Marian Trygve Freed Early Career Professor and Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies, and Comparative Literature

Oceanic Creolization and Multiethnic Islands. Imperial Dynamics, Ethnocultural Landscapes, and Postcolonial Connections

Emmanuel Bruno Jean-François’s research engages with the expressive cultures of the Indian Ocean, especially the ones located in the islands of the Mascarene region. His project investigates the creolization model of the Indian Ocean and its contributions to the understanding of world history. It stresses the singularities of local ethnic diversity, and presents insights into the specific dialectics of the local and the global in the region. On a broader scale, this project develops a transversal approach to fluid and unstable political, demographic, and cultural identities. Taking into account both historical dynamics and contemporary developments, the study investigates local paradigms of identity-formation that have a direct bearing on the full apprehension of larger identity processes within the dynamics of global expressive culture.