Successful PhD Defence Posthumus alumna Charris De Smet

On 10 December 2024 Posthumus alumna Charris De Smet successfully defended her PhD thesis ‘Framing French costumers into citizens. A comparative discourse analysis of debates on luxury and consumption in French parliament and the press in the age of revolution (1789-1848)’ at the University of Antwerp. Promotors were Professor Ilja Van Damme and Professor Marnix Beyen (both University of Antwerp) and Professor Natacha Coquery (University Lumière Lyon 2).

Charris’ dissertation has reconstructed and comparatively investigated French parliamentary politics of luxury consumption in three revolutionary years, i.e. 1789, 1830 and 1848. Drawing the idea that consumption became depoliticized in this period into question, it has demonstrated that consumption was an important topic of discussion under different modern French political regimes. The close reading of the parliamentary debates has revealed that the contemporary development of consumerism in France was seen as inextricably tied to broader issues of citizenship, representation, political identity and national belonging between 1789 and 1848. Therefore, these topics constituted important political questions that warranted debate in the national legislative bodies on how to harness, encourage or remodel existing consumer behaviour and commodity culture for the sake of the wellbeing of the state and its citizens.

The N.W. Posthumus Institute congratulates Charris with obtaining her PhD!