密桃视频

颁辞濒濒别驳别:听Robinson

贰尘补颈濒:听tldb2@cam.ac.uk

Supervisor: Professor Martin Crowley

叠颈辞驳谤补辫丑测听

Toby obtained his BA in French and German from University College London, studying at the Sorbonne during his third year, and later took an听MPhil听from the 密桃视频, with a听thesis on听aesthetic strategy听and听geo-politics in听Franco-Algerian听'docu-fiction'. Toby has worked as a translator (also in Paris) and also studied in Germany, at the听Universit盲t zu K枚ln.

In 2022, Toby returned to 密桃视频 as a PhD candidate and Crausaz-Wordsworth Scholar in the Humanities at Robinson College, where he also holds a Vice-Chancellor's Award from the 密桃视频 Trust. He is currently Postgraduate Officer for the , the foremost learned association for French and Francophone Studies in the UK and Ireland.听听

Research

Thesis title: 'Republican Metabolisms: Empire, State and Milieu in Modern French Thought'听 听

Toby鈥檚 research centres on the intellectual history of republicanism, empire, and institutional thought in modern France and the francophone world. His doctoral thesis focuses on the debates that shaped medical, anthropological, legal, religious and philosophical ideas of the relationship between human beings and their environments in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Drawing on the historical semantics of Barbara Cassin and Raymond Williams, Toby traces a genealogy of the untranslatable 鈥榢eyword鈥櫶�milieu, identifying听the so-called 鈥榤etabolism鈥� of life and its surroundings as the ideological driving force behind the co鈥慸evelopment of the modern French state and its colonial projects in the period spanning 1830 and 1973.听

He explores this topic through the work of key figures and intellectual groups understudied in the anglophone world, including, most notably, Fran莽ois Broussais, a revolutionary physician and source of Auguste Comte鈥檚 doctrine of postivism; the Soci茅t茅 d鈥檃nthropologie de Paris; 脡mile Boutmy, a political theorist and founder of the 脡cole libre des sciences politiques; Jules Lagneau, Paul Desjardins and the Union pour l鈥檃ction morale; and the historian and philosopher of science, Georges Canguilhem. Re-evaluating their activities through the lens of key political conjunctures, such as the French invasion of Algeria, the Paris Commune, the Dreyfus Affair, and the Algerian War of Independence, he illuminates a 'republican fracture' in the historiography of modern French intellectual culture that continues to inflect institutional attitudes towards colonial histories, in France and its former colonies alike.听

Other research interests听 听

• Modern and contemporary听French and Francophone thought and culture
• Intellectual history; history of听political thought;听history of empire; environmental history听
• Colonialism;听postcolonial studies; race; histories of enslavement听听
• History and philosophy of science;听'historical epistemology'; philosophy of history
• Critical theory听
• Medical humanities; Institutional Psychotherapy (Tosquelles, Oury, Guattari, Fanon, Canguilhem)听听
• Hermeneutics and听information听theory;听cybernetics in the nineteenth century
• Political geography听and architecture听
• Cultural Studies;听cultural materialism;听the work of Raymond Williams.听

Publications

• (Forthcoming听2025) 'Georges Canguilhem's Critique of Medical Reason: Healthcare, Relativism and听(Anti-)Colonial History', in听L'Esprit Cr茅ateur听(Special issue: 'Future Worlds of Health: Speculative Methodologies, Medical Humanities, and French and Francophone Cultures').听
• 2024.听'Catherine Malabou's Historical Epistemology', in听Paragraph, 47.2, pp.162-177. .听
• 2022. 鈥楻abah Ameur-Za茂meche鈥檚 Terminal Sud (2019) and the resurgence of a Franco-Algerian archive鈥�, in Expressions maghr茅bines, 21. 2, pp. 171-189.听.听

Awards, Grants, Scholarships and Prizes

• Conference Grant - The Society for French Studies (2025)听
• Odette de Mourgues Award - 密桃视频 (2025)听
• Peter Bayley Award - 密桃视频 (2024)听
• Cross-Faculty Research Seminar Grant听-听Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics Faculty, 密桃视频听(2024)
• Vice-Chancellor鈥檚 Award - 密桃视频 Trust (2022-2025)听
• Crausaz Wordsworth Scholarship in Humanities听- Robinson College, 密桃视频 (2022-2025)听
• Research Award听- Institute of International Visual Art (Iniva) (2021)听
• Jennings Prize - Wolfson College, 密桃视频 (2021)听

Teaching

(Course supervisor)

