Staff Profile

Introduction

Having worked in the School of Modern Languages from 2005 until my retirement in 2017, I am continuing my research activities as an Emerita Professor of French Studies. I am a world-leading scholar of Flora Tristan studies with the first annotated translation of her journal and the first book ever published on her political correspondence. In 2020 Liverpool University Press published my monograph of a double biography of Flora Tristan and her biographer Jules-L Puech, In the Footsteps of Flora Tristan. A Political Biography. In 2023 it was published in French: Jules Puech sur les traces de Flora Tristan, translated by Hélène Chuquet with an introduction by Armelle Le Bras-Chopard.

My current research project is a chapter on the question of slavery in Flora Tristan’s work. I am undertaking an investigation into the political trajectories of Jules and Marie-Louise Puech, socialists, feminists and pacifists of the first half of the twentieth century. In 2018 I held a visiting fellowship at Galway University Ireland. From 2015 until 2022, I was the Series Editor (with David Hopkin, Oxford) of the Manchester University Press Studies in Modern French History which welcomes proposals for publication from all parts of the world. I am maintaining my links with the Newcastle Labour and Society History Research Group. I was Head of French at Newcastle from 2006 until 2016, President of the Society for the Study of French History from 2014 to 2017, from to 2005 to 2013 President of the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France (ASM&CF), and from 2003 to 2013 I was on the executive committee of the Association of University Professors and Heads of French, a member of the editorial board of the journal French History and a trustee of the Society for the Study of French history (SSFH)  and in 2015 was Head of Research of the Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies (CNCS), Durham University.

Background

I have had a wide geographical background as I was educated in

Ireland and France before taking up my first teaching appointment in Paris

where I was a lectrice for three years. I am married with four grown up children and grandchildren and have always

enjoyed living in the north east of England while trying to sustain

links with family and friends in many parts of Europe.

Roles

and Responsibilities at Newcastle University until 1 October 2017

Chair of Athena Swan SAT for SML, September 2016 to 2017

Chair of Board of Examiners September 2016 to 30 September 2017

Head of French Section, 2009-2016

Acting Head of School August 2011 to February 2012

Deputy Head of School, 2007 to 2011

Chair of School Teaching and Learning Committee, September 2008

to 2011

Elected Senate Staff Member of University Council, September

2008 to July 2011

Member of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Promotions Panel, 2006 to 2009

Elected member of the University Senate, 2006-2009

Acting Head of School, January 2007 to July 2007

Chair of the Undergraduate Board of Studies, February 2006 to

February 2007

Qualifications

PhD: The Relationship between Feminism and Socialism in the Life

and Work of Flora Tristan 1803–44, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1989

MA (Distinction): Contemporary European Studies, University of

Reading, 1976

BA (Hons): West European Studies (II (i)), University of Ulster,

1975

Previous

Positions

Professor of French, University of Sheffield, October 2000 to

September 2005

Director of Centre for Gender Studies in Europe, University of

Sheffield, 1999 to 2005

Chair of School of Modern Languages and Linguistics, University

of Sheffield, 2004 to 2005

Head of Department of French, University of Sheffield, 2002 to

2005

Senior Lecturer in French Studies, University of Sheffield,

October 1995 to September 2000

Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer in French Studies, Newcastle upon

Tyne Polytechnic/University of Northumbria at Newcastle, September 1984 to

September 1995

Tutor in the Departments of French and Politics, University of

Newcastle upon Tyne, 1983 to 1984

Tutor in Modern Languages, Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic, 1979

to 1982

Lectrice d’anglais: Universités de Paris

XII et de Paris V, France, 1976 to 1979

Memberships

Member of the Irish Research Council 2012-2016

Member of the Steering Group of the Labour and Society History

Group, Newcastle and Northumbria Universities

Member of the Society for the Study of French History, AIRE

(Association Interdisciplinaire de Recherches Epistolaires), Société d'Histoire

de la Révolution de 1848 and the Society of Dix-neuviemistes.

