Stephane Van Damme

Stéphane Van Damme is an Associate Professor in Modern French History at the University of Warwick (2007–2009) and former Director of the Warwick Eighteenth-Century Centre. He holds a PhD (2000) from the University of Paris I (Pantheon-Sorbonne), where he also earned his BA (1991) and MA (1993). His research focuses on early modern intellectual history, particularly Jesuit studies, Cartesianism, urban history, and the cultural history of science. He has authored books such as Le Temple de la sagesse (2005) and Paris, capitale philosophique (2005), exploring the intersections of knowledge, urban identity, and cultural networks in Europe.

Van Damme has taught undergraduate and graduate courses on global cities, French revolutionary cultures, and historiography. His recent work examines metropolitan knowledge systems, including urban archaeology and the role of cities like Paris and Edinburgh in shaping intellectual movements. He has edited collections on cultural studies, urban knowledge, and Mediterranean intellectual mobility, reflecting his interdisciplinary approach to historical inquiry.

His current projects trace the cultural history of philosophy through case studies like Théophile de Viau’s trial and the evolution of Cartesianism as a cultural symbol. He also investigates the relationship between urban infrastructure and scholarly practices, emphasizing how cities became hubs of scientific and intellectual innovation.