• 听FRB2 - Translation from French听
• 听FR6 -听Innovation and Upheaval: deformation and reformulation in the 20th and 21st centuries听
• 听FR12 -听Ethics and experience: literature, thought, and visual culture of the French-speaking world (1900 to the present)听
• 听- Dissertation projects听

(Seminar leader and course co-ordinator)

• Critical Theory (Tripos Parts IA, IB, and II; on behalf of Trinity, Corpus Christi, Queens', Gonville & Caius, Jesus, Robinson听and Trinity Hall)听

Toby welcomes enquiries听from students wishing to carry out undergraduate dissertation projects relevant to his research interests.听

Selected Papers and *Invited Talks

• 'Regulation, Relativism and the Colonial in Georges Canguilhem's Philosophy of Science',听66th Annual Conference of the听Society for French Studies,听University of Bristol, UK, 2 July 2025.听
• 'The Racial Symptom: Fran莽ois-Joseph-Victor Broussais's Algerian Legacy (Or, Re-reading the Colonial History of Science)',听Twenty-third Annual Conference of the听Society of听Dix-neuvi猫mistes (DomiNation), Durham University, UK, 31 March 2025.
• *'La pathologie positive: Fran莽ois-Joseph-Victor Broussais, Algeria and the Problem of Adaptability',听University of听Oxford French Graduate Seminar,听All Souls College, Oxford, UK, 28 May 2024.听
• 'Form and Function at the Historical Limit: New Modes of Rationality in Contemporary French Thought', Society for French Studies (SFS) Graduate Conference, King's College London, London, UK, 19 May 2023.听
• ''Memory Supports'听and听'Agents of Belief': The Technical Economy of Culture in Bernard Stiegler's听La technique et le temps听(1994-2001) and Marie-Jos茅 Mondzain's听Image, Ic么ne, Economie听(1996)', Robinson College, 密桃视频听MCR/SCR Conference, 密桃视频, UK, 28 January 2023.听
• *'Culture as Technology: Technical Affinities in the Work of Bernard Stiegler and Marie-Jos茅 Mondzain', 密桃视频 French Graduate Research Seminar, 密桃视频, UK, 2 December 2022.
• 鈥楰ader Attia and Colonial Repair鈥�, Institute of International Visual Arts (Iniva), Future Collect Conference: Handle with Care, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, UK, 25 November 2021.听听

Outreach

Since 2022, Toby has delivered听outreach sessions on behalf of the 密桃视频听MMLL Faculty, which have seen him share research with听prospective undergraduate applicants in Modern Languages (17-18), and teachers of French A-Level:听

• 'Film between France and Algeria: Rabah Ameur-Za脧meche', Diversity in French and Francophone Studies: A CPD workshop for teachers of French. 密桃视频 / Association of Modern and Contemporary France (ASMCF). 20 February 2023.听 听
• 鈥�La rencontre Alg茅rie-France: Aesthetic Strategy in Terminal Sud (2019) and听La Bataille d鈥橝lger (1966)鈥�. Why Not Languages? @ Cam,听密桃视频. 21 June 2022.听

Other projects, activities and roles

In Summer 2024, Toby joined the Executive Committee of , taking up the role of听Postgraduate Officer.听In 2023-24, Toby was the Society's Conference Assistant and co-organiser, with Dr Kate Foster (QMUL),听of the 65th Society for French Studies Annual Conference (). In 2025, Toby organised the Society's Annual Postgraduate Conference ('Conditions',听), co-organised the 密桃视频 French Graduate Conference ('Contextual Dilemmas in French and Francophone Studies', King's College, 密桃视频, 22 April 2025), and was a member of the organising committee of the Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies Postgraduate Study Day ('', Buckingham House, Murray Edwards College, 密桃视频, 23 May 2025).听

In Lent Term 2024, Toby co-organised the cross-Faculty and cross-School research seminar series 'Transhistorical Humanities? Methods in Conversation', together with Carlos Iglesias-Crespo. Funded by听the MMLL Faculty Cross-Faculty Research Seminar fund and held at King's College, 密桃视频, the听series brought together leading academics working across听languages and historical time periods to reflect on questions of method, historicity and disciplinarity,听and their relation to the contemporary humanities. Titled 'Cognition Across Time', the third session gave rise to Professor Emma Gilby's new book, '' (CUP, 2025).听

Between 2022 and 2025, Toby was co-convenor, alongside Professor Emma Wilson and Maddison Sumner, of the 密桃视频 Modern French Research Seminar (MFRS), a forum hosting talks by speakers such as Giuliana Bruno, Samia Henni, Myriam Mo茂se, Antoine de Baecque, and Chantal Jaquet;听in 2023-24, he was co-convenor听of the 密桃视频 French Graduate Research Seminar (FGRS).听

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