University of Toronto, Department of Historical and Cultural Studies

Visiting Fellow
Duration of stay: May 2024

William Nelson is an expert in the intellectual history of the Enlightenment and French Revolution, holding a MA from University of Chicago as well as a MA and PhD from University of California–Los Angeles. His research interests span from the emergence of ideas about time, race, colonialism, and biopolitics in eighteenth-century France and the Atlantic world. Notable works include "Enlightenment Biopolitics (Chicago, 2024), "The Time of Enlightenment (Toronto, 2021)," and co-editing "The French Revolution in Global Perspective (Cornell, 2013)." His articles and essays have been published in The American Historical Review, History Workshop Journal, and Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine.

Before joining the University of Toronto, Professor Nelson held various prestigious positions, including a Visiting Professorship at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris in 2018. Prior to that, he served as a Research Fellow at The Institute for Historical Studies at The University of Texas at Austin and as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Miami. During his time at Cambridge University, he was a Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellow and also served as the Associate Director of Studies at the Centre for History and Economics.

During his time in Regensburg, throughout May 2024, William Nelson will be associated with the ScienceCampus and our partners at the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies at UR. Also, he will be giving two talks:

28 May, 16:15 | Enlightenment Biopolitics: Race, Eugenics, and the Making of Citizens

29 May, 14:00 | The Effects of Colonial History on the French Revolution