French and Francophone Studies
Visiting Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Directeur d'Etudes at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris, and Professor at the Collège de France. His work in Early Modern European History is rooted in the tradition of the " Annales School" and mainly dedicated to the history of education, the history of the book and the history of reading.
Recently, he has focused on the relationship between written culture as a whole and literature (particularly theatrical plays) for France, England and Spain. His work in this specific field (based on the criss-crossing between literary criticism, bibliography, and sociocultural history) is not disconnected from broader historiographical and methodological interests which deal with the relation between history and other disciplines: philosophy, sociology, anthropology.