Stephen Sawyer

 

The American University of Paris

 

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  Degrees:

BA, Hanover College.

MA, University of Chicago.

PhD, University of Chicago.

 

  Chair, Department of History

 

  Associate Professor of History

 

  Academic Department:

History

 

 

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Profile updated: Feb-13

 
 

 
Stephen Sawyer has edited a special issue of the Tocqueville Review on “The History of the French and American States”. The issue opens with a programmatic statement written by William Novak (University of Michigan), James Sparrow (University of Chicago) and Stephen Sawyer entitled "Toward a History of the Democratic State" followed by articles on the French and American states by Alain Chatriot (CNRS), Sarah Gensburger (CNRS), Nicolas Delalande (Sciences-Po), Romain Huret (IUF), James Sparrow and Stephen Sawyer. The issue is now available on Project MUSE.
 
 

 

Stephen W. Sawyer is currently chair of the History Department and founder of the Urban Studies program at The American University of Paris. Sawyer came to AUP from the University of Chicago center in Paris and the Ecole Normale Supérieure where he was lecturer in the final years of the preparation of his dissertation. After receiving fellowships from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Fulbright, and Sciences Po Paris, from 2005 to 2009, Sawyer served as part-time assistant to Pierre Rosanvallon at the Collège de France. A specialist in urban political history with an emphasis on the role of cities in territorial and state construction in the Atlantic world, Sawyer earned his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 2008. He has published over thirty articles and book reviews which have appeared in Les Annales, The Journal of Modern History and The Tocqueville Review. In 2009, he was awarded a grant to complete a two-year research project for the city of Paris on mapping cultural scenes in metropolitan Paris which he completed with his research team in the summer of 2011. His translation of previously unpublished lectures by Michel Foucault for University of Chicago Press is to appear in 2012 and he is currently completing two book manuscripts for publication on the intersection of local and international history in the construction of the modern state entitled A City Among States: The Local Construction of the French Nation-State in Nineteenth-Century Paris, 1789-1880. and The International Origins of the French Liberal State, 1840-1880. In January 2012, Sawyer began his appointment as the Associate Editor for the new English version of the Annales. Histoire et Sciences Sociales. He is also a member of the journal's Editorial Board.

 
 
 

 
 

BOOKS AND EDITED VOLUMES

 

Manuscript in progress      

The International Origins of the French Liberal State, 1840-1880

 

Manuscript under review  

A City Among States: The Local Construction of the French Nation-State in Nineteenth-Century Paris, 1789-1880.

 

2012               

Translator, Michel Foucault, Wrong-Doing, Truth Telling. Bernard Harcourt and Fabienne Brion, eds. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).

 

2011               

Editor, Une cartographie culturelle de Paris: Les Ambiances du Paris-Métropole, Report submitted to the City of Paris, 195 pps, 55 maps and illustrations.

 

2009               

Co-editor with Jan Goldstein, edited volume of conference papers Paris-Chicago: Urban Cultures in Comparative Perspective. Special volume of the Cahiers Parisiens/Parisian Notebooks (Paris: University of Chicago Center in Paris).

 

 

 

 

ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS

 

 

  URBAN AND POLITICAL HISTORY (Peer reviewed **)

 

Manuscript submitted            

(with William Novak and James Sparrow) “Toward a History of the Democratic State.”**

 

Manuscript submitted            

“Terror, Republicanism and the Liberal Imperial State: Louis Blanc’s Theory of Exceptional Circumstances.”**

 

Manuscript under revision   

“The American State of French Liberalism: Executive Power, International Law and the State of Exception in Edouard Laboulaye’s Constitutional Thought.”**

 

2011                     

“Un Moment Atlantique ? : La Fête de la Fédération et les réseaux franco-américains sous la Révolution française,” La Fête de la Fédération. Du 14 juillet 1790. Histoire et héritage. Georges-Henri Soutou, ed. with E. Leroy Ladurie.**

 

2010                     

“The Infinite Space of the Particular: Planning the American City in the work of Louis Sullivan, Daniel Burnham and Frank Lloyd Wright,” Cultural Transformations in the English Speaking World (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press), pp 152-169.**

 

2009                     

“Définir un intérêt particulier parisien : les élections et l’administration municipal de Paris au milieu du XIXe siècle,” Annales. Histoire et Sciences Sociales, no 2, pp 407-433.**

 

2009                     

The Site of Generality: Placing Chicago in the American Regime of Commensurability” in Paris-Chicago: Urban Cultures in Comparative Perspective. Cahiers Parisiens. Vol. 5 (University of Chicago Press).**

 

2009                     

“Edouard Laboulaye et la statue de la liberté” La lettre du Collège de France, no 26, pp 53-55.