Honours and Awards

Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes

Académiques, 2008

Languages

Fluent in French; Reading knowledge of German and latent

knowledge of Irish, my childhood second language

Informal

Interests

Music, swimming, walking.

Research Interests

Flora Tristan (1803-1844), political activist in July Monarchy France
Jules L. Puech (1879-1957) pacifist and socialist historian, biographer of Flora Tristan
Marie-Louise Puech (1876-1966)
Epistolary Studies and Gender identity
History of political ideas in nineteenth- and twentieth-century France

Other Expertise

Feminism in French politics since 1789
Political parties in France
Women in contemporary French politics

Current Work

Political biography of Flora Tristan and Jules-L. Puech
Marie-Louise Puech (1876-1966)
Historical contextualisation of Flora Tristan's politics in provincial France
Socialist Worker poets and Flora Tristan

Future Research

Edited publication of letters of Flora Tristan and of Jules Puech
Flora Tristan and the Irish question
Biography of Marie-Louise Puech, French activist in international feminism, pacifism and resistance

Research Roles

Head of Research of the Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies (CNCS), Durham University, May 2015 to September 2016;
Series Editor ( with David Hopkin, Oxford) of the Manchester University Press Studies in Modern French History March 2015 to present;
Leading organiser of the annual conference for the Society for the Study of French History in Newcastle University, June 2010;
Member of Steering Group of Newcastle Labour History Research Group 2009 to present;
Convenor of Gender Research Group in HASS, 2009-2010; Member of Steering Group of NIASSH 2009-2010; Peer reviewer for HASS Faculty; Reader for publishers Palgrave and Routledge and learned journals, French History and Dix-neuf; Reviewer for grant applications for British Academy, Leverhulme and AHRC

Postgraduate Supervision

From 2012 to 2020 I had the honour of supervising two outstanding PhD students, both of whom were awarded scholarships from the prestigious Northern Bridge AHRC to complete their research on aspects of French history.

Esteem Indicators

Trustee of the Society for the Study of French History 2011 to present
Member of the Editorial Board of the journal, French History, 2011 to present
Appointed Honorary Vice-President of the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France for Life
Keynote speaker at Flora Tristan International Symposium, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Panel commentator and Panel chair at the meeting of the Society of the Study for French Historical Studies, St Louis, USA, March 2009
Panel member of Tate Modern Research seminar on Gauguin, London, May 2008
Official Guest of the Institut français, Tunis for an International Conference on Gender Studies, held by the Université de Tunis, Tunisie, 15-17 February 2007
Visiting Professor at a Masters Research Seminar on Gender Studies, Université Paris VII, November to December 2006
Guest of Honour of French Embassy at Franco-British Summit on Europe day in the Elysée and Matignon with Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac to celebrate the Entente Cordiale, May 2004
President of the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France, 2005 to present
Invited speaker at Conference on 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage, Université de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines and the Finnish Embassy, Paris, 27–8 October 2006
Invited as visiting Professor to Université de Paris VII for Masters’ Programme in Gender Studies, November 2006
Elected as honorary member of Canadian Society for Nineteenth-Century French Studies, June 2006
Interview on BBC Radio Four with Jenny Murray: Woman’s Hour for live broadcast, on Ségolene Royal, April 2006
Panel Member for one-day Symposium of AUPHF, Institut français, London, 2 May 2006
Panel Member for one-day Symposium of AUPHF, University of Liverpool, April, 2004
Consultant to Deirdre Fernand, The Sunday Times, for article on Flora Tristan and Paul Gauguin, 19 October 2003, pp. 30–34
External Examiner for PhD Thesis, University of Ulster, Coleraine, Ireland, October 2003
Consultant to media journalist and scholar, Gail Pellet, New York, for a broadcasting project on Women’s History, May, 2003
Invited by Bibliothèque municipale de Castres, France to present a paper on Flora Tristan for International Women’s Day, 2003
Panel commentator and panel chair (members Jean Pederson, Rochester USA, Laure Talamante, UCLA USA, Judith de Groat, St Lawrence USA) at the meeting of the Society of the Study for French Historical Studies held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, 17–20 June 2004 Panel commentator on three papers (members, Christina de Bellaigue, Oxford, Michele Cohen, London, Gillian Dow, Oxford) on ‘Women, Education, and Nationality in England and France, 1789–1900’, Berkshire Conference, Clermont College, California, June 2005
Consultant to David Sweetman, author of Paul Gauguin. A Complete Life, London, Hodder and Stroughton, 1995, with regard to Flora Tristan

