Professor Hanna Diamond

Professor of French History

School of Modern Languages

: diamondh@cardiff.ac.uk
: +44 (0)29 2087 9591
: 1.06, 66a Park Place, Cathays, Cardiff, CF10 3AS

: Media commentator
: Available for postgraduate supervision

My work revolves around the social and cultural history of France during the Second World War and memory of this period. I have a particular interest in gender and am interested in reconstructing people's everyday experiences of these traumatic events.

I have worked in an advisory role for with the Musée de la Libération de Paris - musée Leclerc - musée Jean Moulin and co-curated with the museum director, their 2020 exhibition 1940: Les Parisiens dans l’exode/ 1940: Parisians in the exodus .You can read Jon Henley's feature on it in The Guardian and our short film of the exhibition here.

I have recently secured a 2-year Leverhulme Fellowship (2021-2023) to work on the wartime activities of international star Josephine Baker. Read my recent article which recounts some episodes of Josephine Baker's wartime activities.

I use a variety of sources for my research including oral and written testimony and am interested in how these sources can contribute to conveying the past in museum exhibitions. In relation to digital testimony, I have developed an interactive website (http://www.fleeinghitler.org/) to enable people to post family stories of their experiences of Occupied Europe during the Second World War.

I work with a number of non-academic partners in the UK and abroad including professionals in the creative industries (radio, television, film and theatre directors, producers, script-writers) and in the curatorial sector in the UK and France. In particular, I have recently worked with Wall to Wall Productions, the BBC, Like A Shot Entertainment, the SNCF (French Railways) and a number of French museums and archives.

I completed both my undergraduate and postgraduate careers at the University of Sussex. I gained an ESRC-CNRS scholarship to undertake my DPhil research in France. In 1992, I was awarded a History DPhil on “Women and the Second World War in the Toulouse region”.

After several years working in a variety of Parisian higher education institutions (Université de Paris III: La Sorbonne Nouvelle, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Fontenay-aux-Roses, Université de Paris X: Nanterre), I was appointed lecturer at the University of Bath in 1993.

I took up a Chair at Cardiff University in September 2014.

Honours and awards

2021 Appointed member of HCÉRES (French High Council for Evaluation of Research and Higher Education)

2020 Invited to be Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts

2020 Appointed to sit on ARPEGE Research Advisory Board of Universities in the Occitan region of France

2018 Member of GW4 Building Communities Review Panel

2018 Appointed to sit on Institute for Modern Languages Research Advisory Council

2018 Elected Fellow Welsh Learned Society

2017 Appointedf Trustee of the Barbier Archive, Cardiff University Special Collections

2016 Appointed to the Conseil Scientifique of the Musée de la Libération de Paris

2015 Honorary Friend of the Archive of Resistance Testimony, University of Sussex

2013 – 2015 Chair of the AHRC SWW DTP History Panel

2013 Elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

Speaking engagements

October 2021 Fondation de la France Libre, Sciences Po Paris (postponed from Nov 2020) ‘Josephine Baker and the Free French: the mobilisation of a female icon’
June 2021 Society of the Study of French History - postponed from July 2020 Keynote plenary: ‘Exhibiting Resistance: Thoughts from the Front Line
March 2021 Institute for Historical Research Roundtable ‘Historians at the Museum'
June 2018 University of Chichester Keynote: ‘Jean Moulin at the museum’
March 2016 University of Warwick Final remarks: ‘Everyday life under the Vichy Regime’
Dec 2016 Institute for Historical Research, London ‘Photography, memory and the Liberation of Paris’
Feb 2015 Nottingham Trent University ‘History, memory and photography: the Liberation of Paris 70 years on’.
January 2015 Swansea University, Conflict, reconstruction and memory research centre launch event. Plenary address - ‘History, memory and photography: the case of the Liberation of Paris 70 years on’.
Oct 2014 University of Sussex, Conference on June 1940 Plenary address: ‘Fleeing Hitler: lessons from the website’

We are currently unable to retrieve the list of publications. Visit our institutional repository.