 

2009                     

The French Foundations of the American Capital: Eighteenth-Century French Political Theory and the Creation of Washington D.C.” La France en Amérique. Susanne Berthier-Foglar, ed. (Éditions de l'université de Savoie), pp 187-205.**

 

2009                     

“Je peins le passage: Police Power in Foucault’s 1978-1979 Collège de France lectures,” Carceral Notebooks, vol 4, pp 131-137.

 

2008                     

“Placing Sovereignty: Democratic capitals as an histoire-problème,” La Revue Tocqueville, Vol. XXIX, n° 2, pp 95-110.**

 

2007                     

“A Question of Life or Death: Administrative Bodies and Administrating Bodies in Nineteenth-Century Paris,” in Fields of Expertise: A Comparative History of Expert Procedures in Paris and London, 1600 to present. C. Rabier, ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press), pp. 291-315.**

 

2005                     

“Locating the Center: Confining and Defining the Capital through the Parisian Fortifications.” Special issue on Centers and Peripheries. Nottingham French Studies. February, pp 20-37.**

 

2002                     

Pamphlets and Periodicals from the Revolution of 1848. Interactive and fully searchable on-line database of over 200 rare and previously unavailable newspapers and pamphlets from the 1848 Revolution in France, humanities.uchicago.edu/ARTFL/Projects/CRL.

 

 

  HISTORY AND LITERATURE

 

Manuscript in progress                

“Veridiction and the Liberal State of Exception in Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Sailor

 

2008                     

“Between Authorship and Agency: Democracy as History in the Work of George Bancroft,” Revue française d’études américaines, no. 118, vol. 4, pp 49-66.**

 

2008                     

“Valuable Values: Capitalizing on Representation in Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie,” L’Argent, Presses Universitaires de Lille.**

 

2006                     

“History and the Strength of the American Republic in Nathaniel Hawthorne's the Scarlet Letter,” Philippe Jaworski, ed. Hawthorne et la pensée du roman. Dix études sur la Lettre écarlate. Paris: Michel Houdiard.**

 

 

  CONTEMPORARY URBAN STUDIES

 

Manuscript in progress                

(with Scott Salmon) “Downscaling Competitive City Discourse: Local Forces in the Age of Global Megaevents.”

 

Under contract (Submitted)         

“What’s in the Fridge? Counter-Democratic Mobilization in Post-Industrial Urban “Cultural” Development” The Politics of Urban Cultural Policy. Daniel Silver and Carl Grodach, eds. (Under contract with Routledge).**

 

Forthcoming        

(with Cédric Fériel) “La petite traversée du Grand Paris. Vers l’appréhension globale des “ambiances” dans l’espace métropolitain. Cahiers de recherché de l’institut pour la ville et le commerce.**

Finalist (1 of 3) for a prize of 2500 euros for best article by the Institut pour la ville et le commerce.

 

2012 (in press)    

(lead author with Terry Clark) “La politique culturelle et la démocratie métropolitaine à l’age de la defiance.” Politiques culturelles 21 : Débats et enjeux en Europe. Guy Saez et Jean-Pierre Saez, dir. (Editions de la découverte).**

 

2012 (in press)    

“An Archaeology of the Parisian Underground” in Paris-Amsterdam Underground: Essays on Cultural Resistance, Subversion, and Diversion, Andrew Hussey and Christophe Linder, eds. (University of Amsterdam Press).**

 

2012 (in press)    

(with Mathias Rouet) “The Grand Paris: Cultural Milieu in the Process of Metropolitanization.” Cultural Policy and Governance in a New Metropolitan Age. Cultures and Globalization Series, vol 5. Helmut Annheier, Yudhishthir Raj Isar, and Michael Hoelscher, eds. Sage Publications.**

 

2011                     

“Is There a Place for More Molière? Cultural Planning and Metropolitan Politics in the Grand Paris” Territorio.**

 

2011                     

“Anting or the Antinomies of Ex-urban Shanghai” Public. Art Culture Ideas, vol 43, Special issue on the suburbs. Spring 2011**.

 

2010                     

(lead author with Terry Clark) “Villes créatives ou voisinages dynamiques? Développement métropolitain et ambiances urbaines.” La Revue des politiques culturelles, pp 44-49.**

 

 

 

 

Encyclopedia Articles

 

2012                     

Paris. Global Studies Encyclopedia. Sage Publications.**

 

2009                     

1848. Encyclopedia of Revolutions, Uprisings and Popular Movements. Blackwell.**

 

2009                     

Hotel de Ville. Encyclopedia of Revolutions, Uprisings and Popular Movements. Blackwell.**

 

2005                     

Duvergier de Hauranne, Ernest. Encyclopedia of French-American Relations. Ed. Bill Marshall. ABC-Clio.**

 

 

 

 

Book Reviews and Review Essays

 

2012                     

James T. Sparrow. The Warfare State: World War II Americans and the Age of Big Government (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011). La vie des idées. http://www.laviedesidees.fr/How-War-Gave-Birth-to-the-American.html

 

2012                     

Bruno Verlet, Des pionniers au Texas (1850-1880) (Paris: Verlet, 2011) Cahiers Jaurès.

