Uncovering France: An Interview with Robin Mitchell
Dr. Robin Mitchell is a historian specializing in nineteenth century France. Her newest book Venus Noire: Black Women and Colonial Fantasies in Nineteenth Century France is available now!
Bry Reed: Dr. Mitchell could you please introduce yourself by telling us some of your academic interests?
Dr. Robin Mitchell: I’m a 19th century French historian specializing in race and gender, who is also interested in the histories of black women and their stories both in France and in the United States. Most likely because of my focus, I also look at issues of sexuality and representation, popular culture, scandals and spectacles, sexuality and colonialism.
BR: How did you first become interested in Black Women’s Studies?
RM: I was a late bloomer! I flunked out of college when I was 18 (I was majoring in psychology). It took me 18 years to come back to school, and when I did, I was determined to study something that was meaningful to me. And I found a home in the Ethnic Studies department at Mills College in Oakland, CA. They were the first people to take me seriously (and demand I take myself seriously). I knew what I wanted to study but I lacked the language to write about it. They taught me that my desire to steep myself in black women’s lives was scholarly. After that, all bets were off! Black women’s studies represents a community for me. The scholars there are a haven. I can speak in shorthand because I don’t have to prove my research is valid.
BR: Your latest book, Venus Noire, explores the representations of three Black women in France post-Haitian Revolution, what inspired you to start this work?
RM: I was inspired by seeing black women first in French paintings and sculptures and prints and then hearing that black women didn’t exist on French soil in the early 19th century. When I began researching, it was clear they existed in lots and lots of places: legal treatises, scientific works, and cultural representations. And that studying them together showed us a lot about how white Frenchmen and -women dealt with their own anxieties of the loss of the Haitian Revolution, changing gender roles and trauma about their own place in the world. My research led me to Sarah Baartmann (also known as the Venus Hottentot), Ourika (who was gifted as a house pet by the Governor of Senegal); and Jeanne Duval (common-law wife of the white French writer Charles Baudelaire). The women have been studied before, but not together in a way that would tell us something hopefully new about France itself.
BR: How does your work relate to contemporary race relations in France?
RM: I study France because I felt that stories about black women were more marginalized. People often think of Europe as a “white space.” That’s absurd. Our appearance in so-called white spaces destabilizes what we think we know about those spaces, and reinforces our connection to those spaces. Finding out about blacks in early 19th France changed how I saw blackness. And France itself. How France does (and does not) deal with race is longstanding. And complicated. Understanding how historically race and race relations is confronted will hopefully help in contemporary races relations.
BR: Are there any moments in history you hope to see illuminated through Black Women’s Studies?
RM: Interesting question. So many moments. I hope after reading my book, France looks different to people. I hope it encourages other women to seek out their own moments. I guess I hope that if what my work does is illuminating, it gives other beginning scholars the belief that what they are working on matters as well.
BR: Thank you Dr. Mitchell! Is there any advice you can offer to others invested in Black Women’s Studies?
RM: Yes. Don’t let anyone tell you there is no there there. Our histories are found in places where circumstance or direct action makes us seem absent. Trust yourself and your own intelligence to lead you. What you’re looking for might not be in the first or the fifth place you look. But we are everywhere. Hold on to your own truth.