Elsa Stéphan

 

Education

Ph.D. Tulane University

M.A. Sciences Po Strasbourg

B.A. La Sorbonne School of Communication (CELSA Paris)

 

Research Interests

Women and Gender Studies; French language pedagogy; Science and Technology Studies; Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century French literature; 

A native of France, Elsa Stéphan is a nineteenth-century specialist. In her research articles and doctoral dissertation, Techno-Utopias: Utopian and Virtual Spaces in the Machine Age, she investigated the ideal representation of technology in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century literature. By applying theoretical concepts directly in the classroom, she also secured multiple grants for educational technology.

Stéphan’s current scholarship focuses on Women’s and Gender Studies; her book analyzes the history of gendered insults in the French language, highlighting the terms that do not have a masculine equivalent. Her work demonstrates how such expressions mirror the economic, religious, and social evolution of gender roles. Stéphan’s ongoing project involves a second manuscript examining cross-cultural attitudes toward feminist movements across France and America.

Before joining Columbia, she held teaching positions at several liberal arts colleges, including Bard, Smith, and Barnard, where she taught French language courses, Film and media studies,  as well as French and transnational feminism. 

 

Select publications

Books (authored):

“Sommes-nous toutes hystériques ? Les insultes sexistes de A à Z”, collection Librio, Éditions J’ai Lu/Flammarion, 2026. 

Peer-reviewed articles:

“The Network Society: The Electrical Network and the Ideal Community in Zola’s Travail” Excavatio, Vol. XXIX, 2017.

“La Figure de la Fée Électricité dans L’Ève Future de Villiers de L’Isle Adam : une Illustration des Utopies Technologiques de la Fin de Siècle. ” Revue Loxias 54, 2016.

“Du Sublime Romantique au Sublime Technologique : L’Homme, la Machine et la Nature dans l’Ève Future de Villiers de l’Isle Adam. ” Cahiers Erta 6-2, 2014. 23-36.

Press Articles:

“Histoire du Planning Familial : une Collaboration Franco-Américaine”, Le Petit Journal, August 14th 2019.

“Quand le Féminisme Français se dessine à New York”, Le Petit Journal, July 18th 2019.

“Lisa Greenwald : L’Historienne Rend Hommage aux Féministes Françaises”, Le Petit Journal, September 12th 2019.

Interviews: 

Les Français.Press, « Mar-a-Lago face, anatomie du pouvoir trumpiste qui se donne un visage», January 23rd 2026. 

Le Petit Journal, Contre le marketing genré, Elsa Stephan et « Casual Sexism », April 5th 2021. 

Reviews :

Greenwald, Lisa. Daughters of 1968: Redefining French Feminism and the Women's Liberation Movement. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2019. Aspasia Journal, 2021.

Wolfreys, Jim. Republic of Islamophobia: The Rise of Respectable Racism in France. London School of Economics Review, May 2nd 2018.