Emma Claussen

Dr. Emma Claussen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of French at Cambridge University's Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics. Her academic journey includes a D.Phil at Oxford, a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (2019-23), and a visiting scholar role at Columbia University. She joined Trinity College in 2023.

• Education: Oxford (BA), KCL (MA), Oxford (D.Phil)
• Previous Positions: New College Oxford Career Development Fellow (2016-19), British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow

Emma specializes in early modern French literature and conceptual history, with a focus on political language, theatre studies, and intersections between Renaissance thought and contemporary critical theory. Her research examines how pre-modern ideas about 'life' and 'survival' inform modern humanist frameworks, particularly through Edward W. Said's lens.

Key research outputs include Politics and Politiques in Sixteenth-Century France (2021) and co-edited works like Beyond Truth: Fiction and (Dis)information in Early Modern Europe (2022). Recent publications explore 'political homelessness' and the ethics of survival in Renaissance texts.

• Scientific Awards: Richard Parish Prize (2023), Forum Prize runner-up (2021), Malcolm Bowie Prize runner-up (2022)
• Collaborative Projects: Renaissance Conservations (with Simon Park), Early Modern Keywords (Durham), Fiction and Disinformation in Early Modern Europe (with Luca Zenobi)

She co-hosts the Proust Curious podcast with Public Books, and her current work investigates 'qualities of life' in pre-modernity through interdisciplinary approaches combining literary analysis with historical science and moral philosophy.