Byron Wells received his PhD from Columbia University and is Professor of Romance Languages at Wake Forest. His scholarship and publications focus on the French Enlightenment, and particularly on the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He serves on the editorial board of Eighteenth-Century Studies and is Executive Director of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. He enjoys teaching courses in many areas of the Wake Forest curriculum, especially a two-semester sequence in French for Business.

EDUCATION

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, New York, NY
French/Comparative Literature. PhD awarded 1984.                                             .
MPhil awarded 1981.

UNIVERSITY OF PARIS, IV
Studies in French language, literature, and culture (1977-78)

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA, Athens, GA
Romance Languages. MA awarded 1977.

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA, Athens, GA
French. BA awarded 1974.

FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS, and AWARDS

Mellon Grant, Wake Forest U (2002)
CELI Grant, Wake Forest U (1998)
Excellence in Research Award, Wake Forest U (1991).
Institute of European Studies Fellowship, Paris and Nantes (1989).
R. J. Reynolds Company Research Leave (1988, 1997).
Research and Publication Grant, Wake Forest U (1985, 2008)
William C. Archie Grant, Wake Forest U (1984, 1988).
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Fellowship, Columbia University (1978-79).
Fulbright Assistantship, Paris (1977-78)

TEACHING POSITIONS HELD

Professor, Wake Forest U, 1993-present.
Associate Professor, Wake Forest U, 1987-93. Appointed to the Graduate Faculty, 1991.
Assistant Professor, Wake Forest U, 1984-87
Instructor, Wake Forest U, 1981-84.
Instructor, Columbia University, 1981.
Preceptor, Columbia University, Fall 1980.
Teaching Assistant, Columbia University, 1979-80.
Assistant d'anglais, Lycée Carnot, Paris, 1977-78.
Teaching Assistant, University of Georgia, 1976-77.

OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES:
American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.
Executive Director (1997-present)

American Council of Learned Societies.
Conference of Administrative Officers (1997-present)
CAO Executive Council (2001-04)

Eighteenth-Century Studies
Editorial Board (1997-present)

Phi Beta Kappa
Walter J. Jensen Fellowship Committee (2011 – present)

International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.
Executive Board (1997-present)
Chair, Election procedures (1999-00)
Chair, Financial Oversight Committee (2000-present)
Member, Constitutional Revisions Committee (2004-06)
Chair, Bursary Committee (2006-07; 2010-11)
Treasurer (2011-present)

National Humanities Alliance
Nominating Committee (2000-01)

North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature.
Executive Committee (1986-87)

Rousseau Association
Vice President (2001 – 05)
President (2005 – present)
Program Committee (2006-07)
Program Director (2007-09; 2011-13)

South Atlantic Modern Language Association, French II (17th and 18th c.)
Secretary (1986-87)
Chair (1987-88)
Nominating Committee (1988-91)

Southeast American Society for French 17th-Century Studies.
Executive Board (1988-89)

Southeastern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.
Executive Board (1989-1992)
Program Committee (1988-89, 2010-11)
Chair, Local Arrangements (1991-92, 2010-11)
Second Vice President (1993-94)
Vice President (1994-95)
President (1995-96)
Past President (1996-98)
Chair, Nominating Committee (1996-97)

Seminars/ colloquia/ conferences organized and directed:
Annual Meeting, Southeastern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.
Winston-Salem. March 1992 and March 2011
International Seminar on the Eighteenth Century
“Interpreting Colonialism.” Los Angeles. August 2000
“Transnational Readings. Intercultural Discourse in the Eighteenth Century. Los Angeles. July 2003
“Rousseau and the Visual.” William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. Los Angeles. October 2002.
"Rousseau's Legacies." Los Angeles, June 2009.
“Rousseau’s Emile.” Winston-Salem, June 2013.

Books:

Wells, Byron R. Clarissa and La Nouvelle Héloïse: Dialectics of Struggle with Self and Others. Ravenna: Longo, 1985.

Margitic, Milorad R., and Byron R. Wells, eds. L'Image du souverain dans le théâtre de 1600-1650. Maximes. Madame de Villedieu. Actes de Wake Forest. Proc. of the Meeting of the North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. 9-11 April 1987. Tuebingen: PFSCL/Biblio 17, 1987.

