Michèle Longino, Leading Scholar of French Studies, Dies.

Michele Longino
Michèle Longino, who joined the Duke faculty in 1989, produced ground-breaking scholarship in 17th century French studies.

Michèle Longino, professor emerita of Romance Studies at Duke, died after a brief but valiant struggle with cancer at Transitions Hospice in Raleigh on Nov. 21.  She was a valued participant in the intellectual life of the university, an exacting and inspiring mentor to her graduate students, and ground-breaking scholar in the field of 17th Century French studies.

Longino was born in Paris, and raised in the United States, primarily New York City and Washington, DC, and in Europe, primarily France and Italy.  She received her bachelor’s degree from Rosary College, now Dominican University, outside Chicago, and received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1984. 

Prior to beginning her graduate studies, she served in the Peace Corps, on assignment in Somalia.  She began her teaching career at Rice University and was recruited to Duke in 1989. 

“Michèle was a consummate departmental citizen, who was always willing to supervise an additional independent study or provide guidance and support for students and colleagues,” said Martin Eisner, chair of the Department of Romance Studies. “It was always a pleasure to see her at departmental events. She will be missed.”

Her research on 17th century French literature developed new perspectives on gender and literary ambition, the epistolary genre, representations of the other in French drama of the period and writing by 17th century French travelers.   

Her first book, Performing Motherhood (1991), on the letters of Mme. De Sévigné’s letters to her daughter, argued they should be read as the work of a historian and not only for their literary qualities.  She also explored Sévigné’s strategic use of her position as a widow and mother. 

Her second and third books, “Orientalism in French Classical Drama” (2002) and “French Travel Writing in the Ottoman Empire: Marseilles to Constantinople 1650-1700” (2015) brought critical studies of orientalism to bear on the analysis of works of the French literary canon and extended our understanding of France’s relations with and conceptualization of the Ottoman Empire.

Her work was recognized by numerous research fellowships and by the award of Chevalier dans l'ordre des Palmes académiques by the French Ministry of Education.  She received the Modern Language Association’s Scaglione Prize for “Orientalism in French Classical Drama” and earned fellowships from National Humanities Center and the Camargo Foundation.

While at Duke, she served as the academic director and president of the EDUCO consortium (Tulane, Emory, Cornell, Duke Universities in France) for three terms, directed the Center for French & Francophone Studies from 2002 to 2005, and was chair of the Department of Romance Studies, July 2007 - July 2010. 

In addition to her teaching and leadership at Duke, she served as a visiting professor at Venice International University in 2010 and again in 2019.

“Michèle contributed her prize-winning scholarship on early modern French /Ottoman Turkish relations to intellectual life on campus and abroad,” said colleague Helen Solterer, professor of Romance Studies.  “To Chairing Romance Studies, she brought an elegant clarity  of thought  in both  French and Italian. An advocate for faculty, she was a lifelong ally for her students, and committed to EDUCO, the Duke program in Paris and her colleagues there.”

She is survived by her son, Nicholas Farrell, grandchildren Kellan Farrell and Emily Farrell, and sisters, Helen Longino and Virginia Jordan.  In lieu of cards or flowers, the family requests that donations be made to End Hunger Durham, the Poor People’s Campaign, or Bluestem Conservation Cemetery.