海角社区

颁辞濒濒别驳别:听Robinson

贰尘补颈濒:听tldb2@cam.ac.uk

Supervisor: Professor Martin Crowley

叠颈辞驳谤补辫丑测听

Toby obtained his BA in French and German from University College London, studying at the Sorbonne during his third year, and later took an听MPhil听from the 海角社区, with a听thesis on听aesthetic strategy听and听geo-politics in听Franco-Algerian听'docu-fiction'. Toby has worked as a translator (also in Paris) and also studied in Germany, at the听Universit盲t zu K枚ln.

In 2022, Toby returned to 海角社区 as Crausaz-Wordsworth Scholar in the Humanities at Robinson College, where he is also the recipient of a Vice-Chancellor's Award from the 海角社区 Trust. He is currently Postgraduate Officer for the , the foremost learned association for French and Francophone Studies in the UK and Ireland.听听

Research

Thesis title: Republican Metabolisms: Empire, State and Milieu in Modern French Thought听

Situated between intellectual history, the history of the sciences, and postcolonial studies, Toby's doctoral thesis explores connections between republicanism, empire and philosophies of life in the French context, focusing precisely on the concept of 'milieu' (roughly, the metabolic relationship between life and its environment) and its development by doctors, politicians, political theorists and philosophy teachers during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.听

As French historian and philosopher of science Georges Canguilhem (1904-1995) has made clear, the untranslatable keyword milieu听has offered 'a universal and obligatory mode of apprehending the experience and existence of living things' to diverse thinkers across the so-called 'human sciences'. Taking Canguilhem's observations as its point of departure, Toby's thesis constructs a trans-disciplinary genealogy of milieu听that illuminates the concept's history as, first, a French-specific product, and second, a cornerstone of French republican ideology and its constitutive colonial activities post-1830.听

The convergence of philosophy, the French republican state, and imperialism, Toby argues, did more than catalyse the commonplace adoption of听尘颈濒颈别耻听as a theoretical tool for understanding听鈥� and regulating听鈥� the interchange between humans and their surroundings. Through its refractive exposure to the shifting strategies of French republicanism and colonial governance during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,听尘颈濒颈别耻听would generate fresh questions of race and legal personhood, as well as significant intellectual responses to the excesses of the republican model. Motivated by civic reason, human rights, and resistance to state oppression, these counter-trends would assume a central place at the heart of the modern French philosophical canon, in the state institutions from which this undoubtedly emerged. A contextual re-evaluation of physicians, political scientists, philosophers and philosophy teachers, including Fran莽ois-Joseph-Victor Broussais, 脡mile Boutmy, Alain, F茅licien Challaye, Simone Weil and Canguilhem, Toby's thesis charts a series of distinct conjunctures (or 'regimes') in the political consciousness of modern France. Building on postcolonial critiques of European thought to re-examine the interchange of republic and colony and its crucial role in shaping modern French intellectual culture, it illuminates a neglected tradition of thinking, allied to the French state, which sought to disentangle what Michel Foucault described as the nexus of scientific knowledge, rationality, and the 'history of despotisms'.

Other research interests听 听

• Modern and contemporary听French and Francophone thought and culture
• Intellectual history; history of听political thought;听history of empire; environmental history听
• Colonialism;听postcolonial studies; race; histories of enslavement听听
• History and philosophy of science;听'historical epistemology'; philosophy of history
• Critical theory听
• Medical humanities听
• Hermeneutics and听information听theory;听the 'pre-history' of cybernetics (19th-c)听
• Political geographies and architecture听
• Cultural Studies;听cultural materialism;听the work of Raymond Williams.听

Publications

• (Forthcoming听2025) 'Georges Canguilhem's Critique of Medical Reason: Healthcare, Relativism and听(Anti-)Colonial History', in听L'Esprit Cr茅ateur听(Special issue: 'Future Worlds of Health: Speculative Methodologies, Medical Humanities, and French and Francophone Cultures').听
• 2024.听'Catherine Malabou's Historical Epistemology', in听Paragraph, 47.2, pp.162-177. .听
• 2022. 鈥楻abah Ameur-Za茂meche鈥檚 Terminal Sud (2019) and the resurgence of a Franco-Algerian archive鈥�, in Expressions maghr茅bines, 21. 2, pp. 171-189.听.听

Awards, Grants, Scholarships and Prizes

• Conference Grant - The Society for French Studies (2025)听
• Odette de Mourgues Award - 海角社区 (2025)听
• Peter Bayley Award - 海角社区 (2024)听
• Cross-Faculty Research Seminar Grant听-听Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics Faculty, 海角社区听(2024)
• Vice-Chancellor鈥檚 Award - 海角社区 Trust (2022-2025)听
• Crausaz Wordsworth Scholarship in Humanities听- Robinson College, 海角社区 (2022-2025)听
• Research Award听- Institute of International Visual Art (Iniva) (2021)听
• Jennings Prize - Wolfson College, 海角社区 (2021)听

