Bastian Vaucanson successfully defended his PhD thesis
On Friday January 13 2023, PhD Student at Centre for Privacy Studies, Bastian Felter Vaucanson successfully defended his PhD thesis, “La conversation éternelle. L’intimité spirituelle dans la correspondance Guyon-Fénelon” (English title: “The Eternal Conversation: Spiritual Intimacy in the Correspondence between Guyon and Fénelon”). He defended with confidence and intellectual acumen, and we are all very proud of him.
The assessment committee consisted of Professor Xenia von Tippelskirch, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Professor Anne Regent-Susini, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, and Associate Professor Emeritus Nils Holger Petersen, University of Copenhagen.
Bastian’s PhD is a Co-tutelle between The Faculty of Theology at the University of Copenhagen and the Centre d’études des langues et littératures anciennes et modernes at Université Rennes 2, and his work has led to a double degree. Bastian’s supervisors, who were all present at the defence, are Professor Mette Birkedal Bruun, University of Copenhagen, Professor François Trémolières, Université Rennes 2, and Assistant Professor Lars Cyril Nørgaard, University of Copenhagen.
We have interviewed Bastian about his thesis, the assessment, and his time at Centre for Privacy Studies.
What is your thesis about?
"My PhD is an interdisciplinary analysis of spiritual intimacy in the correspondence between Jeanne Guyon (1647-1717) and François Fénelon (1651-1715), she was an author of mystical literature and he was the preceptor to Louis XIV’s grandchildren and therefore lived at the court of Versailles. The correspondence is a fascinating example of how high standing individuals of the French society lived their interior faith within the institutional confines of the Catholic Church, often challenging them and sometimes explicitly breaking them. Combining the fields of literary studies and church history, I argue that the letters exchanged between Guyon and Fénelon are a material trace of the tension that exists in the early modern period between private devotion and institutional religion. At the heart of the conversation between the two correspondents is the controversial claim that a spiritual friendship set free from the constraints of institutional public discourse holds the potential to be a pure manifestation of divine love."
What would you like to highlight from your assessment?
"I was particularly happy that the assessment committee emphasized the originality of the thesis subject and approach, and that they deemed it to be a significant addition to the research literature. Having written an interdisciplinary thesis, there was always the risk that an assessment committee might not value my approach, seeing it as a disciplinary chimera of sorts. In this light, I see it as a significant achievement that leading scholars within my field have highlighted that my thesis is “innovative” and “insightful”, that many further questions may be developed on the basis of it, and the “importance and complexity of the issues it raises and confronts”. I found the discussions during the oral defense to be immensely stimulating, they only served to underline how many interesting research avenues lie ahead."
What have you learned from the interdisciplinary work of your thesis and in what ways has it been challenging?
"My thesis was a co-tutelle that led to a double degree, one in French literature from Université Rennes 2 and one in church history from University of Copenhagen, and the institutional framework has been both a privilege and a challenge. I have had to bring together not only two disciplines but also two different institutional systems and two academic cultures that turned out to be rather more different than one might initially have thought – often I have had to mediate between them in different languages. I believe that my thesis is, in many respects, a continuation of this mediation between cultures, traditions, and institutions. Scholarly, it has been challenging constantly to have to find meeting points between the different disciplines and ways in which to communicate these insights to people from other contexts. In short, my experience has confirmed to me that interdisciplinary approaches to historical sources requires bravery and communication, but that, when successful, it generates original and provocative results."
What has it meant to you to be part of the PhD- and research community at Centre for Privacy Studies?
"In the preface to my thesis, I thank my PhD colleagues, Anni, Fabio and Søren, all three of whom, in their own way, have been an indispensable support and source of inspiration. Even if I had never reached the finish line, all the hard work would have been worth it just because of the friendships I have made at PRIVACY. I think there is an important point here, which is telling of the importance the research community as a whole has had for my job satisfaction as a PhD student: the friendly atmosphere and the daily exchanges with all my colleagues have been paramount to my motivation. I have never experienced pettiness nor jealousy from my colleagues, and this is not a given in academia. Along the way it dawned on me how enormously privileged I was to have so many friendly and interested colleagues who generously poured out their knowledge and sought a real scholarly conversation. Such privileges oblige and I have done what I could to pass that scholarly generosity on when I have been out presenting my research."