 

2012                     

Jean-Fabien Spitz. Louis Blanc. Textes Politiques (1839-1852) (Paris: Bord de l’eau/Bibliothèque Républicaine, 2011) Cahiers Jaurès.

 

2012                     

Gilles Malandain. L’introuvable complot. Attentant, enquête et rumeur dans la France de la Restauration (Paris: EHESS, 2011) Cahiers Jaurès.

 

2011                     

Nathalie Jakobowicz. 1830. Le peuple de Paris. Révolution et représentations sociales (Rennes : Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2009). Annales. Histoires et Sciences Sociales.

 

2011                     

Jean-Numa Ducange, ed. Jean Jaurès-Karl Kautsky: Socialisme et Révolution Française (préface de Michelle Vovelle) (Paris: Demopolis, 2010). Cahiers Jean Jaurès

 

2011                     

J. A. W. Gunn. When the French Tried to Be British: Party, Opposition, and the Quest for Civil Disagreement, 1814-1848 (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2009). Journal of Modern History.

 

2010                     

Jacqueline Lalouette. Les mots de1848 (Presses Universitaires de Mirail, 2007). Cahiers Jean Jaurès

 

In press                 

Dominique Kalifa and Pierre Karila-Cohen. Le Commissaire de police au XIXème siècle (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2008). Nineteenth-Century French Studies. 

 

2010                     

Fabien Cardoni. La garde républicaine d’une République à l’autre (1848-1871), (Presses universitaires de Rennes/Service historique de la Défense, 2008). Cahiers Jean Jaures.

 

2010                     

John Agnew. Globalization and Sovereignty (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2009). La vie des idées, http://www.laviedesidees.fr/The-end-of-sovereignty.html

 

2010                     

Casey Harrison. The Stonemasons of the Creuse in Nineteenth-Century Paris (Cranbury: Associated University Press, 2008). Journal of Modern History.

 

2009                     

Bernard Marchand. Les ennemis de Paris. La haine de la grande ville des Lumières à nos jours (Rennes : Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2009). Cahiers Jean Jaurès, 3-4 (N° 193-194).

 

2009                     

Michelle Riot-Sarcey et Maurizio Gribaudi. 1848, la Révolution oubliée (Paris : La Decouverte, 2008). Cahiers Jean Jaurès, 3-4 (N° 193-194).

 

2009                     

Larry M. Bartels. Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008). La vie des idées, http://www.laviedesidees.fr/The-Politics-of-Inequality.html

 

2008                     

Nicholas Papayanis. Planning Before Haussmann (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004). European History Quarterly,  vol 38.

 

2007                     

Yannick Marec, ed.  Villes en crise? Les politiques municipales face aux pathologies urbaines (fin XVIIIe - fin XXe siècle) (Creaphis, 2007). H-France.

 

 

 

 

Article and lecture Translations

 

2008                     

Pierre Rosanvallon, “Democratic Universalism as a Historical Problem,” http://www.laviedesidees.fr/

 

2006                     

Monique David-Ménard. “Democracy and Subjectivity.” Paper given for Trope, Affect, and Democratic Subjectivity at the Center for Global Culture and Communication, Northwestern University.

 

2006                     

Pierre Rosanvallon. The Democracy of Distrust: Institutions and Practices of Counter-Politics in Historical Perspective. Cours au Collège de France given for the Sealy Lectures at Cambridge University.

 

2004                      

Jean-Luc Nancy. “The Technique of the Present.” Trans. Agnès Derail-Imbert and Stephen W. Sawyer. In On Kawara: Paintings of 40 Years. New York: David Werner. 

 
 
 
 
 

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Contact Stephen Sawyer

 

 

ssawyer@aup.edu

+33 1 40.62.06.00 ext. 805

Pierre Villey, AUP: 11, rue Pierre Villey, 75007, Paris (Métro: La Tour-Maubourg, Ecole Militaire, Alma-Marceau, Invalides)

 

 

 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
Departmental Faculty
 
 
 

Steven Englund

Professor of History and Political Science

 

Terence Murphy

Professor of History and Political Science

 

Stephen Sawyer

Associate Professor of History; Chair, Department of History.

 
 

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