Rate My Professor Richard Scholar

Professor Richard Scholar holds the Chair in French within the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at Durham University, a position he assumed in 2019 following his tenure at the University of Oxford, where he was Professor of French and Comparative Literature from 2015, the first University Lecturer in French, and Fellow and Tutor in French at Oriel College. He has also taught at the École normale supérieure in Paris. A graduate of Oxford University, Scholar earned his BA, MSt, and DPhil there. Born and raised in London, his scholarly pursuits center on French and comparative literature, with a special emphasis on early modern studies, world literature, translation and transcultural studies, word histories, utopian studies, cultural and intellectual history, and critical methodologies. He has served as Deputy Head of the School of Modern Languages and Cultures from 2019 to 2021 and is Director of Durham’s Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies in a job-share with Professor Ita Mac Carthy since 2023.

Scholar's major authored works include Émigrés: French Words That Turned English (2020), Montaigne and the Art of Free-Thinking (2010), and The Je-Ne-Sais-Quoi in Early Modern Europe: Encounters with a Certain Something (2005), the latter two translated into French. He has edited volumes such as Montaigne in Transit: Essays in Honour of Ian Maclean (2016), Caribbean Globalizations, 1492 to the Present Day (2015), and Fiction and the Frontiers of Knowledge in Europe, 1500-1800 (2010). His accolades include the Philip Leverhulme Prize, Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques, and a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship (2021-2024). As founding General Editor of the Translatio book series published by Durham University IMEMS Press, former Editor of Early Modern French Studies, and participant in international projects like Early Modern Keywords and Storming Utopia, Scholar has significantly influenced his field through editorial roles, visiting fellowships, and interdisciplinary collaborations.