David G. Troyansky
Professor
History
Location: 1117 Boylan Hall
Phone: 718.951.5000 x1172
Fax: 718.951.4504
Email:
Native New Yorker David Troyansky returned to Brooklyn and joined the faculty of Brooklyn College in 2005 after teaching for 21 years at Texas Tech University. He began studying French history as an undergraduate at Carleton College and worked in seminars in France with Philippe Ariès and Michel Vovelle. Over the years he has lived and conducted research in Paris, Provence, Picardy, Alsace, Normandy and the Limousin. He has taught at the Université de Limoges and held a Fulbright senior research fellowship at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris). In 2008 he was president of the Western Society for French History. He served as chair of the Department of History at Brooklyn College, 2005-13.
Education:
Ph.D., Brandeis University - 1983 (History)
M.A., Brandeis University - 1978 (History)
B.A., Carleton College - 1976 (History)
Areas of Expertise:
A specialist in 18th- and 19th-century French history, David Troyansky has published on the history of old age, French provincial culture, the French Revolution, and transnational space and identities in the Francophone world. His latest book, Aging in World History, will be published by Routledge in 2015. He is completing a book manuscript whose working title is "Entitlement and Complaint: Ending Careers and Reviewing Lives in the French Magistracy, 1814-1853."
Books and Publications
"French Protests Against a New Retirement Age are Deeply Rooted in History," Washington Post, January 26, 2023. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 2023
"Gender, Age, and Identity: Death across the Lifecourse," chapter 6 in A Cultural History of Death, Vol. 4, edited by Jeffrey Freedman (Bloomsbury) (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2023
"JR's Wrinkles of the City Project: Representing Global Old Age, 2008-2015," a chapter in Framing Aging: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Humanities and Social Sciences Research, edited by Anne Fuchs et al. (Bloomsbury). (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2023
Entitlement and Complaint: Ending Careers and Reviewing Lives in Post-Revolutionary France, Oxford University Press. (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2023
"Using Literary Sources in a World History of Ageing," Chapter 3 in Cultural Histories of Ageing: Plots, Myths and Metaphors of the Senescent Self, edited by Margery Vibe Skagen, New York and London: Routledge, pp. 42-58. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 2021
Co-editor, with Aline Charles and Laurence Charton, of Âges de vie, genre et temporalités sociales, an issue of Enfances, Familles, Générations : Revue interdisciplinaire sur la famille contemporaine, No. 27 (Montréal, 2017) : https://journals.openedition.org/efg/1326 (Books and Publications: Book (Edited)) 2017
Aging in World History. New York: Routledge. (Books and Publications: Book (Authored)) 2016
"Emotion et carrière: demandes de pensions et récits de vie de la magistrature française post-révolutionnaire." Emotions contemporaines, XIXe-XXIe siècles. Eds. Anne-Claude Ambroise-Rendu, Anne-Emmanuelle Demartini, Helene Eck and Nicole Edelman. Paris: Armand Colin. 233-41. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 2014
"Vieillesse et retraite dans la magistrature française post-révolutionnaire." De l'hospice au domicile collectif: La vieillesse et ses prises en charge de la fin du XVIIIe siècle à nos jours. Sous la direction de Yannick Marec et Daniel Réguer .Presses universitaires de Rouen et du Havre. 97-112. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 2013
"Displaying World Culture in Provincial France: Francophonie in Limoges." Transnational Spaces and Identities in the Francophone World. Eds. Hafid Gafaïti, Patricia M.E. Lorcin and David G. Troyansky. Lincoln, Neb., and London: University of Nebraska Press. 412-27. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 2009
Gafaïti, Hafid, Patricia M.E. Lorcin and David G. Troyansky. Transnational Spaces and Identities in the Francophone World. Lincoln, Neb., and London: University of Nebraska Press. (Books and Publications: Book (Edited)) 2009
"La famille, la retraite et la magistrature française post-révolutionnaire." Histoire des familles, de la démographie et des comportements, en hommage à Jean-Pierre Bardet. Eds. Jean-Pierre Poussou and Isabelle Robin-Romero. Paris: Presses de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne. 1011-22. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 2007
