Andrew Billing

Andrew Billing is an Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. His office is located in the Humanities Building, Room 411, and he can be reached at 651-696-6437.

Professor Billing specializes in 18th-century French literature, French Enlightenment political and moral philosophy, economic ideas, French imperialism in the Pacific, francophone literature from the Pacific, science fiction, and critical theory. His research particularly focuses on Rousseau, political economy, and the intersection of animal studies with Enlightenment political thought.

His recent scholarly output demonstrates a consistent focus on French Enlightenment political thought, with particular attention to how political philosophers incorporated animal references and natural science concepts into their work. His publications reveal expertise spanning literary analysis, political theory, and historical economic thought, with increasing attention to Pacific francophone connections.

Professor Billing has collaborated with Juliette Cherbuliez of the University of Minnesota to edit a special edition of L'Esprit Créateur titled Paris, Imagined Capital: Economic Transition and Modernity (17th to 19th Centuries) and participated in workshops on the Abbé Raynal's Histoire philosophique et politique des établissements et du commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes.

He has taught diverse courses including the French Revolution, animal/human distinctions in the French Enlightenment, science fiction in French literature, and francophone literature from the Asia/Pacific region. Notably, he has collaborated with students on translations of articles from Diderot and D'Alembert's Encyclopédie.