In the latest in this new series, we talk to Dr. Blanche Plaquevent about her doctorate, recently completed in the department.
After studying in Paris, Blanche Plaquevent received funding from the SWW DTP to do her PhD at the University of Bristol. She passed her viva in July 2021 and will be working as a lecturer in history of gender and sexuality at the University of Glasgow from September.
Hi, Blanche! First of all, congratulations on your successful viva! Can you tell us a bit about what your doctoral research was about?
My thesis explores how the idea of sexual revolution got constructed as a political concept in France between 1945 and 1970. Historians have debated on whether a sexual revolution really took place in Europe and North America in the sixties-seventies. My research sheds a new light on this debate by approaching the term of ‘sexual revolution’ literally, as a political concept used at the time to articulate revolutionary politics and sexuality. I explore how revolutionary sexual politics emerged and circulated nationally and transnationally. Relying on published sources about sex and politics from the period 1945-1970 (books, magazines, journals), testimonies, private archives from activists and intellectuals, leaflets, billboards, university and police archives and newspapers, my research traces the emergence of the idea that the personal is political before its widespread advent in the seventies.
What did you enjoy most about your project?
For the period that I was studying (1945-1970) and the type of sources I used, very few documents were digitised. It meant that I travelled a lot to access my sources and I really enjoyed it. Although it required a lot of work and organisation, I discovered many different archival centres and visited various cities, such as Paris, Dijon, Strasbourg, Marseille, Caen, and even Amsterdam. It made research really fun and exciting. I guess I was lucky that it was all before the pandemic!
Let’s talk about the viva itself. What would you advise someone who is preparing for their own viva?
Don’t overprepare!
I read my PhD once (and worryingly realised I had already forgotten full passages!), and then re-read a few key passages like the introduction and the conclusion. If you can, get one or two friends/colleagues/family members to ask you questions. It can be useful even if they are not really familiar with your research. Being asked very general questions forces you to take a step back and consider your research from a different perspective. Finally, be honest with yourself and acknowledge the potential issues you can identify in your research, and try to articulate why you have made these choices, or even what you would have liked to do differently. I found that being aware of my own shortcomings and trying to understand them (without defending my past choices at all costs) helped me to consider my work confidently before the viva.
Photography by Jo Snapp, published in Walter Lewino, L’Imagination au pouvoir (Paris: Allia, 2018). Available online: http://docpresse.esj-lille.fr/archives/index.php/page/5/
How did you manage the submission of your PhD and job applications in the last year?
Following the advice of my supervisors, I began to formulate a postdoc proposal in the middle of my third year and it came in very handy when I had to start applying for jobs during the 4th year of my PhD. I started applying to grants and academic jobs at the end of 2020, and it intensified between March and July 2021 as more jobs were advertised. I submitted my PhD for examination at the end of April and then had more time to prepare my applications. I must say that receiving waves of job rejections just after submitting the PhD was sometimes challenging. It was hard not to let it cast a shadow on the achievement that is finishing a thesis!
What’s next for you? Where can we find your research and/or writing now?
I am joining the University of Glasgow as a lecturer in the history of gender and sexuality. I’ll be teaching undergraduates and postgraduates students and I will be in charge of the International History Summer School.
To find out more about my research, if you speak French, you can read an article I published in Ethnologie Française in 2019 to introduce my research. I am currently working on an article in English which aims at exploring the specificity of postwar French sexual politics in comparison with other forms of sexual politics we are more familiar with today. I hope to submit it soon and I will also shortly start working on the publication of my monograph.