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Valerie Dionne

Title

Professor of French and Italian; Chair of French and Italian

Department

French and Italian; Oak Institute

Information

Address

4659 Mayflower Hill Waterville, Maine 04901-8853

Current Courses

Title Course Number(s) Section(s)
Voices of Dissent: What do Witches Want? FR332 A
French Cultural History: Eating the Other - From Colonialism to Cannibalism FR232 A
Seminar: Voices of Dissent: What do Witches Want? FR493I A
French II FR126,    FR126 A,    B

Valérie M. Dionne is Professor of French at Colby College. She studied in Montreal, Paris, London, and Fribourg, Switzerland, and earned her M.A. and PhD from Princeton University. She also participated in the Cornell University Summer School of Theory seminar on “Torture and Dignity” with J. M. Bernstein.

From 2018 to 2023, she served as Director of the Oak Institute for Human Rights at Colby College.

Her multidisciplinary approach to the early modern period allows her to explore topics that range from gender theory to political philosophy, and intellectual history. As an historian of ideas, she teaches courses such as “The Birth of Human Rights during the French Revolution,” “Voices of Dissent: What Do Witches Want?” and “Eating the Other: From Colonialism to Cannibalism.”

Her current book project examines the representation of Antigone, Clytemnestra, and Medea as figures of revolt in early modern French theater.

Education

Ph.D. Princeton University (2008)

M.A. Princeton University

B.A. Université de Montréal

Areas of Expertise

  • Early Modern French Literature & Culture

  • Tolerance & War of Religions

  • Human Rights, Law & Literature

  • LGBTQIA+, Intersex rights

Publications

Books/Journals

“Staging Justice”, Early Modern French Studies, co-edited with Michael Meere, Vol. 42, No.2, November 2020.

Montaigne, écrivain de la conciliation (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2014).

“Revelations of Character”: Ethos, Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy in Montaigne, Introduction by Mary McKinley, co-edited with C. Noirot (Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007).

Book/Journals in Progress

Co-editor with Ali Benmakhlouf and Zahi Zalloua, “Montaigne Décolonial/ Decolonial Montaigne”, Bulletin de la Société Internationale des Amis de Montaigne, vol. 84, 1 (2027).

La Mise en scène de la Justice: Colère et Révolte féminines...

Book Chapters/Articles

”‘J’adjouste, mais je ne corrige pas’ : Montaigne et le refus de l’effacement”, Essais de poétique et rhétorique aux XVe-XVIIe siècles en l’honneur de François Cornilliat, eds. Ellen Delvallée, Olga Anna Duhl, Corinne Noirot, Genève, Droz, 2025. (Forthcoming)

“La Fonction sociale du sacrifice selon Montaigne,” Montaigne penseur social, ed. Philippe Desan, Paris: Editions Hermann, 2022, pp. 163-181.

“Charles IX et la Justice dans l'Antigone de Jean-Antoine de Baïf,” Early Modern French Studies, ed. with Micheal Meere, Vol. 42, No.2, November 2020, pp. 116-130.

“Guérir par magie avec Montaigne”, in “Montaigne, la maladie et la médecine,” Montaigne Studies, ed. Philippe Desan, University of Chicago, XXXII (2), 2020, pp. 83-98.

With Yannik Büchi ’17, “La loi du genre: le procès de l’hermaphrodite en France de l’Antiquité au XVIIIe siècle,” La traversée culturelle du genre, ed. A. M. E. Adjoumani, P. B. Dah et L. Troh Gueyes, Le Graal édition, 2018, pp. 623-656. reprinted in La Traversée culturelle du genre : Les figures de l’androgynie, vol. 3, éd. A. Mia Élise Adjoumani et al., Paris, L’Harmattan, 2021, pp. 103-124.

“Is Religious Pluralism a Heresy? What we can gather from Julian the Apostate’s and Henri IV’s politic of tolerance,” Representing Heresy in Early Modern France. Essays and Studies, vol. 40, ed. G. Scarlatti and L. Radi, Toronto: Center for Reformation and Renaissance, 2017, pp. 257-274.

“”De la physionomie (III, 12)” ou le testament de Montaigne,” Lectures du troisième livre des Essais de Montaigne, ed. Ph. Desan, Paris: Honoré Champion, 2016, pp. 331-354.

“Justice and Law,” Oxford Handbook to Montaigne, ed. Philippe Desan, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 471-492

“’Errare humanum est’ ou la monstrueuse errance de l’écriture des Essais,” Colloque Montaigne et l’erreur, Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2016, pp. 103-118.

“Le sourire canin de Montaigne et de La Mothe Le Vayer ou la vertu cynique du libertin,” Early Modern French Studies, Vol. 37, No.1, July 2015, pp. 2-13.

“Marianne d’Arc ou la sanctification du symbolisme séculier,” ed. Laurence Le Diagon-Jacquin and Florence Fix, Paon d’Héra/Hera’s Peacock, éd. du Murmure, Neuilly-Lès-Dijon, no 8 (décembre 2011), pp. 20-34.

“Montaigne et l’art de la conciliation,” Nouveau bulletin de la société internationale des amis de Montaigne, Paris, no 50 (novembre 2009), pp. 61-77.

“Ethics of ‘De l’amitié’: The Essais as a Gift” in “Revelations of Character”: Ethos, Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy in Montaigne, ed. by C. Noirot with V. Dionne, intr. Mary McKinley (Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007), pp. 47-67.

“Oubli(s)” in Dictionnaire de Michel de Montaigne, ed. Ph. Desan (Paris: Champion, 2007), pp. 853-855.

“Pardon” in Dictionnaire de Michel de Montaigne, ed. Ph. Desan (Paris: Champion, 2007), pp. 863-865.

“Absence de mémoire et présence de l’oubli dans les Essais de Montaigne,” Romance Review, Boston, XV (Fall 2006), pp. 30-46.

“La résonance des lois somptuaires dans les Essais de Montaigne: réflexions sur les paradoxes du luxe,” Cahier du groupe de recherches sur les entrées solennelles, Montréal, Université de Concordia/University, 2003.