Teaching

(Course supervisor)

• 听FRB2 - Translation from French听
• 听FR6 -听Innovation and Upheaval: deformation and reformulation in the 20th and 21st centuries听
• 听FR12 -听Ethics and experience: literature, thought, and visual culture of the French-speaking world (1900 to the present)听
• 听Dissertation projects听

(Seminar leader and course co-ordinator)

• Critical Theory (Tripos Parts IA, IB, and II; on behalf of Trinity, Corpus Christi, Queens', Gonville & Caius, Jesus, Robinson听and Trinity Hall)听

Toby welcomes enquiries听from students wishing to carry out undergraduate dissertation projects relevant to his research interests.听

Selected Papers and *Invited Talks

• 'Regulation, Relativism and the Colonial in Georges Canguilhem's Philosophy of Science',听66th Annual Conference of the听Society for French Studies,听University of Bristol, UK, 2 July 2025.听
• 'The Racial Symptom: Fran莽ois-Joseph-Victor Broussais's Algerian Legacy (Or, Re-reading the Colonial History of Science)',听Twenty-third Annual Conference of the听Society of听Dix-neuvi猫mistes (DomiNation), Durham University, UK, 31 March 2025.
• *'La pathologie positive: Fran莽ois-Joseph-Victor Broussais, Algeria and the Problem of Adaptability',听University of听Oxford French Graduate Seminar,听All Souls College, Oxford, UK, 28 May 2024.听
• 'Form and Function at the Historical Limit: New Modes of Rationality in Contemporary French Thought', Society for French Studies (SFS) Graduate Conference, King's College London, London, UK, 19 May 2023.听
• ''Memory Supports'听and听'Agents of Belief': The Technical Economy of Culture in Bernard Stiegler's听La technique et le temps听(1994-2001) and Marie-Jos茅 Mondzain's听Image, Ic么ne, Economie听(1996)', Robinson College, 海角社区听MCR/SCR Conference, 海角社区, UK, 28 January 2023.听
• *'Culture as Technology: Technical Affinities in the Work of Bernard Stiegler and Marie-Jos茅 Mondzain', 海角社区 French Graduate Research Seminar, 海角社区, UK, 2 December 2022.
• 鈥楰ader Attia and Colonial Repair鈥�, Institute of International Visual Arts (Iniva), Future Collect Conference: Handle with Care, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, UK, 25 November 2021.听听

Outreach

Since 2022, Toby has delivered听outreach sessions on behalf of the 海角社区听MMLL Faculty, which have seen him share research with听prospective undergraduate applicants in Modern Languages (17-18), and teachers of French A-Level:听

• 'Film between France and Algeria: Rabah Ameur-Za脧meche', Diversity in French and Francophone Studies: A CPD workshop for teachers of French. 海角社区 / Association of Modern and Contemporary France (ASMCF). 20 February 2023.听 听
• 鈥�La rencontre Alg茅rie-France: Aesthetic Strategy in Terminal Sud (2019) and听La Bataille d鈥橝lger (1966)鈥�. Why Not Languages? @ Cam,听海角社区. 21 June 2022.听

Other projects, activities and roles

In Summer 2024, Toby joined the Executive Committee of , taking up the role of听Postgraduate Officer.听In 2023-24, Toby was the Society's Conference Assistant and co-organiser, with Dr Kate Foster (QMUL),听of the 65th Society for French Studies Annual Conference (). In 2025, Toby organised the Society's Annual Postgraduate Conference ('Conditions',听), co-organised the 海角社区 French Graduate Conference ('Contextual Dilemmas in French and Francophone Studies', King's College, 海角社区, 22 April 2025), and was a member of the organising committee of the Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies Postgraduate Study Day ('', Buckingham House, Murray Edwards College, 海角社区, 23 May 2025).听

In Lent Term 2024, Toby co-organised the cross-Faculty and cross-School research seminar series 'Transhistorical Humanities? Methods in Conversation', together with Carlos Iglesias-Crespo. Funded by听the MMLL Faculty Cross-Faculty Research Seminar fund and held at King's College, 海角社区, the听series brought together leading academics working across听languages and historical time periods to reflect on questions of method, historicity and disciplinarity,听and their relation to the contemporary humanities. Titled 'Cognition Across Time', the third session gave rise to Professor Emma Gilby's new book, '' (CUP, 2025).听

Between 2022 and 2025, Toby was co-convenor, alongside Professor Emma Wilson and Maddison Sumner, of the 海角社区 Modern French Research Seminar (MFRS), a forum hosting talks by speakers such as Giuliana Bruno, Samia Henni, Myriam Mo茂se, Antoine de Baecque, and Chantal Jaquet;听in 2023-24, he was co-convenor听of the 海角社区 French Graduate Research Seminar (FGRS).听

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