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CURRICULUM VITAE
PAUL J. YOUNG
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
I. EDUCATION
Ph.D. (1999), French, University of California, Berkeley.
Dissertation Title: Reading, Writing, and Seduction: Eighteenth-Century
Dangerous Practices.
Director: Dr. Thomas Kavanagh.
Dissertation Research Traveling Fellowship, 1996-1997.
M.A. (1989), French, with Certificate in Translation, State University of New
York at Binghamton.
B.A. (1986), French and English, The University of Steubenville, Ohio.
Semester abroad, The American College in Paris, 1985.
II. ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL HISTORY
Professional Appointments
2000-Present:
1998-2000:
1992-1998:
1987-1989:
Assistant Professor of French, Georgetown University
Assistant Professor of French, Washington University
Acting Instructor in French, University of California, Berkeley
Acting Instructor in French, State University of New York at
Binghamton
Courses Taught at Georgetown University
French 111: Intensive Advanced French I
French 112: Intensive Advanced French II
French 119-62: French Cultural Integration Workshop**
French 250: Reading Texts: Culture
French 251: Reading Texts: Literature
French 261: Literature and Writing I
French 262: Literature and Writing II
French 367: Pleasure in the Eighteenth Century*
French 368: Coming of Age in Eighteenth-Century France*
French 474: Transgressions in French Literature and Culture*
English 422-61: The Other Italy**
(*New courses introduced into the Georgetown Curriculum. **Taught abroad.)
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Courses Taught at other Universities
Washington University, 1998-2000.
Intermediate French (1 semester), 1998.
Advanced French (2 semesters), 1998, 1999.
French Grammar and Composition (1 semester), 1999.
French Culture and Civilization (1 semester), 2000.
“Enlightenment and Its Discontents” (Undergraduate/Graduate), 1999.*
“Enlightenment and the World” (Undergraduate/Graduate), 1999.*
“Société(s) et Utopie(s)” (Undergraduate/Graduate), 2000.*
(*New graduate courses introduced into the Washington University Curriculum)
University of California at Berkeley, 1992-1998.
French 1, Elementary French I, 1992.
French 2, Elementary French II 1993, 1994, 1995.
French 3, Intermediate French, 1993, 1995.
French 4, Advanced Intermediate French, 1994, 1996, 1997.
Special Section of French 4, focusing on French cinema and art, 1998.*
(*Denotes new course.)
State University of New York at Binghamton, 1987-1989.
Beginning French
Intermediate French
Professional Development
Participant, Dartmouth University French Cultural Studies Institute, June-July 2003.
GUROP Research Assistant Mentor, (Fall 2013, Spring 2013, Fall 2012, Spring 2012,
Fall 2007, Fall 2006, Fall 2004, Spring 2004, Fall 2003)
III. PUBLICATIONS AND SCHOLARSHIP
Book Authored
Seducing the Eighteenth-Century French Reader: Writing and Reading as Dangerous
Practices. Ashgate Press (2008). 166 pages, with bibliography.
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This work offers an interdisciplinary analysis of the overarching discourse in
eighteenth-century France that coded the novel, and solitary reading in general, as
seductive—and therefore dangerous—practices. Through this analysis, I examine
what it meant to write “under the sign of seduction” in eighteenth-century France.
Through a series of readings of works by Rousseau, Sade, Bastide, d’Argens, and
one anonymous libertine author, I look at the ways in which these authors affirm,
rather than deny their society’s anxieties about reading and writing, while also
analyzing the ways in which they seem to argue that pleasure can only exist in
relationship to the text—an affirmation that raises questions not only about
eighteenth-century eroticism, but also about the reading subject’s relationship to
the body.
Articles
“Ce lieu de délices: Art and Imitation in the French Libertine Cabinet,” in
Interior Design and Architecture: Critical and Primary Sources, Volume II, “Sensory
Expectation,” Bloomsbury Academic Press (2013), reprinted from Eighteenth-Century
Fiction 20, no. 3 (Spring 2008): 399-420.
“Reading for Oneself, Writing One’s Own Destiny: Fontette de Sommery’s Lettres De
Mademoiselle de Tourville à la Comtesse de Lénoncourt (1788),”
Diderot Studies, Tome XXXII (2012): 293-308.
“‘Une voix Plébéienne’ in Eighteenth-Century France: Charlotte Curé, ‘La Muse
Limonadière,’” Eighteenth-Century Fiction 23, no. 2 (Winter 2010-11): 321-345.
"Captivating the orient: the marquis de Renoncour's Turkish adventure," Literature
Resource Center (Oct. 2010), reprinted from Philological Quarterly 82.2 (2003): 167186.
