The French historian Michel Leymarie visited the University of Southampton on 30 October – 1 November 2012 as part of the ILC’s visiting scholars programme. M. Leymarie teaches Contemporary French History at l’Université de Lille III Charles-de-Gaulle. He is a member of the Institut de Recherches Historiques du Septentrion, and a research associate in History at Sciences po (Institut d’études politiques de Paris). He is well known for his work on French intellectuals, including Les intellectuels et la politique en France (PUF, Que sais-je ?, 2001) and Histoire des intellectuels aujourd’hui, edited with Jean-François Sirinelli (Presses universitaires de France, 2003). He has written and edited several books on the leading essayist and critic of the interwar period, Albert Thibaudet. Most recently he has written extensively about right wing thinkers such as Maurice Barrès and Charles Maurras, and intellectual movements, such as Action française, which were influential in the wartime Vichy regime in France. He is also a member of several editorial boards and national committees.

Here you can access a podcast (in French) of a discussion between M. Leymarie and Professor Michael Kelly on the relationship between church and state in early twentieth century France.