Hélène Huet talking about Mapping Decadence.
Originally from Lille, France, I first came to the US in in 2005-2006, when I served as a teaching assistant at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana.
I hold a Ph.D. in French and Francophone studies from Penn State University (May 2015), and my dissertation is entitled “Le livre décadent : éditer, illustrer, lire” (“The Decadent Book: Publishing, Illustrating, and Reading”). My research interests include Decadent literature as well as nineteenth-century French literature and history more broadly, the history of the book and publishing, and digital humanities.
Since August 2015, I am the European Studies Librarian at the University of Florida. In this position, I am responsible for managing and developing world-class library collections in all areas related to European Studies, including European languages, literatures, and cultures, at the George A. Smathers Libraries.
I liaise and collaborate with faculty and students from the Departments of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Spanish and Portuguese, as well as from the Center for European Studies. As part of these relationships, I provide specialized reference services, including library and research instruction for faculty, undergraduates, graduate students, and scholars conducting research in the fields of French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese Studies.
I also collaborate with several additional Departments and Centers across campus, including the Departments of History and English as well as the Center for Humanities in the Public Sphere, to further library Digital Humanities initiatives and partnerships.
Finally, I provide general reference, instruction, and outreach services; curate and design exhibits for both campus and public communities; write competitive grant applications; and participate on project teams for library-wide grants.
My two current Digital Humanities projects are Mapping Decadence and the WWI Diary of Albert Huet.
As the Chair of the Collection Development Working Group of the Collaborative Initiative for French Language Collections (CIFNAL), I oversaw two projects: the French and Francophone Digital Humanities projects LibGuide compiles a number of French and Francophone Digital Humanities projects from around the world. Meanwhile, the Finding French and Francophone Special Collections website highlights French and Francophone Special Collections in American and Canadian universities. These are searchable through a database and a Google Map.
Last but not least, I am the Chair of the Florida Digital Humanities Consortium (FLDH), which is a collective of institutions in the State of Florida that seeks to promote an understanding of the humanities in light of digital technologies and research.
Lucy After a Long Day
I relocated to Gainesville, Florida in 2015, where I now live with my partner, historian, educator, writer, and podcaster Sean Trainor and my cat Lucy.
You can find me on Twitter at @superHH, as well as on LinkedIn.