Jennifer Franks

PhD Candidate
j.franks@mail.utoronto.ca

Fields of Study

  • Aesthetics
  • Architecture
  • Early Modern
  • European

Areas of Interest

  • Eighteenth-century French art
  • Material culture / decorative arts
  • Intellectual history
  • Global Enlightenment
  • Early modern visual culture
  • Art, philosophy, and performance in the long eighteenth century
  • Global interchanges of art and ideas
  • Objects, images, and practices of sociability

Working Dissertation

Title

Voltaire’s Chair and Madame Lavoisier’s Hat: Cosmopolitan Taste in Eighteenth-Century Paris

Supervisors

Philip Sohm

Description

The dissertation examines eighteenth-century French objects and artworks as theatrical props through which Enlightenment ideas were materially staged and assessed. Centered on Paris as a primary locus of performance, sociability, and judgment, the project analyzes how objects and images articulated changing French ideas shaped through engagement with wider global networks. Through a series of case studies, the dissertation positions objects of material culture as significant instruments of intellectual life rather than ancillary forms.

Biography

Specialist in eighteenth-century French art, material culture, and the intellectual history of the long eighteenth century. Research examines how objects and images operated within practices of sociability, performance, and display, tracing the ways material forms rendered philosophical ideas visible across European and transnational networks.

Contributing scholar to the Voltaire Foundation, University of Oxford. Research conducted and presented at Sorbonne Université and the École pratique des hautes études in Paris in 2024, with previous scholarly residencies in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, and Switzerland.

Professional experience includes roles as specialist, researcher, curator, and executive director in major visual and performing arts institutions in North America and Europe, including: Christie’s (New York), the National Trust, Waddesdon Manor / Rothschild Collections (United Kingdom), and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Selected Publications

  •  “Voltaire’s Cosmopolitan Chair.” Oxford University, Voltaire Foundation, October 2025.
  • “L’ancien régime et l’art contemporain: John Fleming and the Decorative Arts.” Ornamentum Magazine, Spring/Summer 2021.
  • “History of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Still Life Painting.” In T.M. Glass: The Audible Language of Flowers. Toronto: OCAD University Onsite Gallery, 2019.
  • T.M. Glass: The Audible Language of Flowers. Contributor. Toronto: OCAD University Onsite Gallery, 2019.

Honours, Awards and Grants

  • International Doctoral Cluster Award, Sorbonne Université and École pratique des hautes études, 2024.
  • FAH Doctoral Research and Conference Travel Grant, University of Toronto, 2024.
  • McCuaig-Throop Bursary, University of Toronto, 2024.
  • SGS Research Travel Grant (Stockholm and London), 2023.
  • Canada Council Grant Award, Canadian Society of Decorative Arts / Cercle canadien des arts décoratifs, 2020–2024.

Professional Affiliations

  • International Doctoral Cluster, University of Toronto, Sorbonne Université, and École pratique des hautes études
  • Doctoral Research Network, Paul Mellon Centre, Yale University
  • British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
  • Canadian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
  • American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies

Education

MA, History of Decorative Arts, Design, and Curatorial Studies, Parsons School of Design, The New School (via the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Institution)
BA, Language Studies and Art History, University of Oklahoma;
Technische Universität Braunschweig

Presentations

“The Gardens of Vaux-le-Vicomte.” Lecture, FAH231H1: The Gardens of Vaux-le-Vicomte, University of Toronto, 2026.
“Virtue and the Enlightened Self.” A Plural Art History for the 21st Century, International Doctoral Cluster Symposium, University of Toronto, 2025.
“Liotard’s Book.” Research Seminar, Sorbonne Université, 2024.
“Liotard’s Sultana and the Paris Theater.” École pratique des hautes études, 2024.
“Charles-Germain de Saint-Aubin's Livre de caricatures tant bonnes que mauvaises.”, Waddesdon Manor (National Trust / Rothschild Collections), forthcoming.

Administrative Service

Chair of Membership and Engagement, Young Patrons Circle, Gardiner Museum, 2016–2020
Chair of Communications, Canadian Society of Decorative Arts, 2016–2020
Newsletter Editor, Canadian Society of Decorative Arts, 2016–2020
Academic Appeals Board Member, University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union, 2021–2022
Grant Review Panelist, Georgia Council for the Arts, 2015

Cohort

  • 2020-2021