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Professor Eric Jennings, chair of the Department of History and a leading authority in modern French colonial history, has won the prestigious 2025 Pierre Chauveau Medal.
The medal is presented biennially by the Royal Society of Canada in commendation of outstanding contributions to knowledge in the humanities, outside of Canadian literature and Canadian history.
A distinguished professor of French colonial history, Jennings is also an expert on the Francophonie — the global community of states and organizations that use French as a common language.
Through his many publications, including books he has personally translated, he has worked to broaden and reframe French influence within a wider, more global context.
“I’m honoured to be in such good company,” says Jennings, citing previous winners of the medal such as historians Lynne Viola and Bertie Wilkinson, and literary theorist Northrop Frye. “History is at the intersection of social science and the humanities: it’s a thrill to represent the humanities at a time when they matter more than ever.”
The medal has been awarded in recognition of Jennings’ exceptional, multiple award-winning scholarly contributions, which have profoundly impacted the study of colonialism and its legacies. His in-depth archival research has taken him from Martinique to Paris, Frankfurt and Prague, to Brazzaville, Yaoundé, Antananarivo, Hanoi and Phnom Penh, straddling the histories of France, Southeast Asia, the Indian and Pacific Oceans, Africa, and the Caribbean.
This global detective work has often resulted in the discovery of obscure and fascinating material; Jennings cites “the thrill of the chase” as one of the more pleasant aspects of his work.
“There’s no shortage of global archives for me,” he says. “Each time, it’s a really interesting treasure hunt.”
Jennings has found that studying one subject can easily lead to another. While researching his first book, Vichy in the Tropics, he uncovered material that led to his second — Curing the Colonizers, about the use of therapeutic spas by French colonial workers stationed in Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries.
His new book, Vanilla: the History of an Extraordinary Bean, traces the journey of one of the world’s most popular and expensive flavourings.
Jennings’ research continues to reveal the true breadth of the Francophone world, which today comprises some 321 million speakers all over the globe.
Outside of well-known territories such as France and Quebec, he says that French influence continues to survive “through many areas overseas, some of which are full-fledged departments, zones under French control, or what is known as ‘overseas collective territorialities’.” French territory spans huge stretches of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, extending even to Antarctica.
“And the greatest growth area for the French language today is in central and west Africa, not Europe,” says Jennings. In his book Free French Africa in World War II, he shifted the focus to Central Africa in a similar way: “An example of this decentering of France is that the prototypical member of the first resistance in World War II wasn’t a beret-coiffed Savoyard or Breton sailor, but rather a conscript from what is today is a region covering the Central African Republic, Chad, Cameroon, Gabon and the Republic of Congo.”
In addition to his multiple books and publications, Jennings was awarded a Simon Guggenheim fellowship in 2014, and is also the winner of the Gilbert Chinard, Alf Heggoy, Prix des Ambassadeurs, Prix Fetkann, and Prix du livre d’histoire des outre-mer prizes. He was made a chevalier in the ordre des palmes académiques in 2010 and became a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2019.
“Professor Jennings continues to make essential contributions to our collective knowledge of modern French and Francophone history,” says Stephen Wright, interim dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science. “His memorable discoveries and insights have led to a much greater understanding not only of the past, but the present world of the Francophonie. It is my pleasure to congratulate him on winning the Pierre Chauveau Medal from the Royal Society of Canada.”