Siraud, Audrey

Audrey Siraud [she/her] is a doctoral candidate in modern European history at Columbia University, specializing in the social, cultural, and gender history of the nineteenth century. Her work adopts a comparative and transnational lens, with a particular emphasis on the intricate interplay between social dynamics and cultural identities. Her research interests especially gravitate towards the British Empire and France and focus on the homosociable networks that underpinned political, economic, and cultural powers.

In prior research, she conducted a comparative study of two exclusive male-elite associations – the Athenaeum Club in London and the Cercle de l’Union in Paris – where she critically re-evaluated the cultural (im)permeability and interconnectedness between Britain and France, spotlighting the conceptualizations of Britishness and Frenchness in a transnational milieu – notably through the use of prosopographical and socio-geographical methodologies.

Her ongoing research further expands this comparative framework to the broader British Empire, examining the spread of gentlemen’s clubs in the Dominions’ metropolises from the late 1820s to the advent of the First World War. She intends to elucidate how these spaces of transnational connections fostered the development of new imperial and national identities, through the lenses of social hierarchies and cultures of manliness, extending beyond the metropolitan confines of London. Her ambition is to underscore the pivotal yet often understated role of these Victorian networks in the fabric of the settler-colonies’ British-world cities.

Publications

“Du salon féminin au Gentlemen’s Club. L’émergence de l’homosociabilité”, in La Vie des idées [online], 30 November 2021.

Experience

Before commencing her PhD at Columbia, Audrey received a double-MA in History and English from Sorbonne Université in Paris (2020), where she was awarded the Manon-Gozard Prize for the Best Master Thesis in British History for the 2019-2020 academic year. She had previously completed a double-BA in History and English at Sorbonne Université (2018), spending a year at University College London as an Erasmus+ exchange student in the History and European Studies departments. In addition to her studies, Audrey dedicated a year to teaching history and geography in English to French high-schoolers.

Beyond academia, Audrey is a Group Leader for RoadScholar, an American non-profit educational travel organisation, conducting cultural visits in France, particularly in Paris. She takes great pleasure in leading their intergenerational programmes, Kids/Teenagers in Paris: The City of Light with Your Grandchild, acting as a bridge between two generations and cultures.