Centre Lucien Febvre

The Lucien Febvre Centre (formerly known as the Historical Sciences Laboratory) is a team of researchers specialised in the history and art of the Middle Ages and modern and contemporary eras. It brings together six full professors, one senior lecturer, 12 lecturers and one administrative secretary. It has also eighteen associate researchers. Its scientific activity is structured around three main axis of research. Axis 1 “Theoretical constructions, debates and circulations of ideas” studies the history of ideas. It aims to re-historicize the study of the gestation, dissemination and impact of political, religious, social and economic theories of the late Middle Ages up to the contemporary era. It is divided into three sub-axes: 1 – Think politics in times of crisis (late Middle Ages-twentieth century, Europe, North America); 2 – Religious polemic and politicization (15th-17th century) ; 3 – Networks, conceptualisation and circulation of ideas and knowledge in Europe, from humanism to the Belle Epoque (14th-19th century). Axis 2 “Society, mass production and culture” aims to consider the phenomena of massification that have appeared since the middle of the 19th century on hitherto unknown scales. Social transformations such as those of forms of production and the multiple dimensions of mass culture are addressed in three sub-axes : 1 – Business changes related to innovation and mass production; 2 – Dynamics and social movements in the era of globalization; 3 – Representations and practices of mass culture (production, circulation, reception). Axis 3 “Comparative and Transnational Approaches to Politics: Systems and Structures” aims to observe the functioning of Western political systems going beyond the strict limits of states through a comparative and transnational approach to politics. It is structured in three sub-axes: 1 – Transnational systems; 2 – Border areas and Border Model; 3 – Pan-European structures: representative assemblies, princely orders. The work on these fields of research is oriented around collective projects benefiting from European or national funding such as the FREE project (Football Research in an enlarged Europe, 2012-2015) or the ANR LODOCAT (Lotharingian Christendom, Catholic Backbone, 9th-18th century, 2014-2017). Currently, three research programs are in progress: ISEMS (Sports Industry, History of Sports Equipment, Motor Sports and Sports Performance), which has obtained a three-year funding from Société Générale’s History Mission (2017-2019), Social Movements? Unionism and Territory in the economic changes (year 1960-years 2000) supported by the region Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (2017-2019) and CORES (Circulation of Objects, books and documents through the Scholarly Epistolary Networks from the Renaissance to the Belle Epoque, 2018-2020) which benefits from Chrysalide funding from the University of Franche-Comté and support from the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region. The collective and personal research of the members of the Lucien Febvre Centre also goes through the organisation of international or national scientific events such as the “Lucien Febvre from Franche-Comté to the Collège de France” symposium (March 2017) or “The Granvelle family at the heart of the Renaissance. Antiquity, Arts and Culture” (November 2017). The results of these researches are published in the best foreign and French historical journals or publishers and have been awarded prestigious prizes (Chateaubriand Prize 2014 and 2015; Guizot Prize 2015, Monseigneur Marcel Prize 2015). The professors of the Lucien Febvre Centre supervise twenty PhD students who are invited to present their work during two half-days which are dedicated to them at the beginning of winter and at the end of spring. They are also invited, like the art history and history master’s students, at the “Rentrée” of the Lucien Febvre Center, a scientific event which launches the activity of the laboratory in September and at the weekly research seminar.