Elaine Sciolino is a contributing writer and former Paris bureau chief for The New York Times, based in France since 2002. In the spring term 2017, Sciolino taught as a Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University’s Council of the Humanities, a post she held in the fall of 2010. Since 2015 she has served as the expert lecturer on six New York Times-led tours to Iran. In 2010, she was decorated a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. She is the author of four books, The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue des Martyrs, a New York Times bestseller; La Seduction: How the French Play the Game of Life; Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran; and The Outlaw State: Saddam Hussein’s Quest for Power and the Gulf Crisis. She is currently completing a book entitled The Seine: A Journey into the Soul of France.
David A. Bell is Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Professor in the Department of History at Princeton. A specialist in the history of early modern France, he is the author of six books, including The Cult of the Nation in France, The First Total War, and Shadows of Revolution: Reflections on France, Past, and Present. His new book, The Idols of the Age of Revolutions: Charismatic Leadership in the Atlantic World, 1750-1830, is forthcoming from Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
Anne-Claire Legendre has been Consul General of France in New York since August 2016. She is the first woman to hold this position. As Consul General, Ms. Legendre is in charge of promoting the influence and appeal of France across the tri-state area of New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey, as well as Bermuda. A native of Brittany, Anne-Claire Legendre graduated from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris and holds degrees from Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (in Arabic) and the University of Sorbonne-Nouvelle in Paris (in modern languages and literature). She previously served at the French embassy in Yemen in 2005-2006, before joining the Direction of the French Abroad at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she contributed to develop consular cooperation between member states from the European Union. From 2008 to 2010, she was in charge of bilateral relations with Algeria as part of the Direction of North Africa and the Middle East. She was then appointed to the Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations, where she served under the current French Ambassador to the United States, Mr. Gérard Araud, until 2013. As the Arab Spring upheavals placed the Middle East at the center of attention, she supervised negotiations on Syria, Lebanon, Israel-Palestine, and Irak, at the Security Council of the United Nations. In 2013, she was called to the cabinet of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, Mr. Laurent Fabius, where she served as Advisor on North Africa and the Middle East.
Organized by the EU Program, co-sponsored by the Department of French and Italian
