Episode 111: La Commune 2021 — with Roxanne Panchasi and Brit Bachmann

About Our Guests

Roxanne Panchasi

Her first book, Future Tense: The Culture of Anticipation in France Between the Wars was published by Cornell University Press in 2009. She has written on a range of subjects including: nineteenth-century graphology, prosthetics, the Paris Commune, experimental film, and the teaching of History. Her current book project focuses on the cultural politics of French nuclear weapons and testing in the Algerian Sahara. In it, she examines military, scientific, diplomatic, literary, audio-visual, testimonial, and memorial sources as a broad archive of the”French” bomb in empire. Her most recent article, ‘“No Hiroshima in Africa”: The Algerian War and the Question of French Nuclear Tests in the Sahara’ appeared in the Spring 2019 issue of History Present. In 2013, Dr. Panchasi launched New Books in French Studies, a podcast channel featuring discussions with scholars of France and the Francophone world about their latest books that she hosts on the New Books Network. 

Brit Bachmann

She is the Executive Director of UNIT/PITT Society for Art & Critical Awareness, and co-founder of ReIssue with Casey Wei. Brit has previously worked in administration and outreach at VIVO Media Arts Centre, Capture Photography Festival, The Cinematheque; and notably, as Editor-In-Chief of Discorder Magazine (2015-18). She has served on the programming committee of CFRO Vancouver Co-op Radio (2015-18), and the Polaris Music Prize jury (2016-19). Brit is a member of the Board of Directors of VIVO Media Arts Centre, and the Pacific Association of Artist Run Centres (PAARC). She has a Bachelor of Fine Art from the University of British Columbia–Okanagan.