Maurice Samuels (born August 9, 1968) is the Betty Jane Anlyan Professor of French at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

. He graduated with a BA (''

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

'') in 1990 from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, where he also earned his MA (1995) and PhD (2000). Before moving to Yale in 2006, Samuels taught at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. He specializes in the literature and culture of nineteenth-century France and in Jewish Studies, and is the author of books and articles on these and other topics. He is the inaugural director of the

Yale Program for the Study of Antisemitism The Yale Program for the Study of Antisemitism (YPSA) is an interdisciplinary center at Yale University in New Haven, CT devoted to the study of both historical and contemporary forms of antisemitism. Housed at the Whitney Humanities Center, YPSA ...

Work

Samuels is the author of ''
he Spectacular Past: Popular History and the Novel in Nineteenth-Century France
' (2004),
Inventing the Israelite: Jewish Fiction in Nineteenth-Century France
' (2010), and

' (2016). He co-edited and did translations for
Nineteenth-Century Jewish Literature Reader
' (2013). His new book,
The Betrayal of the Duchess: The Scandal That Unmade the Bourbon Monarchy and Made France Modern
', will be published by

Basic Books Basic Books is a book publisher founded in 1950 and located in New York, now an imprint of Hachette Book Group. It publishes books in the fields of psychology, philosophy, economics, science, politics, sociology, current affairs, and history. H ...

in spring 2020. In 2011, Samuels became the inaugural director of the

(YPSA), housed at Yale's

Whitney Humanities Center Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

. Through a seminar series of invited international scholars, an annual conference, and the awarding of faculty and student research grants, YPSA "promotes the study of the perception of Jews, both positive and negative, in various societies and historical moments, and also encourages comparisons with other forms of discrimination and racism."

Awards

''The Spectacular Past'' won th
Gaddis Smith International Book Prize
awarded by Yale University's

MacMillan Center The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale, commonly known as the MacMillan Center, is a research and educational center for international affairs and area studies at Yale University. Academics As of 2021 ...

. ''Inventing the Israelite'' and ''The Right to Difference'' both received th
Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for French and Francophone Studies
given by the

Modern Language Association The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "st ...

. In 2015, Samuels was awarded a

fellowship A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

from the

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been ...

Teaching

Samuels teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on a variety of topics. Recent courses include "Paris: Capital of the Nineteenth Century"; "Money and the Novel"; "Jewish Identity and French Culture"; "Realism and Naturalism"; "Fin-de-siècle France"; and "Representing the Holocaust." With

Alice Kaplan Alice Yaeger Kaplan (June 22, 1954) is an American literary critic, translator, historian, and educator. She is the Sterling Professor of French and Director of the Whitney Center for the Humanities at Yale University. Biography Alice Yaeger Kapla ...

, he teaches a popular undergraduate survey course, ''The Modern French Novel''.

References

External links

Yale Faculty HomepageYale Program for the Study of AntisemitismMaurice Samuels Discussing "Inventing the Israelite"Recording of Samuels' 2015 Helen Diller Family Endowment Distinguished Lecture in Jewish Studies at UC Santa Cruz, "French Universalism and the Jews: Anti-Antisemitism and the Right to Difference," May 18, 2015Connecticut Jewish Ledger - Q & A with Prof. Maurice Samuels, head of Yale's new antisemitism program (Nov 16, 2011)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Samuels, Maurice Yale University faculty Living people 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Harvard University alumni University of Pennsylvania faculty 1968 births American male non-fiction writers