Elias P. Forneris
Elias Forneris is a PhD Candidate of French and Belgian background who spent extensive time in the United States. He first obtained a B.A. in Political Science & History from Sciences Po Paris, specialising in the Middle East & Mediterranean. He also holds a B.A. in History from Columbia University in New York, specialising in the Modern European period. At the University of Cambridge, Elias graduated from the MPhil in Political Thought and Intellectual History. He is now currently pursuing a PhD in the area of Intellectual History.
Elias is an Editor for Tocqueville 21, the online presence of The Tocqueville Review | La Revue Tocqueville. He is a member of Jesus College, Cambridge, and a Postgraduate Member of the Royal Historical Society.
Elias researches the European intelligentsia exiled in Great Britain during the Second World War (1940–1945). His primary focus is French thinkers such as Raymond Aron, Simone Weil, and René Cassin. His approach draws on the method from the Cambridge School of Intellectual History.
He also researches the intelligentsia from other European exiled communities: particularly Belgium and the Netherlands.
Supervisor in Politics and International Studies (2022-2024), University of Cambridge. Module: "Western Europe: France & Germany" (POL4), taught by Dr Pieter van Houten.
- Society for the History of Emotions, Conference held at the Università degli Studi di Firenze (September 2022), “French Philosophers Exiled in Britain: Simone Weil and Raymond Aron (1940–1944).”
- UCLA, Graduate Conference in Political Theory (April 2022), “Simone Weil in Wartime London (1942–1943).”
- University of Cambridge, History Graduate Research Day (April 2022), “Simone Weil in Wartime London (1942–1943).”
- The Sociology of Intellectuals Reading Group, chaired by Professor Patrick Baert (March 2022), “Raymond Aron’s Sociology of Collaborators (1940–1944).”
- University of Cambridge, History PhD Presentation Day (February 2022), “French Philosophers in Wartime Britain: Simone Weil and Raymond Aron (1940–1944).”
- University of Cambridge, MPhil in Political Thought and Intellectual History Presentation Day (May 2021), “The Political Thought of Raymond Aron in Wartime Britain (1940–1944).”
Contact
Tags & Themes
Key publications
- "Diagnosing France." Journal of the History of Ideas Blog (August 2023).
- "Raymond Aron's War: A 'History of the Present' (1940–1944)." The Tocqueville Review / La revue Tocqueville 43, 2 (2022). Published on Project MUSE with the University of Toronto Press. https://doi.org/10.3138/ttr.43.2.7
- "Chronique d'Angleterre," Tocqueville 21 (October 2022).
- "La France cherche son gouvernement," Tocqueville 21 (May 2022).
- "Quand Simone Weil vivait à Londres," Tocqueville 21 (August 2021).
- "The Source of Our Restlessness," Tocqueville 21 (February 2021).
- "How Churchill and De Gaulle Foresaw Brexit," Columbia Political Review (May 2020).