Rebecca Rogers is professor of history of education (Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité). She is the author of From the Salon to the Schoolroom; Educating Bourgeois Girls in 19th-Century France (The Penn State University Press, 2005), A Frenchwoman’s Imperial Storyy Madame Luce in 19th-Century Algeria (Stanford University Press, 213).
In this talk Rebecca Rogers draws from the material of her book about Madame Luce to offer new insights into the history of colonial Algeria. Luce’s life story reveals how girls’ education and female artisanal training were part of the French “civilizing mission” from the early years. Recovering this history raises issues about the gendering of historical memory.