Funding

Awards:
2018 Visiting  Research Fellowship to the Moore Institute, University of Galway, Ireland
2013 Vacation Scholarship from HASS, Newcastle University
2005: British Academy Award for International Conference Travel to Brisbane, Australia
2002-03: Leverhulme Research Fellowship (5 months)
1999–2002: Arts and Humanities Research Board, Large Research Grant for Project: Flora Tristan’s Correspondence 1843–44: Literacy in France, based in the Humanities Research Institute and in French Department at Sheffield
2002-03: AHRB Matching Leave Research Scheme
2003: British Academy Award for International Conference Travel to Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada
2001: British Academy Conference Grant for conference on Gender, the Letter and Politics
1999: British Academy Award for International Conference travel to Bloomington, Indiana, USA
1999: Funding from the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France and the Ambassade de France for French Conference, New Dawns 1792–1824
1996, British Academy Award for International Conference travel to Utrecht, Holland
1993–1994, University of Northumbria Research Grant (12 months)
1992–93, Research Fellowship, University of Northumbria, (12 months)

Undergraduate Teaching 2005-2017

FRE4010 Gender, Religion and Politics in France since 1789
FRE2004 From the Commune to Vichy History of Modern France 1870-1945
FRE4061 Writing French
FRE4002 Paris: Aspects of History and Culture
FRE1006 Introduction to French History, Politics and Society

Postgraduate Teaching 2005-2017

Postgraduate supervision of pgr students, Cecilia Gil, Ellen Dew and Jemima Short

• Articles

  • Cross M. In the Face of Disappearance: a Tribute to the Work of Robin Adamson. Essays in French Literature and Culture 2017, 54, 11-21.
  • Cross MF. In the face of disappearance: A tribute to the work of Robin Adamson. French Literature and Culture 2017, 54, 13-23.
  • Cross M. Que reste-t-il de Jules-Louis Puech et de Marie-Louise Puech, un couple d’intellectuels engagés?. Société des Sciences, Arts et Belles Lettres du Tarn, Bulletin 2014, LXVII, 189-202.
  • Cross M. Remembering and Forgetting Flora Tristan’s Biographer: Puech's Contribution to French Labour History. Labour History Review 2013, 78(2), 171-196.
  • Cross MF. Il y a un siècle, le mouvement pour le suffrage des femmes en Irlande. Genre & Histoire 2012, 11.
  • Cross MF. Cross-Channel Reflections on Flora Tristan's Promenades dans Londres. Revue française de Civilisation britannique [French Journal of British Studies] 2012, 17(3), 87-104.
  • Cross M. Parité: An empty promise or a real change for equality?. Modern and Contemporary France 2000, 8(2), 241–243.
  • Cross M. Croppy Lie Down! Unruly Elements or Unclaimed Messages of the Past. Modern and Contemporary France 1998, 6(2), 149–154.
  • Cross M. Women Teachers in Control?. European History Quarterly 1997, 27(3), 377–380.
  • Cross M. ‘Représentations de l’affaire Dreyfus dans le journal La Fronde entre décembre 1897 et septembre 1899’ in Les représentations de l’affaire Dreyfus dans la presse en France et à l’étranger. Littérature et Nation. Revue d’histoire des représentations littéraires et artistiques 1996, Hors Série, 83–90.

