Contemporary Thought Archival Research Grant
Dedicated to exploring the key ideas of contemporary thought, this research grant is offered in partnership by the Columbia Global Paris Center and Institut Mémoires de l’Édition Contemporaine (IMEC).
This collaboration will begin in September 2025 with the launch of the Jean Baudrillard Program. Baudrillard—an incisive thinker of modernity and a central figure in French Theory— deposited his personal library at Reid Hall and entrusted his archives to IMEC.
2025 – 2026 Baudrillard
About Jean Baudrillard
The philosopher and sociologist Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) shaped late 20th-century critical theory with his work on simulation, hyperreality, and postmodernity. His writing—ranging from The System of Objects to Simulacra and Simulation and The Transparency of Evil—engaged deeply with the symbolic logic of contemporary life, mass media, technology, and political spectacle.
Baudrillard once described himself, not without irony, as a "pataphysician at 20, a situationist at 30, a utopian at 40, transversal at 50, viral and metaleptic at 60."
Born in Reims and raised in a modest family, he earned a scholarship to attend the Lycée Henri-IV in Paris, completed his studies at the Sorbonne, and began his intellectual career by translating German theorists such as Brecht and Marx. Over the decades, he became one of the most provocative figures associated with French Theory—a transatlantic term that crystallized France’s global intellectual influence in the humanities.
In the Archives
The Reid Hall Library houses Baudrillard’s complete book collection. All told, it contains close to 1500 volumes, ranging from art to philosophy, fiction to essays. Baudrillard annotated over 300 of these books – marginalia that bear witness to how he constructed some of his most well-known theories.
His widow Marine Baudrillard received offers for the collection from many universities. However, she felt it would be best housed at 4, rue de Chevreuse, as Jean had previously been involved with Reid Hall, and the address remains, now as ever, a cross-cultural intellectual destination.
The Jean Baudrillard collection comprises the archives that escaped his tendency to erase traces. It includes a number of texts, several lectures, interviews, and notably the handwritten notebooks he kept throughout his life, as well as thematic files compiled by the author. In addition, the collection contains a body of scholarly texts and academic work on Jean Baudrillard.
About IMEC
Founded in 1988, IMEC is located at the historic Abbaye d’Ardenne, near Caen in Normandy, and preserves a vast and unique collection of literary, intellectual, and artistic archives. Its holdings span publishing houses, journals, and key figures from the intellectual and cultural life of the 20th century—writers, philosophers, historians, editors, translators, and designers. IMEC’s mission is not only to conserve these materials but to make them available for critical inquiry and creative research.
2025 – 2026 Application
The grant encourages a multidisciplinary approach and is open to research-creation methods. Priority will be given to PhD candidates or postdoctoral researchers (up to five years after the defense of their thesis).
The selected grantee will be offered a residency at the Abbaye d’Ardenne for three consecutive weeks, followed or preceded by one week at Reid Hall. The grantee will receive a gross amount of €3,000.
In return, the grantee will submit a 20,000-character article (including spaces) to IMEC and the Columbia Global Paris Center. Additionally, the grantee may be invited to contribute occasionally to publications from both institutions.
Applications are now closed.
Announcement of recipient: September 24, 2025
Contacts
If you have questions regarding the grant application, please contact
If you have other questions concerning the grant or would like to reach out regarding a potential collaboration, please contact
Brunhilde Biebuyck
Director
Columbia Global Paris Center
[email protected]