Guest Speakers
Joel Alicea is an Associate Professor of Law at the Catholic University
of America’s Columbus School of Law and the Co-Director of the Law School’s
Project on Constitutional Originalism and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition.
He previously served as a law clerk for Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., on the United
States Supreme Court. Professor Alicea’s scholarship focuses on constitutional
theory and has appeared, or is forthcoming, in the Yale Law Journal, the
University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, and the
Notre Dame Law Review, as well as City Journal and National Affairs.
Thibault Barbieux researches the history of Public Law, especially sovereignty and local liberties in the French Old Regime. A legal historian, he received his Ph.D from Université Clermont Auvergne. His thesis focused on the idea and reality of political contracts between the Crown and French provinces (16th-18th century), and was awarded the "Prix Joinet" (from the Institut Francophone pour la Justice et la Démocratie).
François-Xavier Bellamy is a philosopher and politician. He is a former Deputy Mayor of Versailles (2008–2019) and is now a Member of the European Parliament (2019–present), having led the The Republicans list in the 2019 election and the 2024 election. After two-years preparatory classes (A/L) in the Lycée Henri-IV, he got into the École normale supérieure, from which he graduated in 2005. He earned the agrégation in philosophy in 2008. Bellamy is the author of four books. He won the Prix d’Aumale from the Académie Française in 2014 for his first book, Les déshérités ou l’urgence de transmettre. In this essay, he analyses the failure of the French educational system as the result of an ideology that refuses the transmission of culture, thus creating disinherited students. In 2018, he published an essay entitled Demeure on the fascination with movement that he believes characterizes the modern era, and in which he sees the cause of the crisis of meaning affecting the West.
Arnaud Bouthéon is the cofounder of Sens Commun (a conservative
political movement) and Congrès Mission (an annual showcase for the vitality
of Christian culture and thought in France, aiming at being a laboratory to help
Christians dialogue with the world). A Catholic layman, he is the founder and
president of the French chapter of the Knights of Columbus. He wrote Comme
un athlète de Dieu. Manifeste sportif et chrétien (Salvator, 2017)
François-Henri Briard is a lawyer and barrister at the Conseil d’Etat and Cour de cassation. He studied at Panthéon-Assas Université and is a long-standing supporter of French-American friendship. He has been administrator of the Sarah Lawrence University, NY, and is member of the Historical Society of the Supreme Court as well as an honorary member of the Society of the Cincinnati. He serves in the French military as a member of the Naval Reserve.
Marie Kawthar Daouda is a Lecturer in French Language and Literature
at Oriel College, Oxford. Her research focuses on the representations of good
and evil and the echoes of the late-antiquity in contemporary France and Great
Britain, as well as on the connections between politics, religion, and literature
in France from the French Revolution to the mid-20th century.
Driss Ghali is a specialist in international relations and works in Morocco,
Brazil and France. He is a graduate from Centrale Paris and EDHEC. He
just published «From diversity to separatism», an ebook about French society.
Peter Hicks is one of the world’s experts on Napoleon and is the manager
of relations with academic institutions, museums and associations outside
France at the Foundation Napoleon. He is a lecturer in English and History at the
Institut Catholique des Etudes Supérieures at La-Roche sur-Yon in the Vendée
region. A renowned and prize-winning musician, he is also a choir master.
Giulio de Ligio is a Lecturer at the Université Catholique de l’Ouest after having graduated from the University of Bologna with a doctorate in Political Thought. He is an associated researcher at the EHESS and the Centre Maurice Hauriou, and has taught at Sciences Po Paris. His research focuses on political thought, philosophy and sociology.
Edouard Martin is a PhD candidate at Université Paris-Saclay, where his research relates to the field of mediaeval public law. He read Law at Panthéon-Assas Université (BA) before studying at Oxford University and Sciences Po Paris, where he obtained a MA in Public Affairs. He focuses particularly on the history of European Church-State ties.
Françoise Melonio, professor emeritus of Sorbonne University and Doctor of Letters, is the editor of Tocqueville’s collected works. She has taught in secondary schools, and has been a professor at Nanterre, at the Sorbonne, and at Sciences Po. She was deputy director of the ENS (Ulm) and director of studies and schooling at Sciences Po. She has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago and has served as President of the Tocqueville Society. She is a member of the board of the Tocqueville Foundation and of the editorial board of The Tocqueville Review. She is preparing an intellectual biography of Tocqueville, to be published by Gallimard.