• Authored Books

  • Cross MF. In the Footsteps of Flora Tristan. A Political Biography. Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press, 2020.
  • Cross M. The Letter in Flora Tristan’s Politics, 1835–1844. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2004.
  • Gordon F, Cross M. Early French Feminisms 1830–1940. A Passion for Liberty. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 1996.
  • Cross M, Gray T. The Feminism of Flora Tristan. Oxford: Berg, 1992.

• Book Chapters

  • Cross MF. 1919: Opportunities and Constraints for Women Activists: case studies of Marie-Louise Puech and Hanna Sheehy Skeffington. In: Perry, Matt, ed. The Global Challenge of Peace: 1919 as a Contested Threshold to a New World Order. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2021, pp.143-158.
  • Cross MF. A Philosophy of Love: Flora Tristan to Charles Fillieu. In: Bronowski A, ed. 'Dear Friend, You must change your life': The letters of great thinkers. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020, pp.119-125.
  • Cross M. The French in London during the 1830s: multidimensional occupancy. In: Kelly, D., Cornick, M, ed. A History of the French in London: Liberty, Equality, Opportunity. London: Institute of Historical Research, 2013, pp.129-153.
  • Cross M. La carrière littéraire de Flora Tristan comme résistance politique. In: Josepha Laroche & Yves Poirmeur, ed. Gouverner les violences. Le processus civilisationnel en question. Mélanges Armelle Le Bras-Chopard. Paris, France: l'Harmattan, 2013, pp.179-195.
  • Cross MF. Le saint-simonisme dans le journal et la correspondance de Flora Tristan. In: Cazals, R, ed. Le XIXe siècle des Saint-Simoniens. Portet-sur-Garonne, Toulouse, France: Editions midi-pyrénéennes, 2012, pp.98-105.
  • Cross MF. Sartre in Middlesex, De Beauvoir in Oxford: The Contribution of the ASMCF to the Study of France. In: Lane, P., Worton, M, ed. French Studies in and for the Twentieth Century. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2011, pp.272-288.
  • Cross MF. Salons sans Frontières: Flora Tristan's Reader and Writer. In: Brown, H., Dow, G, ed. Readers, Writers, Salonnières. Female Networks in Europe, 1700-1900. Oxford, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Wien: Peter Lang, 2011, pp.217-238.
  • Cross MF. Flora Tristan's Appeal for Fraternity. In: Cross, M.F, ed. Gender and Fraternal Orders in Europe, 1300-2000. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2010, pp.223-243.
  • Cross MF. A Conflicting but Corresponding Pair: reading Flora Tristan and George Sand. In: Harkness, N., Wright, J, ed. George Sand: Intertextualité et Polyphonie II: Voix, Image, Texte. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang, 2010, pp.171-188.
  • Cross MF. Des Palais pour des ouvriers et des ouvrières la route vers un Eden universel. In: S. Denèfle, ed. Utopies féministes et experimentations urbaines. Rennes, France: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2008, pp.99-108.
  • Cross MF. Southern Comfort: A Parisian's Diary and Correspondence with Activists in the Midi of 1844. In: Jovicic, J, ed. La Modernité et la métropole. Pour une lecture de l'espace urbain au XIXe siècle. London, Ontario, Canada: Mestengo Press, 2007, pp.99-122.
  • Cross M. 1890–1914 A Belle Époque for Feminism. In: Holmes, D., Tarr, C, ed. A Belle Epoque? Women and Feminism in French Society and Culture 1890–1914. Oxford and New York: Berghan, 2006, pp.23-36.
  • Cross M. To beg, steal or borrow : alternative money schemes in Flora Tristan's July Monarchy France. In: Capitanio, S., Downing, L., Rowe, P., White, N, ed. Currencies, Fiscal Fortunes and Cultural Capital in Nineteenth-Century France. Berne: Peter Lang, 2005, pp.73–91.
  • Cross M. Flora Tristan. In: Marshall, B, ed. France and the Americas: Culture, History, Politics, Encyclopaedia. Oxford & Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, 2005, pp.1297.
  • Cross M. The Correspondence of a “sister in humanity". In: Caroline Bland and Máire Cross, ed. Gender and Politics in the Age of Letter Writing 1750–2000. United Kingdom: Ashgate, 2004, pp.93–111.
  • Cross M, Bland C. Gender Politics: Breathing New Life into Old Letters. In: Bland, C., Cross, M, ed. Gender and Politics in the Age of Letter Writing 1750–2000. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004, pp.3–14.
  • Cross M. Women in Politics in contemporary France. In: Gregory, A., Tidd, U, ed. The Situation of Women in Contemporary France. Oxford, UK: Berg, 2000, pp.89–111.
  • Cross M. La Fronde and the fin de siècle. In: Chadwick, K., Unwin, T, ed. Perspectives on the Fin de Siècle in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century France. Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 2000, pp.95–117.
  • Cross M. Beyond Theory? The Empowering of Feminist Philosophy. In: Flood, C., Hewlett, N, ed. Currents in Contemporary French Intellectual Life. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000, pp.210–26.
  • Cross M. The Impact of Flora Tristan’s Socialist Propaganda in Provincial France 1843–44. In: Taithe, B., Thornton, T, ed. Propaganda: Political Rhetoric and Identity, 1300–1900. Stroud, UK: Sutton Publishing Ltd, 1999, pp.151–65.
  • Cross M. Party politics. In: Perry, S, ed. Aspects of Contemporary France. London: Routledge, 1997, pp.44–61.
  • Cross M. Flora Tristan, un exemple à suivre? Itinéraire d’une femme engagée dans la Cité’. In: Corbin, A., Lalouette, J., Riot-Sarcey, M, ed. Les Femmes dans la Cité 1815–1871. Paris: Créaphis, 1997, pp.319–33.
  • Cross M. Feminism. In: Flood, C., Bell, L, ed. Political Ideologies in Contemporary France. London: Cassell, 1997, pp.162–179.
  • Cross M. Mythes dans le lieu de mémoire parisienne révolutionnaire: la femme comme il ne faut pas. In: Kok Escalle, M.-C, ed. Paris: de l’image à la mémoire. Représentations artistiques, littéraires. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996, pp.89–104.

• Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstract)

  • Cross M. Tuning into Politics. An Assessment of the Role of Song in Political Communication in Flora Tristan’s Propaganda. In: French History George Rudé Conference Proceedings. 2005, University of Melbourne, Australia.

• Edited Books

  • Cross M, ed. Gender and Fraternal Orders in Europe, 1300-2000. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
  • Bland C, Cross M, ed. Gender and Politics in the Age of Letter-Writing 1750–2000. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004.
  • Cross M, ed. Flora Tristan’s Diary: The Tour of France 1843–1844. Berne: Peter Lang, 2002.
  • Cross M, Williams D, ed. The French Experience from Republic to Monarchy, 1792–1824. Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2000.
  • Perry S, Cross M, ed. Voices of France. Social, Political and Cultural Identity. London: Cassell, 1997.
  • Cross M, Perry S, ed. Population and Social Policy in France. London: Cassell, 1997.

• Online Publications

  • Cross M. Flora Tristan. The Literary Dictionary Company Limited, 2007.
  • Brooksbank-Jones A, Cross M. Internet identities in Europe. Sheffield, UK: University of Sheffield, 2006. Available at: http://www.shef.ac.uk/escus/papers/conferences/internetids.html.
  • Cross M. Alexis de Tocqueville. The Literary Dictionary Company Limited, 2005. Available at: http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4425.