Skuncke, Marie-Christine and Byron R. Wells, eds. Centres(s) et peripheries Les Lumières de Belfast à Beijing. Paris: Champion, 2003.

Wells, Byron R. and Philip Stewart, eds. Interpreting Colonialism. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2005.

Johnson, E. Joe and Byron R. Wells, eds. An American Voltaire: Essays in Memory of J. Patrick Lee. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 2009

Wells, Byron R. ed. Rousseau and the Visual. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Forthcoming.

Articles:

Wells, Byron R. "The King, the Court, the Country: Theme and Structure in the Princesse de Clèves." Papers on French Seventeenth-Century Literature, XII (1985) 543-58.

Wells, Byron R. "Miniature-caricature: La Vita di Castruccio Castracani in the Bibliothèque universelle des romans. South Atlantic Review, LI (May 1986) 9-20.

Wells, Byron R. "Narrative Design and the Role of the Reader in Aldo Palazzeschi's Sorelle Materassi.“ Forum Italicum, XX (Fall 1986) 198-208.

Wells, Byron R. "Objet/Volupté: Vivant Denon's Point de lendemain." Romance Notes, XXIX (Spring 1989) 203-08.

Wells, Byron R. "`La Représentation des classes sociales': Commentary/ Summation." Cahiers du 17ème, III (Spring 1989) 73-76.

Wells, Byron R. "Translating in Eighteenth-Century France: The Case of Shakespeare's Theatre." Michigan Germanic Studies. XV (Fall 1989) 160-70.

Wells, Byron R. "Rêve de la nature, nature du rêve: Essai sur la Cinquième promenade." Romance Quarterly, XXXVII (May 1990) 131-40.

Wells, Byron R. "Reading the Seventeenth Century: Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Question of Plausibility." Cahiers du 17ème, IV (Spring 1990) 209-19.

Wells, Byron R. "Voltaire: Rhetorical Ambivalence and the Infamous Thing." French Literature Series, XIX (1992) 37-46.

Wells, Byron R. "Meaning in Response: The Case of La Nouvelle Héloïse." Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century (1992), 1044-47.

Wells, Byron R. "Rousseau and the Politics of Language." Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century (1996), 650-53.

Wells, Byron R. "Language and Solitude: Paradox of the Dialogues. Pensée Libre, 7 (1998), 51-59.

Wells, Byron R. "Jean-Jacques Rousseau et les voix de l'imposteur." Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Politique et Nation, Ed. Robert Thiéry. Paris: Champion, 2001. 117-26.

Wells, Byron R. "Rousseau's Legislators and the Exemplar of Sparta." Pensée libre, 8 (2001), 212-20.
Wells, Byron R. "Venetian Beauties: The Lettres d'Italie of Charles de Brosses." L’italia nella lingua e nel pensiero.  Roma : Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato (2002). 191-98.

Wells, Byron R. "Julie, ou la nouvelle Clarisse: Amour, vertu et la question du moi." Annales Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 44 (2002).
Wells, Byron R. "Liberté et monstruosité à l'âge des Lumières." Entre Dieu et diable. Eds. Francois Jacob et Pierre Nobel. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2003. 101-116.
Wells, Byron R. "From Revery to Confession: Writing and Reading a Life Story." Approaches to Teaching Rousseau’s Confessions and Reveries of the Solitary Walker. Eds. John C. O’Neal and Ourida Mostefai. New York: Modern Language Association, (2003), 50-54.
Wells, Byron R. “Language and Solitude: Paradox of the Dialogues.” Rousseau juge de Jean-Jacques. Etudes sur les Dialogues. Eds. Philip Knee and Gérald Allard. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2003, 57-66.
Wells, Byron R. "Voltaire and the Comic Genre: Polemics and Rhetoric." An American Voltaire: Essays in Memory of J. Patrick Lee. Eds. E. Joe Johnson and Byron R. Wells. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing (2009), 315-22.
Wells, Byron R. Un spectacle plein de vie’: Roussseau’s  Enduring Nature and Body Ephemeral” (forthcoming).

FRH212. Exploring the French and Francophone World

FRH319. Composition and Review of Grammar

FRH329. Introduction to Business French

FRH330. Advanced Business French

HON134. Approaches to Human Experience