Diplomat, normalien and agrégé, Thibault Bladek is cultural attaché and director of Villa Albertine at the Consulate general of France in New Orleans. During his studies, he focused his research on the reception of the Enlightenment in Spain, censorship, and the concepts of tyranny and despotism.
Fayçal Falaky is Associate Professor of French at Tulane University, where he specializes in Enlightenment thought, the history of ideas, and the intersection of literature and philosophy. His first book, Social Contract, Masochist Contract: Aesthetics of Freedom and Submission in Rousseau, was published by SUNY Press in 2014. He co-edits Diderot Studies, and his work has appeared in journals such as The Journal of the History of Ideas, Small Axe, and The European Journal of Political Theory.
After studies in Languages, Political science, Philosophy and History, Mr. Rodolphe SAMBOU joined the French Ministry For Foreign Affairs in 2005. He was assigned to the Asia and Oceania division, before joining the United Nations and Human Rights office of the Ministry from 2008 to 2010. He then was appointed as First Secretary at the Embassy of France in Port au Prince (Haïti), where he stayed until 2013. In 2013, Mr Sambou joined the French Embassy in Bangkok (Thailand) as a political officer. In 2016, he served as Deputy Head of mission in the Embassy of France in Wellington (New Zealand). Back in Paris in 2020, he was appointed at the Division of Asia and Oceania as an advisor to the Director, covering cross cutting and regional issues. In 2023, he was appointed Consul General of France in New Orleans.
Chelsea Stieber is Associate Professor and Kathryn B. Gore Chair in French Studies in the Department of French and Italian at Tulane University. She researches and teaches on nineteenth-century French Caribbean literature, history, and culture with an emphasis on Haiti.
Jennifer Tsien is Professor of French at the University of Virginia, specializing in the eighteenth century. She has written three books, including Rumors of Revolution: Song, Sentiment, and Sedition in Colonial Louisiana (2023). She received her B.A. in French and German from Tulane University in 1993 and her Ph.D. from Princeton in 2001.
Masano Yamashita is Associate Professor of French at the University of Colorado Boulder. She specializes in the literature and social thought of the eighteenth century. She is the author of Jean-Jacques Rousseau face au public: problèmes d’identité (2017) and of numerous articles on French writers of the Enlightenment.