Introduction
Founded in 2005, the Laboratoire d’Études et de Recherche sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA) is a research unit of Aix-Marseille University (UR 853), where researchers work on the English-speaking world, its languages, cultures and cultural productions, as well as its interactions with the various geographical areas.
Members
The LERMA research centre is run by Sébastien Lefait, Professor of American Studies, and Marie Hédon, Professor of British Literature, Deputy Director.
In 2020, the unit is comprised of 39 University Lecturers (Enseignants-chercheurs), including Professors (Professeurs des Universités – PR) and Associate Professors (Maîtres de Conférences Habilités à Diriger des Recherches – MCF-HDR), Senior Lecturers and Junior lecturers (Maîtres de Conférences – MCF), 5 teaching staff members with PhDs (Professeurs Agrégés – PRAG / Professeurs Certifiés – PRCE), 5 Emeritus Professors, 38 PhD students, and 2 staff members pooling resources to support research (secretarial administration and financial management). Young PhDs from the Research Centre also collaborate in the project. In addition, the LERMA has an international Advisory Board, which is consulted on questions concerning the structuring of research and calls for projects.
The Maison de la Recherche (Research Hub) and the CRISIS Federation
The LERMA is located on the third floor of the Maison de la Recherche of the Faculty of Arts, Literature, Languages, and Human Sciences (ALLSH) of Aix-Marseille University (AMU), and its Director is a member of the Board of Directors of Research Centres. The Centre is part of the CRISIS Research Federation, which brings together the 11 Research Units of the ‘Maison de la Recherche’ around common research projects.
Activities, Journal, and Open Access
The LERMA offers Research Seminars, Study Days and Conferences, while often hosting International Symposiums. It publishes E-rea, a biannual online journal, and has a dedicated collection of open-access publications on HAL-SHS.
Master’s and Doctoral Students
The Research Master’s Degree in ‘Cultural Studies of the English-Speaking World’ (ECMA) has close links with the Research Centre and is overseen by LERMA Professors and Associate Professors. Doctoral students are enrolled in the Doctoral School 354 ‘Languages, Literature, and Arts’.
Structure
The LERMA is divided into four research programmes (subdivided into groups or ‘themes’) and two interdisciplinary projects. Detailed presentations can be found in the corresponding pages (on the ‘Research’ menu), or by clicking below:
Programme A. ‘Decentred Disciplines: Rethinking Approaches and Questioning Knowledge’
- Theme A1: ‘Language and Speech: from Disorder to Therapy’, a cross-sectoral project involving the CAMSP (health and social centre) of Salvator Hospital (Marseille)
- Theme A2: ‘The Literary Expression of Economic and Financial Turmoil in Great Britain and the United States From the 18th Century to the Present Day’
- Theme A3: ‘Mediating Literature: Transnational Transfers Between the United States and France, 19th-21st Century’
Programme B. ‘The Relation to the Other, Memory and Identity’
- Theme B1: ‘Remanence in the English-Speaking World, 20th and 21st Centuries’
- Theme B2: ‘Observatory of External Relations in the English-Speaking World’
- Theme B3: ‘Critical Geographies’
Programme C. ‘Experiences of Modernity, 17th and 18th Centuries’
- Theme C1: ‘Swift and Modernity’
- Theme C2: ‘Lived Religion’
- Theme C3: ‘Rewriting/Translating Modernity’
Programme D, ‘The Subject as Object’
- Theme D2: ‘New Frontiers of Self-Narrative’
- Theme D3: ‘Subjectivity and Construction of the Visible’
- Theme D4: ‘Style(s) and Representation(s): the Inevitable Subject’
Interdisciplinary projects
- 1. The Horizon Project (Young Researchers): ‘The Female Voices of Anti-feminism’, recipient of the A*MIDEX ‘Pépinière d’Excellence’ (Incubator of Excellence) Award
- 2. ‘History and Epistemology of English Studies’, the Centre’s Research Project