My research concerns the comparative history of identity construction in 16^th-18^th century Europe and the Americas, with a number of complementary aspects: the vision of the Other and the question of self (episteme and mentalities; objectives and methods of persuasion); the role of the two sexes in the individual and collective construction of identity; historical evidence and the memory of self. With regard to this first theme, I published Croire et faire croire. Les missions françaises au 17^e siècle(Paris, Fayard, 2003), showing the far-reaching connections between the perception of otherness and the representations of modern identity in the context of the first globalization, i.e. missionary imperialism, at a time when France was undergoing true domestic colonization. A second theme developed from this research, and allowed me to embark on two parallel publications: the first, Les autobiographies spirituelles et l'émergence du sujet moderne, is aimed at understanding how men and women in France and its colonies learned to see themselves as acting subjects. The second publication, the third of my research themes, is entitled Memoire de soi, mémoire des autres, and compares the annals of various religious congregations in France and New France to determine the traces that small communities wished to leave for posterity, sometimes at the cost of a certain distortion of the historical record. On the basis of this work, I was invited to edit a scientific history of the Sulpicians of Canada in which the chapters I wrote concern the duty of memory, identity markers, and relations between others and the Sulpicians, who were key figures in Montreal history (D. Deslandres, John A. Dickinson and Ollivier Hubert, eds. Les Sulpiciens de Montréal. Une histoire de pouvoir et de discrétion (Montreal, Fides, 2007). Along the same lines, I co-edited, with Raymond Brodeur and Thérèse Nadeau-Lacour, Lecture inédite de la modernité aux origines de la Nouvelle France. Marie Guyart de l'Incarnation et les autres fondateurs religieux (Quebec City, Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 2010) to mark the 400^th anniversary of Quebec City. I am currently writing a biography of Marie Guyart de l'Incarnation, founder of the very first school for women in America, while continuing my work on the roles of the sexes, religion and politics in the history of modern-day French expansion.

I publish, teach and supervise students at the Master's, PhD and post-doctorate levels in the field (or theme) of the history of international relations. I am interested primarily in France and the Arab world. I am a student and proponent of the "French School" of the history of international relations (HIR), which updated the study of the international phenomenon by including and integrating "deep forces" (economic, social, institutional, cultural, etc.) in the analysis. This approach generated a rich historiography whose originality transformed and reinvigorated the field of international history. This vitality is just as valuable today as it was yesterday in terms of questioning, investigating and discovering, as illustrated by the number of students doing their MA and PhD studies in HIR.

The issue that has intrigued me the most is the connections between the political and economic dimensions internationally. This question underpins many of my publications, in particular my work on Franco-Egyptian relations based on a doctorat d'État (I am among the last to have obtained this venerable diploma under the French university system, as it has now been replaced by the single dissertation). It led to a monograph, currently in printing, on the decolonization of French North Africa. In economic history, my interests focus on movements of capital, international trade and the history of businesses (banks, oil companies, electricity companies).

Since 2004 I have been a founding member and co-ordinator of the Groupement interuniversitaire pour l'histoire des relations internationales (GIHRIC). Along with research, I find teaching a real pleasure, as shown by the Award of Outstanding Achievement in Teaching I received early in my career from the Faculty of Arts and Science. The flame still burns brightly!