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FACULTY & STAFF

Dr. Paul M. Mazgaj

Contact Information

Email: pmmazgaj@uncg.edu
Office: 2121 MHRA
Office Phone: 336-334-5206

Education

Ph.D., University of Iowa, 1976
M.A., University of Illinois, 1966
B.A., University of Illinois, 1964

Teaching Experience

Associate Professor, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 1983-
Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 1978-82
Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Iowa, 1976-78
Lecturer, Stanford University, 1976
Teaching and Research Fellow, Stanford University, 1973-75

Research Interests

My research interests are centered on the political and intellectual history of twentieth-century France. I am particularly interested in the role of intellectuals in the political arena. Most of my research to date has focused on the intellectuals of the political right conservatives, reactionaries, and fascists and their impact on the French national identity.

Current Projects

Fascism, Immense and Red: The Cultural Politics of the French Young Right, 1930-1945 A book manuscript currently being reviewed for publication. It explores the odyssey of a group of talent young French intellectuals who, tempted by what they viewed as the success of the Italian and German "national revolutions," worked to construct a distinctively French version of fascism.
"Beyond Maurrassian Nationalism: Thierry Maulnier's Fascist engagement" An almost-completed article that explores the early flirtation with fascism of Thierry Maulnier, who became an important figure in the post-1945 cultural and intellectual world.

Courses Taught

WCV 101: Western Civilization to 1600 - Introduction to major ages of Western Civilization from the ancient world to the modern period with an emphasis on broad cultural, social, and political trends.
HIS 223: Modern Europe - An introductory survey of modern Europe from the French Revolution to the present.
HIS 365: Modern France - A survey of the political, cultural, and social history of France since the Dreyfus Affair.
HIS 371: Europe Since World War I - A survey of the political, cultural, and social history of Europe from the First World War to the present.
HIS 511B: Seminar in Historical Research and Writing - "After the Great War"
HIs 567: French History: Selected Topics - "The Enlightenment and the French Revolution" - Considers the relation between the ideas of the Enlightenment and the practice of the French Revolution with an emphasis on interpretive controversies.
HIS 571: Modern European Thought: Selected Topics - "Politics and the French Intellectual" - An investigation of the "committed" intellectual from Zola during the Dreyfus Affair through Simone de Beauvoir, Camus, and Sartre during the Cold War.
HIS 571: Modern European Thought: Selected Topics - "From the Modern to Postmodern" - Considers the modern worldview as it emerged from the Enlightenment as well as its subsequent critics from the Romantics through Nietzsche to the 20th century postmodernists.
HIS 706: Colloquium in European History since 1789 - Intrepretations of selected historical problems from the French Revolution to the present.

Recent Publications

"Engagement and the French Nationalist Right: The Case of the Jeune Droite," European History Quarterly 32, no. 2 (April 2002), 207-232 .
"Ce Mal du Siècle: The 'Romantic' Fascism of Robert Brasillach," Historical Reflections/Réflexions historiques. vol. 23, no. 1 (Winter 1997), pp. 49-72.
"Defending the West: The Cultural and Generational Politics of Henri Massis," Historical Reflections/Réflexions historiques 17 (Spring 1991), 103-123.
"The Origins of the French Radical Right: A Historiographical Essay," French Historical Studies (Fall 1987), 287-315.
The Action Française and Revolutionary Syndicalism (University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1979)

Awards and Honors

National Endowment for the Humanities, Fellowship, 1994-95 academic year
Dean's Merit Awards, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000
Excellence Fund Faculty Summer Fellowship, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Stanford University Teaching and Research Fellowship, two years
NDEA Title Four Fellowship, one year