“Ce lieu de délices: Art and Imitation in the French Libertine Cabinet,”
Eighteenth-Century Fiction 20, no. 3 (Spring 2008): 399-420.
“Manon, Under the Sand: The Problem of Order in Manon Lescaut,”
Creole Perspectives, Jean-Max Guieu and Amadou Koné, eds., University Press of the
South, (May 2007): 21-37.
“Cruising The Vatican…: Reading Gide’s Queerest Text,”
Dalhousie French Studies 78, (Spring 2007): 107-116.
“Looking Inside: The Ambiguous Interiors of La Petite Maison,”
South Atlantic Review 71, no. 1 (Winter 2006): 20-41.
“When Pleasure Isn’t Enough: Volupté in the Libertine Text,” The Dalhousie Review 84,
no. 3 (Autumn 2004): 407-417.
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“Captivating the Orient: The Marquis de Renoncour’s Turkish Adventure,” Philological
Quarterly 82, no. 2 (Spring 2003): 167-186.
Translations
“Baroque and Classicism: The Imago primi saeculi and Its Detractors,” in Art,
Controversy, and the Jesuits, The Imago primi saeculi, 1640, edited by John W.
O’Malley, translation from the French of a book chapter by Marc Fumaroli, forthcoming
in 2014.
“The Representation of Power and the Power of Representation,” SubStance 25, no. 2
[80] (Fall 1996): 81-92, translation from the French of an article by Jacqueline
Lichtenstein, University of California, Berkeley.
Book Reviews
Review of Ellen R. Welch, A Taste for the Foreign: Worldly Knowledge and Literary
Pleasure in Early Modern French Fiction, Eighteenth-Century Fiction 25, no. 3 (Spring
2013): 641-643.
IV. CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
“18th-Century French Women Writers Rethink and Resist 'Traditional Marriage,’” South
Eastern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference, Columbia,
February 2013.
“The Libertine Novel Comes of Age: Friendship in Thémidore,” South Central Society
for Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference, Austin, February 2013.
“Un Libertin sans retour? Libertinage and Space in Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” British
Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference, Oxford, January 2013.
“Pleasure Has No Monument: Burial Spaces in Prévost’s Mémoires d’un homme de
qualité,” Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, April 2008.
“In/Between: Limits and Liminal Spaces in Cocteau’s Les Enfants terribles,” 20th and
21st-Century French and Francophone International Colloquium, Washington D.C.,
March 2008.
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“De cabinet en cabinet: Coming of Age in Thémidore,” special panel on “Architecture
and Desire,” South Atlantic Modern Language Association Conference, Atlanta,
November 2007.
“Ce dangereux supplément: The Cabinet in French Libertine Fiction,” Midwest Society
for Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference, Kansas City, October 2007.
“Le Libertin Ordonné: Architecture and Desire in Bastide's L’Homme du Monde éclairé
par les Arts,” American Society for Eighteenth-Century Conference, Montreal, March
2006.
“When Excess Isn’t Enough: Secrets and Silences in the Sadean Text,” British Society
for Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference, Oxford, January 2006.
“Looking Inside: The Ambiguous Interiors of La petite maison,” British Society for
Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference, Oxford, January 2005.
“Spaces of Enlightenment, Spaces of Seduction: Bastide’s La petite maison,” South
Atlantic Modern Language Association Conference, Roanoke, November 2004.
“Reflecting on Infinity: The Dynamics of the Sadean Orgy,” Midwest Society
for Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference, Saint Louis, October 2004.
“Refusing Writing: Reading Rousseau’s Le Lévite d’Ephraïm,” Midwest Society
for Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference, Saint Louis, October 2004.
“Reflecting (on) Pleasure: The Mirror in the Eighteenth-Century French
Novel,” South Central Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference, Santa Fe,
February 2004.
“Serious Pleasures: Writing in Le Portier des Chartreux,” British Society for EighteenthCentury Studies Conference, Oxford, January 2004.
“Manon, Under the Sand: Hiding the Body in the New World,” France–Louisiane
Interdisciplinary Conference, Georgetown University, November 2003.
“Libertine Camp: Humor and Sexual Identity in Sade’s Boudoir,” South Atlantic
Modern Language Association Conference, Atlanta, November 2003.
“When Pleasure Isn't Enough: Volupté in Thérèse Philosophe,” South Central
Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference, Fort Worth, February 2003.
“Subverting Seduction: Thérèse Philosophe’s ‘Libertine’ Education,”
South Eastern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference, Columbia,
February 2003.
