Elen COCAIGN

Elen COCAIGN is an Associate Professor of British History at Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint Denis. She specializes in 20th-century British cultural and political history, focusing on the role of books and media in shaping political cultures. Her doctoral thesis examined the British Left's relationship with publishers and book clubs from 1918 to the early 1950s, emphasizing democratization of cultural access through paperback books and reading communities. Current research explores post-WWII political book circulation, pacifist movements, and community bookshops. She has taught at institutions including the University of Cambridge and Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne before joining Paris 8 in 2016.

Administratively, she directed the University's Language Center (2017–2020) and serves on the 11th Section Advisory Committee since 2018. She teaches English for social sciences at the Language Center, offering courses like 'Media and Democracy' and 'Protest and Conformity – Britain in the 1960s and 1970s'. Her work bridges political history with popular culture studies, emphasizing intersections between intellectual production and grassroots movements.