Thomas Pavel is the Gordon J. Laing Distinguished Service Professor
Emeritus in Romance Languages and Literature, Comparative Literature, in
the Committee on Social Thought, Fundamentals, and Creative Writing at
the University of Chicago. His interests lie in the history of the novel, 17th-
century French literature, 20th-century French literature and intellectual life,
the interactions between literature and philosophy, and the way in which
literature understands human action and its moral requirements. In addition
to publishing fiction of his own, he has written on the plays of Corneille,
English Renaissance tragedy, the art of listening, the logic of the novel, and
the inadequacy of poststructuralism. He holds a doctorate from the École de
Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. A Romanian emigré, he has also taught at
the University of Ottawa and Université du Québec of Montréal, the University
of California, Santa Cruz, and Princeton University. In 2023 he received Le
Grand Prix de la Francophonie from the Académie Française.
His Excellency, Bishop Matthieu Rougé, was ordained in 1994 and has held his current ministry since 2018. He obtained his doctorate in Theology with Summa cum laude and taught Theology in Spain and Paris, in the Collège des Bernardins. He is a member of the Fondation Charles-de-Gaulle.
Céline Spector is Professor at the Philosophy Department of Sorbonne University. Her research includes work in modern and contemporary political theory, especially the French Enlightenment, Montesquieu, Rousseau and their legacy. Among her recent publications: Rousseau (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2019) ; Rousseau et la critique de l’économie politique (Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, 2017) ; Rousseau (Polity Press, 2019) ; Rousseau et Locke. Dialogues critiques, with J. Lenne-Cornuez (Oxford University Studies on the Enlightenment, Liverpool University Press, 2022); Émile. Rousseau et la morale expérimentale (Vrin, 2022).
Lieutenant-General Olivier Tramond is a graduate from Saint-Cyr
Academy, of the French War College and of the Institute of National Defense
High Studies (IHEDN); he served for 38 years in the French military as an
airborne infantry marine officer. During his career, he toured in various places
in the world and eventually joined national political-military assignments.
Upon leaving the military, he worked for various Defense firms as military
advisor and international affairs and as consultant for “the Normandy Memory”
project dedicated to the Normandy campaign. He is currently on the Board of
Directors of the American Battlefield Monuments Foundation (ABMF) and a
member of the Board of the Society of the Cincinnati France.
Paul Yowell is the Benn Fellow and Tutor in Law at Oriel College and
Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford. He teaches
constitutional law and theory, comparative constitutional law, and philosophy
of law. He is the author of Constitutional Rights and Constitutional Design:
Moral and Empirical Reasoning in Judicial Review and co-author of Legislated
Rights: Securing Human Rights through Legislation, and is currently writing a
book on comparative constitutional law called World Constitutional Systems.
General Christian Baptiste is a graduate from Saint-Cyr Academy and a
colonial parachutist in the 11th parachute division. He took part in numerous
operations in Africa and the Balkans as communications advisor to the various
generals commanding French troops. He joined the office of the Chief of the
Armed Forces Staff (CEMA) where he was communications advisor. From 2004
to 2007, he was Defense Attaché at the French Embassy in Tel Aviv, coordinating
the French forces responsible for assessing European nationals with IDF forces
during the Second Lebanon War. He was promoted to general when he came
back, obtaining his third star of major general in 2010. The following year, he was
appointed director of the Musée de l’Armée, and in 2017 he joined the Ordre de la
Libération.
Pierre-Hugues Barré is a PhD Candidate in Law at the University of Toulouse, a lecturer in Constitutional Law at Sciences Po Paris, and an academic visitor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford. He has been an invited lecturer at Masaryk University (Czech Republic). A graduate from the Sorbonne in Law, Philosophy, Theology, History and Political Science, his main topic of research is secularism and jurisprudence. He has clerked for the Cour administrative d'appel de Versailles, the Tribunal administratif de Paris and the Court of Appeals for the Second District in the State of Florida. His articles have appeared in IM1776 and Law & Liberty.
P. Bracy Bersnak is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Political
Science & Economics at Christendom College. He holds an M.A. in modern
European history and an M.A. and Ph.D. in political theory from the Catholic
University of America. His research focuses on philosophical conservatism and
Catholic social thought. His writings have appeared in The Catholic Social
Science Review, Perspectives on Political Science, The Journal of Catholic
Social Thought , and The American Spectator. He lives in Front Royal, Virginia
with his two daughters.
Rémi Brague is a philosopher and historian of philosophy, and a writer. He is an Emeritus Professor at La Sorbonne Université. After having studied mediaeval philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure, he focused on Christianity and intellectual history, comparing the evolution of the three monotheistic religions. He is Officer of the Légion d’honneur and member of the Institut de France, and has received multiple awards for his writings.
