Louise Crowther
email: louisecrowther@yahoo.com
PhD title: Diderot and Lessing as Exemplars of a post-Spinozist Mentality
Supervisors: Prof David Adams; Dr David Bell
Main Discipline areas: C18th French & German literature
Research specialism:
- The Enlightenment
- The philosophical thinking and works of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Denis Diderot, Benedict de Spinoza;
- Seventeenth and eighteenth century European philosophy and the history of ideas;
- The impact of philosophy on literature and identity;
- Theatre;
- The development of nineteenth-century Romantic aesthetics;
- Contemporary culture, society and politics in France and Germany.
Awards:
- DAAD award to spend July 2006 researching in the Georg-August-Universität in Göttingen and in the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel
- AHRB grant for the duration of my Ph.D.
- AHRB grant for the duration of my M.A.
Publications:
'Diderot, Spinoza, and the Question of Virtue', MHRA Working Papers in the Humanities, 2 (November 2007), 11-18.
'Le Père de famille', The Literary Encyclopedia, (Forthcoming 2008).
Conference Presentations:
'Defiance and Revolt in the Eighteenth Century', Manchester Metropolitan University, November 2007.
'Immigration et Identité', Sixth Form Open Day at Manchester Metropolitan University, October 2007.
'Spinozism and the Individual's Philosophical and Moral Identity in Lessing and Diderot's Works', Identity Formation, Manchester University, April 2007.
'Virtue and Vice: Spinoza's Impact on Lessing', German Research Seminar, Manchester University, February 2007.
'Current Research: Diderot and Lessing as Exemplars of a post-Spinozist Mentality', French research seminar, Manchester University, December 2006.
'Diderot und Lessing: Verliebt in Spinoza?', Georg August-Universität, July 2006.
'To what Extent are Diderot and Lessing Exemplars of a Post-Spinozist Mentality in Terms of their Portrayal of Freedom and Necessity?', PRASH, UCLAN, January 2006.
'Reason and Emotion in the Works of Lessing and Diderot', Postgraduate Research Seminar, Manchester University, October 2005.
Conference Organisation:
Co-organizer, 'Identity Formation', Manchester University, April 2007.
Membership of Professional Organisations
Conference of University Teachers of German in Great Britain and Ireland.
Teaching Areas:
French and German undergraduate and postgraduate eighteenth-century literature.
French Beginners' Course [LEAP]
Undergraduate courses:
- The principal trends and structures of contemporary French society, culture, politics and the economy.
- Key developments in French history which have both shaped the nation and moulded a profound consciousness of that nationhood amongst French people. The historical, social, economic and psychological dimensions of migration, post-migration, 'race' and culture.
- French and German language and translation courses.
- The Far Right in France from the 1920s to the present day.
Professional biography:
2004-: Ph.D., Departments of French and German, Manchester University.
2003-2004: M.A. European Languages and Cultures, Departments of French and German, Manchester University.
1999-2003: B.A. Double Honours French and German, Program B, Manchester University.