Ronan Chalmin

Education

PhD, Yale University, 2005

D.E.A., Charles de Gaulle University - Lille III, 1999

About Me

Ronan Chalmin is Associate Professor of French at Auburn University. A native of France, he received his PhD from Yale University in 2005. Before joining Auburn, he taught at Tulane University and Connecticut College. His research focuses on eighteenth-century French literature and culture, with particular interests in the Enlightenment, the revolutionary Atlantic, political and religious thought in revolutionary France, and the history of ideas.

He is a co-editor of the complete works of Gracchus Babeuf, a major editorial project devoted to the writings of one of the most important and controversial figures of the French Revolution. His current work on Claude Fauchet examines the attempt to reconcile Christianity with the ideals of the French Revolution, while his broader research investigates the role of religious and political language in shaping revolutionary visions of society. 

Research Interests

French Enlightenment and Revolutionary Culture; Religion and Political Thought in the Age of Revolutions; Revolutionary Eloquence; France, Haiti, and the Atlantic Enlightenment; Gracchus Babeuf; Claude Fauchet

Publications

Books

Pour le triomphe de la liberté et de l’égalité. Gracchus Babeuf et Toussaint Louverture face à la Contre-Révolution, Selles-sur-Cher, Atlantiques déchaînés, coll. “Des textes qui font date”, 2024, 86 p.

Lumières et corruption, Paris, Honoré Champion, 2010, 388 p.

Critical Editions

Œuvres de Gracchus Babeuf, t. I, vol. 2 : Journaux (1790-1796), sous la direction de Stéphanie Roza et Hélène Parent (volume préparé par Stéphanie Roza, Hélène Parent, Ronan Chalmin, Laura Mason et Anne de Mathan, avec le concours de Michel Biard), Paris, Société des études robespierristes, 2024, 438 p.

Œuvres de Gracchus Babeuf, t. I, vol. 1 : Journaux (1790-1796), sous la direction de Stéphanie Roza et Hélène Parent (volume préparé par Stéphanie Roza, Hélène Parent, Ronan Chalmin, Laura Mason et Anne de Mathan, avec le concours de Michel Biard), Paris, Société des études robespierristes, 2024, 445 p.

Samuel-Auguste Tissot, De la santé des gens de lettres (édition d’Anne Vila et Ronan Chalmin), Paris, Classiques Garnier, coll. “Bibliothèque du XVIIIe siècle”, n34, 2018, 212 p.

Articles

“Prêcher la Révolution, du Cercle social à la Conjuration des Égaux,” Orages. Littérature et culture 1760-1830, n°24, 2025, pp. 83-98.

“L’Évangile selon Babeuf,” Quêtes littéraires, n°15, 2025, pp. 9-21.

“Passage de Babeuf chez Michelet,” Modern Language Notes (French Issue), volume 139, n°4, September 2024, pp. 712-725.

“Saint-Just: un dandy à la Convention,” in Edyta Kociubińska (dir.), L’Artiste de la vie moderne. Le dandy entre littérature et histoire, Leiden/Boston, Brill, 2023, pp. 165-182.

“Misologie des Lumières,” Diderot Studies, n°39, 2023, pp. 243-261.

“Denis devant Diderot : entre crise d’identité et respect de la postérité,” Recherches sur Diderot et sur l’Encyclopédie, n°57, 2022, pp. 5-21.

“Formes et savoirs de la corruption à l’âge des Lumières,” Arts et Savoirs, n°11, 2019, pp. 1-19.

“How Should an Invisible Event Be Taught? The Haitian Revolution as Pedagogical Case Study,” in J. Douthwaite, C. Seth, and A. Sol (ed.), Teaching Representations of the French Revolution, MLA, “Options for Teaching Series”, 2019, pp. 253-263.

“Britannicus, tragédie du plaire,” The Romanic Review, n°106 (1-4), January-November 2015, pp. 103-124.

“Éthique et rhétorique de la Révolution chez Gracchus Babeuf et Toussaint Louverture,” Modern Language Notes (French Issue), volume 130, n°4, September 2015, pp. 836-862.

Courses Taught

FLFR 1010: Elementary French I
FLFR 1020: Elementary French II
FLFR 2010: Intermediate French I
FLFR 2020: Intermediate French II
FLFR 3030: French Conversation
FLFR 3040: French Composition
FLFR 3050: Global French Cinema
FLFR 3100: Introduction to French Literature
FLFR 3110: French Civilization
FLFR 3150: Survey of French Literature II
FLFR 3930: Directed Studies 
FLFR 4410: Special Topics. Paris, capitale littéraire (18e-20e siècles)
FLFR 4410: Special Topics. Exploring the French and Haitian Revolutions (1789-1804)
FLFR 4410: Special Topics. Terreur, terroriste, terrorisme en France (18e-21e siècles) 
FLFR 4980: French Senior Capstone
FLFR 7970: Terreur, terroriste, terrorisme en France (18e-21e siècles)