Alice Jardine

Alice Jardine is an American literary scholar, cultural critic, and feminist theorist currently serving as Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures^[1] and of Studies of Women, Gender & Sexuality^[2] at Harvard University, having co-founded and led the development of the latter.^[3] In the field of 20th-21st-century French/Francophone literature and thought, Jardine's research focuses on poststructuralism, frequently overlapping with feminist theory.^[3] She is the author of numerous books and articles.

Education[]

Jardine received her B.A. at Ohio State University (1973) and her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at Columbia University (1982).^[4] In 1973, while on a Fulbright Scholarship to teach at a lycée (high school) in Paris, she knocked on Simone de Beauvoir’s door and introduced herself, commencing a years-long mentoring relationship with the famous feminist philosopher and activist.^[5] Jardine was also the first woman in modern times to study at the École normale supérieure-rue d'Ulm (1979–80), where she was the first woman to live in Samuel Beckett’s former dorm room.^[6][5]

Career[]

In 1982, Jardine was appointed to Assistant Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University, advancing to Associate Professor in 1985 and full Professor in 1989. During this time, when relatively women were appointed to the status of full tenured faculty, Jardine helped bring about the Women's Studies concentration and founded the Graduate Consortium of Women's Studies.^[6] Despite limited administrative support, she prevailed and founded the department of Women's Studies at Harvard (renamed to Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality in 2003).^[7] Beyond advising, Jardine was a key voice in advocating for the academic legitimacy of the field, and in dismantling broad administrative misconceptions about the department as simply a “polemical” discipline, or a women's or affirmative action center.^[8]

Contributions[]

Since the 1980s, Jardine has been a key figure in the ongoing transatlantic dialogue on feminism and its stakes in the contemporary era. Specifically, she has participated in the study of “new French feminisms”––lines of thought that nuance and challenge the idea of “woman” as a catch-all metaphor for everything that escapes and defies Western monological thought.^[9]

Jardine's intellectual trajectory and contribution to the formation of this knowledge owes much to the fact of having crossed paths or even worked alongside numerous 20th and 21st-century philosophers and thinkers. One such formative figure was Simone de Beauvoir, whom Jardine met just in 1973.^[5] Another major influence on Jardine's intellectual commitment to the stakes of feminism is the philosopher and writer Julia Kristeva, for whom Jardine served as research assistant while a graduate student at Columbia University in 1976.^[10] Alongside Leon Roudiez and Thomas Gora, Jardine played a prominent role in the translation of Kristeva's work into English during the 1980s, and, as of 2020, is the first person to write her complete biography.^[11]

References[]

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