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“Seducing the Orient: The Man of Quality's Turkish Adventure,” British
Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference, Oxford, January 2003.
“The Body in Question: Volupté in the Libertine Text,” South Atlantic Modern
Language Association Conference, Baltimore, November 2002.
“Identity in Exile: Book 4 of Les Mémoires d’un Homme de Qualité,” Seventh
Annual Ege University Cultural Studies Symposium, (Izmir, Turkey), May 2002.
“Fascinated Eyes: Reading Rousseau in the Light of the Magic Lantern,”
British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference, Oxford, January 2002.
“The Unsure Homosexual: Sexuality and the Limits of Identity in the Sadean Boudoir,”
Midwestern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference, East Lansing,
November 2000.
“Fantasies of Projection: Rousseau’s Magic Lantern,” East Coast American Society for
Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference, October 2000.
“A Fragile Life: Surviving the Sequels to Lettres d’une Péruvienne,” Women on Women
in the Long Eighteenth Century Interdisciplinary Conference, University of Aberdeen,
Scotland, May 2000.
V. FELLOWSHIPS AND GRANTS
Columbia University Reid Hall Fellowship (Alternate), 2004-2005.
Georgetown University Graduate School Summer Academic Grant, Summer 2004.
Georgetown University Junior Faculty Research Fellowship, Spring 2004.
Georgetown University Faculty of Languages and Linguistics Summer Academic Grant,
Summer 2003.
Georgetown University Competitive Grant-in-Aid for Research Support, Spring 2003.
VI. ACADEMIC SERVICE
Department of French
Curriculum Committee (2007-2008, 2006-2007, 2005-2006, 2004-2005, 2003-2004,
2002-2003)
Study Abroad Committee and Oral Examiner (2007-2008)
Merit Evaluation Committee (2010-2013, 2006-2007, 2005-2006, 2004-2005, 20022003)
McCarthy Endowment Committee (2007-2008, 2005-2006)
Search and Hiring Committee (2000-2001, 2008, 2011-2013)
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Department Self-Study: Data Collection for Self-Study Sub-Committee (2001)
Oral Placement and Proficiency Examiner (2002-2004)
Study Abroad Oral and Written Examiner (2004-2005)
SFS Proficiency Exams Evaluator (2001-present)
French Department Placement Exam Proctor (2000, 2001, 2003)
FLL French Major Advisor (2001-present)
Georgetown University
Academic Appeals Board, 2006
Faculty Senate, 2013
College Executive Council Representative, 2011-2013
FLL Faculty Development Committee, Summer Grant Evaluator (2004-2005, 2005-2006)
First-Year Student Academic Workshop, Faculty Discussion Leader (2001-2007, 2013)
First-Year Student Academic Workshop, Committee Member for Student Prize (2003,
2004, 2006)
French Cultural Association, Faculty Liaison, Honorary President (2000-2004)
Georgetown University Admission’s Program recruitment lunches (2004-2007)
Performance Arts Advisor Council, Acting Chair, (2002-2003)
Performance Arts Advisor Council, Secretary, (2001-2002)
Safe Zone Board of Advocates, Member (2001-present)
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Special events at Georgetown University
“Reading, Seeing, Sex: Enlightenment Libertine Strategies,” lecture for the French
Cultural Association’s celebration of French and Francophone week, March 2003.
“Learning to Look: Enlightened Voyeurism in the Libertine Novel,” general lecture for
the French Cultural Association, April 2003.
Professional Community
Roundtable participant, “Critical Conundrums in Queer Eighteenth-Century Studies,”
American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference, Portland, March 2008.
Panel organizer and chair, “Sensual Spaces: Architecture and Desire,” South Atlantic
Modern Language Association Conference, Atlanta, November 2007.
Panel organizer and chair, “Architecture in the Center and in the Margins,” Midwest
Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference, Kansas City, October 2007.
Panel organizer and chair, “Power, Nature, Sex: Eighteenth-Century French Libertine
Investigations,” Midwest Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference, Saint
Louis, October 2004.
Panel organizer and chair, “Libertins, Libertines, et Libertinages,” South Atlantic
Modern Language Association Conference, Atlanta, November 2003.
September 2000, Guest lecture on “The Ethics and Philosophy of the Enlightenment,” for
Spanish 261, H. Legras.
Panel participant, “Strategies for the Academic Job Market,” Washington University
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Saint Louis, February 1999.
Panel participant, “Approaches to the Academic Job Market,” University of California,
Berkeley roundtable discussion for French Graduate Students, October 1999.
Professional Memberships
British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
South Atlantic Modern Language Association
Modern Language Association
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