University professor elected to Humanities Academy

Professor Jean Fornasiero
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Explorations and Encounters in French co-edited by Professor Jean Fornasiero
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Wednesday, 21 November 2012

University of Adelaide Professor of French Studies Jean Fornasiero has been elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, one of the highest honours available for achievement in the humanities in Australia.

Professor Fornasiero, who is also Head of the School of Humanities, is among 22 leading scholars elected to the Academy, which is dedicated to advancing excellence in the humanities for the benefit of the nation.

Professor Nick Harvey, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, said: "Professor Jean Fornasiero is an outstanding scholar of the literary and cultural history of 19th-century France and the history of French exploration of Australia.

"Jean previously has been honoured for her academic work by the French Government with a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques.

"It is very fitting that her academic standing has now been recognised by her election as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities."

Professor Fornasiero's principal field of research relates to utopian thought and practice and to forms of intellectual commitment in 19th-century France.

She has published on the works of the Romantic poet Gérard de Nerval, and on writers including Balzac, Ballanche, Eugène Sue, Jules Verne, Emile Zola and members of the Fourierist movement.

She has also published widely on the French scientific voyage to Australia 1800-04, led by Captain Nicolas Baudin.

Her publications include Explorations and Encounters in French (2010, co-edited with Colette Mrowa-Hopkins); Encountering Terra Australis: The Australian Voyages of Nicolas Baudin and Matthew Flinders, 1800-1803 (2004, with Peter Monteath and John West-Sooby); and 'The Baudin Expedition 1800-1804: Texts, Contexts and Subtexts', special number of Australian Journal of French Studies, XLI, 2, 2004 (co-edited with Margaret Sankey FAHA and Peter Cowley).

"I see this honour as a recognition of the scholarly values instilled in me as a student at this University by the staff of the French department, and particularly by my supervisor, Dr Peter Hambly, who has supported and encouraged me throughout my career," said Professor Fornasiero.

"French Studies at Adelaide has had a far greater influence on the French discipline in Australia than its size would indicate; there are now five Fellows within the European Languages and Cultures section of the Academy who are Adelaide graduates of French, including two, Dr Peter Hambly and Professor Rosemary Lloyd, who are currently affiliates of this University.

"I am proud to be of their number - and to be working in a discipline with a real sense of collegiality and a strong research culture."

Academy President Professor Lesley Johnson said: "The Academy is delighted to welcome our newly elected Fellows. This is a significant achievement for each of them. It is a testimony to their outstanding contribution to their disciplines and to the wider humanities, and reflects the esteem in which they are held by their peers in Australia, and internationally."

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