Transfopress: transnational network for the study of foreign language press

The international network of Transfopress researchers focuses on bringing to the fore a material heritage object that has until now been almost completely ignored by researchers globally, namely the press published in languages other than the national language(s). Its aims is to update the historiography both of the press and of the construction of national identities and cultures.

Founded in 2012 by researchers at the Centre d’Histoire Culturelle des Sociétés Contemporaines (CHCSC), which is located at the Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines University (UVSQ), the network has approximately 100 members from more than 20 countries. Transfopress research groups have been set up in Brazil (http://transfopressbrasil.franca.unesp.br), Mexico (in collaboration with the Hemeroteca at the Biblioteca Nacional de Mexico), Spain (in collaboration with the Universitat de les Illes Balears) and Italy (in collaboration with the Università degli Studi Roma Tre). New research groups are currently being set up in South-Eastern Europe and in Argentina/Uruguay.

With its flexible modus operandi, the network’s members enjoy a great deal of freedom. The steering committee is composed of seven or eight members with the occasional addition of other members interested in the network’s activities and general orientation from time to time. The committee meets regularly in Paris or at meetings organised abroad and currently includes Bénédicte Deschamps (LARCA [Laboratoire de Recherche sur les Cultures Anglophones]/Université de Paris), Colette Collignan (Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada), Diana Cooper-Richet (CHCSC/UVSQ), Philippe Mezzasalma (Service Presse, Bibliothèque nationale de France), Nicolas Pitsos (CHCSC/UVSQ and CREE [Centre de Recherche Europes-Eurasie]/INALCO [Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales]), Stéphanie Prévost (LARCA/Université de Paris), Michel Rapoport (CHCSC/UVSQ) and Isabelle Richet (LARCA/Université de Paris).

In France, the network is linked to a handful of academic institutions, including the Service Presse at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, LARCA, La Contemporaine (formerly BDIC), BULAC (Bibliothèque Universitaire des Langues et Civilisations) and the Médias 19 programme. It has been continuously funded by the CHCSC and has received periodic financial support in the form of a French chair in Brazil (2013), a postdoctoral fellowship from Patrima (2014-2016), a Directeur d’Etude Associé (DEA) post at the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme in Paris (2015), a Curran Fellowship awarded by the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals and a scholarship from the Institut d’Etudes Avancées de Paris (2019-2020).

The Transfopress-Europe seminar group has organised a number of half-day sessions, colloquia and round tables every year since 2014. It aims to be a forum for the exchange and pooling of research carried out by European researchers with a view to comparing results, defining common research areas and disseminating results to the public.

The Transfopress-Europe seminar series is organised by researchers from the CHCSC (EA 2448, UVSQ), LARCA (UMR 8225, Université de Paris) and CREE (INALCO). The seminars are generally hosted by the Bibliothèque nationale de France, BULAC, Institut National de l’Audiovisuel (INA), UVSQ or Université de Paris.


The Transfopress-Europe seminars to date are (the session programmes are available on the website: click on the ‘Activités’ tab and then ‘Séminaire’):

4 March 2014: ‘La presse en français dans le monde’, organised by Michel Rapoport – CHCSC/UVSQ.
28 October 2014 : ‘La presse en anglais dans le monde’, organised by Diana Cooper-Richet – CHCSC/UVSQ.

7-8 April 2015: ‘La presse en italien dans le monde’, organised by Bénédicte Deschamps – LARCA/Université de Paris.

20 November 2015: ‘La presse en espagnol dans le monde’, organised by Géraldine Poels – CHCSC/UVSQ).

10 December 2015: ‘Les apports de la monographie à l'étude des presses allophones’.

25 April 2016: ‘La presse lusophone dans le monde’, organised by Graça Dos Santos –Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense University.

12 December 2016: ‘La presse en arabe hors des pays arabes arabophones’, organised by Franck Mermier – CNRS.

1 June 2017: ‘La presse dans les langues officielles des pays balkaniques en France et la presse allophone en Europe du sud-est, au XXe siècle’, organised by Nicolas Pitsos, CHCSC/UVSQ and CREE/INALCO.

2 June 2017: Médias19/Transfopress joint seminar.

26 June 2018: ‘La presse grécophone comme presse allophone’, organised by Nicolas Pitsos – CHCSC/UVSQ and CREE/INALCO.

19 November 2018: ‘Les journalistes de la presse allophone’, organised by François Robinet – CHCSC/UVSQ.

22 March 2019: ‘London and Paris, capitals of the foreign language transnational press’, co-organised with the University of Surrey, UK (https://www.surrey.ac.uk/events/20190322-london-and-paris-capitals-foreign-language-transnational-press-19th-20th-centuries).

18 June 2019: ‘Editer en Albanais’, organised by Nicolas Pitsos (CHCSC/UVSQ and CREE/INALCO).