paragraph听43, no. 2 (2020), 159鈥�78.
- 鈥淐olonial Collectors: Missionaries鈥� Botanical and Linguistic Prospecting in French Colonial Africa,鈥澨�Canadian Journal of African Studies / La revue canadienne des 茅tudes africaines听52, no. 2 (2018), 205鈥�28.
- 鈥淲hat Gets Lost in the Digital (Re-)presentation of Older Linguistic Texts? Digital Editions, Manuscript Reality, and Lessons from the Digital Humanities for the History of Linguistics,鈥澨�Beitr盲ge zur Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft听27, no. 1 (2017), 137鈥�66.
- 鈥淩eading Paratexts in Missionary Linguistic Works: An Analysis of the Preface to the Holy Ghost Fathers鈥� (1855)听Dictionnaire fran莽ais鈥搘olof et wolof鈥揻ran莽ais,鈥澨�Language & History听60, no. 1 (2017), 53鈥�72.**Winner of the 2016 Vivien Law Prize,听Language & History
Essays, interviews & translations:
- 鈥淓ditor鈥檚 Preface: Senegalese Transmediations,鈥澨�Yale French Studies听144/145 (2025), 1鈥�13
- with Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, 鈥淭hinking in Images: A Conversation with Mohamed Mbougar Sarr,鈥澨�Yale French Studies听144/145 (2025), 219鈥�41
- (from French) Elgas, 鈥淓lgas鈥檚 Notebooks: Return to Koubanao,鈥澨�Yale French Studies听144/145 (2025), 2019鈥�15
Public criticism:
- "Spectacles of Return: The Silent Labors of听Dahomey,"听Public Books (2025),听
- "A Map to Black Paris?" Los Angeles Review of Books听(2025),
- "African Transmedia: Says Who?,"听Yale University Press Blog听(2025),听
- 鈥淎n 鈥楨xtreme Act of Protest鈥�: The Long History of Self-Immolation as Political Statement,鈥澨�Salon听(2024),听
- 鈥淧utting French Literary History on Trial,鈥�听The Sydney Review of Books听(2022),听听[selected for reprint from听Public Books]
- 鈥淧utting French Literary History on Trial,鈥澨�Public Books听(2022),听
- 鈥淪emb猫ne鈥檚听Black Girl听Is a Ghost Story,鈥澨�Public Books听(2021),听
- 鈥淗ow War鈥攁nd Racism鈥擬akes Monsters Out of Men,鈥澨�Public Books听(2021),听
Podcasts
- "The Suicide Archive," Conversations in Atlantic Theory (2025),听
- 鈥淭he Archipelago, feat. Doyle Calhoun,鈥� Stegi Radio (2025),听
- 鈥淭he Suicide Archive,鈥� New Books Network (2024),听
- 鈥淩aconter les suicides d鈥檈sclaves: des histoires qui sortent du silence,鈥� Canal Acad茅mies (2022), https://听.