Greg Conti is assistant professor of Politics at Princeton University. His research focuses on the history of modern political thought, especially in Britain and France, and on the lessons that can be drawn from that history for contemporary debates in political philosophy. His book Parliament the Mirror of the Nation: Representation, Deliberation, and Democracy in Victorian Britain was released by Cambridge University Press in 2019 (paperback, 2020). He holds a BA from the University of Chicago and a PhD from Harvard University. He has also been a fellow of Jesus College, University of Cambridge.
Romain Debluë holds a doctorate in philosophy from Sorbonne-Paris IV University. His thesis was on the knowledge of being in Thomas Aquinas and Hegel. In addition to a number of articles in various periodicals, he has published a collection of essays on literature, philosophy and music (Les Métamorphoses de Protée, Via Romana, 2013), a novel (Les Solitudes profondes, Éditions de l'Aire, 2016), and a study entitled Hegel ou le Festin de Saturne (Beauchesne, 2019). He is also responsible for the edition of Bernanos' essays published in the 'Bouquins' collection (Scandale de la vérité, Robert Laffont, 2019). Finally, he is preparing an edition of the complete works of Blanc de Saint-Bonnet for Classiques-Garnier, and his second novel (La Chasse au Cerf, Éditions de L'Aire, 2023) has just been published in Switzerland.
Général François Lecointre is a graduate from Saint-Cyr Academy, of
the French War College and of the Institute of National Defense High Studies
(IHEDN). He was appointed Chief of the Denfence Staff in 2017. General
Lecointre took up the duties of Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honor and
Chancellor of the National Order of Merit. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre
for his role in overseas operations and the Croix de Valeur Militaire with four
commendations, the Grand’Croix of the Legion of Honor and the Grand’Croix
of the National Order of Merit.
Daniel J. Mahoney is a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute and professor emeritus at Assumption University. His most recent books are The Statesman as Thinker: Portraits of Greatness, Courage, and Moderation and Recovering Politics, Civilization, and the Soul: Essays on Pierre Manent and Roger Scruton. He has written books on such French thinkers and statesmen as Raymond Aron, Bertrand de Jouvenel, and Charles de Gaulle. He is also a specialist on the thought and art of the Russian Nobel laureate and anti-totalitarian writer and moral witness Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
Joshua Mitchell is Professor of political theory at Georgetown University.
His areas of interest range from the ancient world to contemporary America
and Europe. His thinking has been deeply informed by Alexis de Tocqueville.
He has also published on Plato, Hobbes, the future of the Middle East, and
identity politics. Dr. Mitchell received a Ph.D. and M.A. in political science
from the University of Chicago, an M.A. in sociology from the University of
Washington, and a B.G.S. from the University of Michigan. He has published
articles in The Review of Politics, The Journal of Politics, The Journal of
Religion, APSR , and Political Theory. He has served as acting chancellor of The
American University of Iraq—Sulaimani and associate dean of faculty affairs at
the Georgetown School of Foreign Service in Qatar.
Étienne Perrin is a lawyer admitted to the Brussels bar, holding degrees in European and Competition Law from Paris Saclay and Pau Universities, and is an avowed cinephile. He especially enjoys German expressionism, Italian neorealism and directors such as Douglas Sirk, Akira Kurosawa and Bertrand Tavernier.
His Excellency, Bishop Antoine de Romanet was ordained in 1995 and was appointed Bishop to the French Military by Pope Francis in 2017. He studied Law and graduated from Sciences Po Paris.
Armand Rouvier is a PhD candidate at the EHESS under Patrice Gueniffey. He studies the intellectual history of conservatism and the history of French and British political thought. He is the author of a widely-reviewed book on the history and relevance of French conservatism: Peut-on encore être conservateur ? Histoire d’une idée incomprise en France (Buchet Chastel, 2023).
Laëtitia Strauch-Bonart is a writer and journalist. After preparatory classes at Henri IV, she was accepted at the Ecole Normale Supérieure and later graduated in Public Affairs at Sciences Po Paris. An expert in the thought of the late Sir Roger Scruton, she translated one of his works as De l’urgence d’être conservateur, 2016. She is Editor-in-Chief of the Opinion pages of L’Express, a weekly newspaper.
Vladimir Trouplin has been the historian and conservator of the Museum
of the Order of the Liberation for twelve years. He is also a member of the
scientific council of the Général Leclerc de Hauteclocque Museum and Paris’s
Liberation Museum, as well as the Jean Moulin Museum. His main subjects are
Free France, General de Gaulle, and the Companions of the Liberation.
Pierre Valentin holds a BA in Philosophy and Politics from the University of Exeter and is completing an MA in Political Science at the University of Paris II, Pantheon-Assas. In July 2021, he published his first study of woke ideology for the think tank Fondapol. He will publish his book, Comprendre la Révolution Woke, with Gallimard in the Fall.
