Dr David McCallam
Title: Reader in French Eighteenth-Century Studies
Telephone: (0114) 222 2860
email : d.mccallam@sheffield.ac.uk
Biography
I went to the City of London Polytechnic (now part of London Metropolitan University) initially to study Geology before changing to French. I graduated in 1990 with BA First Class Honours and a Distinction in Spoken French and subsequently taught French at London Guildhall University before going to the University of Warwick to do an MA in Philosophy and Literature. After a year of working in Oxford and an interesting couple of years teaching English in Hungary (1993-1995), I returned to Britain to complete an MPhil in European Literature at the University of Cambridge. Specializing in late eighteenth-century French literature and politics, I completed my PhD, also at Cambridge, in 2000.
Teaching
I currently teach the following courses:
FRE109/110 French Language and Communication Skills 1 & 2
FRE108 - Lectures on Voltaire, Candide
FRE239/240 Actualités françaises
FRE247/248 Writing the Revolution I & II
FRE301/302 French Language and Communication Skills 5 &
6
FRE363/364 Le Siècle des Lumières I & II
FRE6663/4 MA in French Studies: Constructions of the Body I & II
MA in 18th-century Studies (run by History and English)
Administrative Responsibilities
Director of Learning and Teaching for SOMLAL
Research
My research interests are in the literature, culture and politics of late eighteenth-century France, especially as they inform conceptions and representations of the French Revolution. I have recently worked on Laclos and Les Liaisons dangereuses, and have also published on eighteenth-century volcanology and mountain exploration. I would be interested in supervising postgraduate work on the French Revolution, notions of 'Terror', eighteenth-century earth sciences and mountain exploration, eighteenth-century travel literature and eighteenth-century French literature more generally.
I am a member of the Editorial Board of:
Other Interests
I enjoy theatre, travel and travel-writing as well as anything to do with French, Hungarian or Croatian cultures.