I am teach on the first and second year transnational modules as well as on the MA Global Cultures.

I am module convenor for the Final Year dissertations in French and am interesting in supervising a wide range of topics relating to French History and Politics.

I am interested in people’s everyday experiences of the Second World War in France and have published two monographs, one on the experiences of women and the other on the effects of the defeat of France in 1940.

I am currently working on projects relating to:

the wartime activities of international star Josephine Baker who acted as a spy for the French Resistance
the portrayal of the Second World War, and in particular the Resistance, in Second World War museums in France and across Europe

Wider Contribution to the Academic Community

Co-series editor of the University of Wales Press series: French and Francophone Studies with C. Gorrara (Cardiff University)

Referee for the following journals: American Historical Review, Modern and Contemporary France, Women’s History Review, European History Quarterly, Women’s Studies International Forum, Journal for Memory Studies, French Historical Studie, Journal of War and Culture Studies, French History, Gender and History,

Reader and reviewer for the following publishers: Berg, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Routledge, Wales University Press, Manchester University Press, Bloomsbury Academic, The History Press, Berghahn Books, Palgrave Macmillan

I have recently acted as PhD external examiner at Université de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, University of Southampton, University of Kent, Sussex University, University of Leeds, Edge Hill University, and the University of Hull.

Knowledge Transfer, Impact, Consultancies and Public Engagement

2021

June: Sussex University Festival of Ideas ‘Lee Miller: Considering a life of artistic and political liberation’
March: Online publication of review of Chabrol film 'Une affaire de femmes'

2020

June : Online talk for the French Embassy and institute Français to mark the 80th anniversary of De Gaulle’s appe

2018

Launch of Barbier archive with plaque unveiling for Jacques Vaillant de Guélis who was born in Museum Place, Cardiff, in the presence of the French cultural attaché

2017

Publication of two obituaries for the Guardian
Consultancy work for Wall to Wall on BBC2 series Secret Agent Selection: WW2 shown in summer 2018
Consultancy and on-screen interviews for Like a Shot production’s documentary for the Discovery Channel ‘Witness to War’
Consultancy role for the Barbier papers donated to Cardiff University

2016

Appointment to the Conseil Scientifique at the Musée Jean Moulin
Consultancy role for Director Ema Ryan Zamazaki and on-screen interview for her documentary 'Monkey business: The Adventures of Curious George's Creators' (2017)

2015

Commissioned article for the launch of The Conversation.fr on the Liberation in France
Consultancy and interview on BBC1/Wall to Wall Productions ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ with Jane Seymour screened August 2015 (Viewing figures estimated at over 4 million)
Live interview on France 24 English channel 8pm news on the Resistors being inducted into the Pantheon
Consultancy and interview on BBCR4 Last Word about Belgian resistance fighter Lady Villiers
Expert discussion after film screening of ‘Ida’, Chapter Arts, Cardiff
Consultant for oral history exhibition held at the Archives Nationales, Paris April 2015 – June 2015 Voix cheminotes about the experiences of French railway workers from 1930-1950

2014

Lead organiser of a conference at the Institut Francais to mark the 70th anniversary of the Liberation of France.
Live interview on BBC R4 Women’s Hour – Women and the Resistance
Publication in The Conversation 70 years after DDay Women of the French Resistance are finally being recognised

I welcome applications from PhD students interested in all aspects of French Twentieth Century History and Politics particularly in relation to women and gender.

I have extensive expertise on France and the Second World War, and on Gender and Politics in France. I am currently working on projects relating to the memory of conflict and the representation of the Second World War in museums and would be keen to supervise in this area.

I have recently supervised six students to completion and am currently supervising five students on various topics related to Contemporary French History and Gender and Politics.

Current supervision

Daniel Baker

Research student

Sam Young

Research student

Past projects

'The Orphan Story of British Women in Occupied France: History, Memory, Legacy' (passed October 2018) AHRC-funded studentship

'Victims, perpetrators and bystanders: reconceptualising head shaving in Liberation France and Civil War Spain as gender-based violence' (passed March 2021) AHRC-funded studentship