Profile
Claire Massy-Paoli is graduate student in the department of French&Italian at Princeton University. Her research focuses on the understanding of “creation” in the French context, working with contemporary literature and performing arts.
Education and Research
Originally coming from the centre of France, Claire attended a master’s degree in literature theory at the Sorbonne, and joined the literature department of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, rue d’Ulm. Following her MA covering more specifically Marcel Proust and Christian Gailly, her primary research draws on French theory and aesthetic, questioning the relationship between literature and music.
As a second year Ph.D. student, she is now working on expanding these questions to dance and performance, with a strong interest for ethnography and history of choreography. For her dissertation, she is interested in the dynamic between French authors, choreographers and musicians using texts as components of stage creation, raising the questions of meaning, between gestures, sounds and words.
Before joining the Ph.D. program at Princeton, Claire spent one year as a lecturer in French in the Modern Languages and Literatures department at Johns Hopkins University. Collaborating with professors coming from the Peabody Institute (JHU conservatory), she designed and taught a literary course exploring performing arts upon 20th century French literature, in addition to her French language classes.
Professional Experience and Community Engagement
An alumna of the Conservatory, holding a degree in violin performance, Claire’s works and research are highly interconnected with her activity as both an artist and an art critic. She often writes reviews (Metropolitan Opera, Joyce Theater) for Olyrix, a specialized website for voice and lyrical music, and Classykêo, dedicated to art mediation.
Beside her focus on research, Claire has also a strong interest in public policies, and she has worked for different art institutions, such as the Philharmonie de Paris and the Dance delegation of the French Ministry of Culture.
At Princeton, Claire is an RGS (Resident Graduate Student) in charge of the Edwards Collective, a residential community of undergraduate students selected for their interest in arts and humanities. She is also involved in different organizations and events related to the French community is the US, such as the Choix Goncourt USA, the Princeton French & Francophone Society (FFS), and Seuls en Scène, the Princeton French Theater Festival.