• Reviews

  • Cross MF. Tragedy and Nation in the Age of Napoleon by Clare Siviter. Modern and Contemporary France 2022, 30(1), 101-102.
  • Cross MF. A History of Fascism in France: from the First World War to the National Front by Chris Millington, New York, Bloomsbury, 2019. Modern and Contemporary France 2022, 30(1), 96-97.
  • Cross MF. Writers and Revolution Intellectuals and the French Revolution of 1848. By Jonathan Beecher. French History 2022, 35, 1-2.
  • Cross MF. Vers l'égalité ou au-delà? Essai sur l'aube du socialisme by Ludovic Frobert. French History 2021, 35(4), 548-549.
  • Cross MF. Reproductive Citizens. Gender, Immigration and the State in Modern France, 1880-1945. French History 2021, 35(1), 127-128.
  • Cross MF. Marx, une passion française. French History 2019, 33(1), 145-147.
  • Cross MF. Une traversée du siècle: Marguerite Thibert, Femme engagée et fonctionnaire internationale. By Thébaud Françoise . Paris : Editions Belin/Humensis . 2017 . 688 pp. €26.00 . ISBN: 978 2 410 00549 3. French History 2018, 32(2), 302-304.
  • Cross MF. Une Imagination républicaine. François-Vincent Raspail (1794–1878). Edited by Jonathan Barbier and Ludovic Frobert. Besançon: Presses Universitaires de Franche-Comté. 2017. 260 pp. €20. ISBN: 9782848675985. French History 2018, 32(3), 447-448.
  • Cross MF. Socialism and the Experience of Time: Idealism and the Present in Modern France. By Julian Wright. Oxford : Oxford University Press. 2017. 276 pp. £75.00 . ISBN: 9780199533589. French History 2018, 32(3), 454-455.
  • Cross M. Figures of history; Suzanne Noël: cosmetic surgery, feminism and beauty in early twentieth-century France [book review]. Modern and Contemporary France 2017, 25(1), 100-101.
  • Cross MF. Regeneration through Empire: French Pronatalists and Colonial Settlement in the Third Republic by Margaret Cook Andersen [Book review]. French Studies 2016, 70(3), 456-457.
  • Cross MF. Poilu. The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrel maker 1914-1918. French History 2016, 30(4), 582-583.
  • Cross MF. Dirty war! Correspondence 1915-1916. French History 2016, 30(4), 582-583.
  • Cross MF. The Crisis of the Absolute Monarchy France from Old Regime to Revolution. Modern & Contemporary France 2014, 22(4), 562-563.
  • Cross MF. Intrepid Women. Cantinières and Vivandières of the French Army. Thomas Cardoza [Book Review]. Women's History Review 2014, 23(1), 141-143.
  • Cross MF. Forsdick, Charles/ Stafford, Andy (eds) La Revue: The Twentieth-Century Periodical in French Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Wien: Peter Lang, 2013 379 pp.. Modern & Contemporary France 2014, 22(3), 408-410.
  • Cross MF. Constance Pascal (1877-1937) Authority, Femininity and Feminism in French Psychiatry [book review]. French History 2014, 28(4), 582-584.
  • Cross MF. Thinking through Mothers: Reimagining Women's Biographies. Modern and Contemporary France 2011, 19(2), 236-237.
  • Cross MF. Geenens, R., & De Dijn, A. (Ed.), 'Reading Tocqueville: From Oracle to Actor', Palgrave Macmillan, 2007 [book review]. French Studies 2011, 65(2), 259-260.
  • Cross MF. Travellers, Clio, Tales, Women and Society. Rogers, R; Thébaud, F (eds.). French History 2010, 24(1), 128-129.
  • Cross MF. Contested Paternity: Constructing Families in Modern France. French Studies 2010, 64(1), 125-126.
  • Cross MF. Contested Paternity. Constructing Families in Modern France; Fuchs, RG. French History 2010, 24(1), 119-120.
  • Cross MF. Becoming a Woman in the Age of Letters. French History 2010, 24(2), 292-293.
  • Cross MF. Revolutionary culture: Continuity and change. Modern Language Review 2007, 102, 514-515.
  • Cross M. Review of: The fabric of gender: working-class culture in Third Republic France. Journal of Gender Studies 2006, 15(3), 290-291.