"Savoir alsacien et culture européenne: Jérémie-Jacques Oberlin, la langue et le Gymnase protestant à Strasbourg pendant la Révolution." Gelehrtennetzwerke in Strassburg am Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts/Réseaux savants strasbourgeois à la fin du XVIIIe siècle. Ed. Marie-Renée Diot. Leipzig, Germany: Leipziger Universitätsverlag. 37-63. English version published in Francia 2000/2001. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 2007
Troyansky, David and Margaret King. The Shaping of the Modern World: Core Curriculum 2.2 Readings 4th ed. Published for the Brooklyn College Department of History. Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing. (Books and Publications: Book (Edited)) 2007
"Death and Burial." Europe 1789 to 1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of Industry and Empire, Volume 2. Eds. John Merriman and Jay Winter. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons. 628-30. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 2006
"Old Age." Europe 1789 to 1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of Industry and Empire, Volume 3. Eds. John Merriman and Jay Winter. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1662-65. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 2006
"Narrations personnelles et institutionnelles du vieillissement: le cas de la magistrature post-révolutionnaire." Regards croisés sur la protection sociale de la vieillesse, Cahier d'histoire de la sécurité sociale, no. 1. Dossier prepared by Françoise Cribier et Elise Feller. Paris: Comité d'histoire de la sécurité sociale. 23-41. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2005
"The Eighteenth Century." The Long History of Old Age. Ed. Pat Thane. London: Thames and Hudson. 175-210. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 2005
Gafaïti, Hafid, Patricia Lorcin and David G. Troyansky. Migrances, diasporas et transculturalités francophones: Littératures et cultures d'Afrique, des Caraïbes, d'Europe et du Québec. Paris: L'Harmattan. (Books and Publications: Book (Edited)) 2005
"Growing Older With Cicero (and Others)." The Gerontologist 44: 279-82. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 2004
"Personal and Institutional Narratives of Aging: A French Historical Case." Journal of Aging Studies 17.1, Spring: 31-42. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2003
"Aging and Memory in a Bureaucratizing World: A French Historical Experience." Power and Poverty: Old Age in the Pre-industrial Past. Eds. Susannah R. Ottaway, L.A. Botelho and Katharine Kittredge. New York: Greenwood Press. 15-30. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 2002
"Alsatian Knowledge and European Culture: Jérémie-Jacques Oberlin, Language and the Protestant Gymnase in Revolutionary Strasbourg." Francia 27.2: 119-38. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2001
"Death." Encyclopedia of European Social History, Volume 2. Ed. Peter N. Stearns. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 219-33. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 2001
"The Elderly." Encyclopedia of European Social History, Volume 4. Ed. Peter N. Stearns. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 219-29. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 2001
"'I Was Wife and Mother': French Widows Present Themselves to the Ministry of Justice in the Early Nineteenth Century." Journal of Family History 25.2: 202-10. (See Dutch version, 1995.) (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2000
"Memorializing Saint-Quentin: Monuments, Inaugurations and History in the Third Republic." French History 13.1: 48-76. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 1999
"Why Do People Retire? Some Historical Answers." The Gerontologist 39.5: 624-26. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 1999
"Balancing Social and Cultural Approaches to the History of Old Age and Ageing in Europe: A Review and an Example From Post-revolutionary France." Old Age From Antiquity to Post-modernity. Eds. Paul Johnson and Pat Thane. London: Routledge. 96-109. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 1998
"Commemorating, Remembering and Historicizing Revolution: Post-Bicentennial Tendencies in French Revolutionary History." The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation 39.2: 169-78. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 1998
"Whose Old Age? Whose History? To What End?" The Gerontologist 38.5: 638-41. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 1998
Troyansky, David, Jean-Pierre Bois and Yves Lequin. "Chapitre VI. La Progressive mutation des structures." Histoire des populations de l'Europe. II. La révolution démographique 1750-1914. Eds. Jean-Pierre Bardet and Jacques Dupâquier. Paris: Fayard. 161-91. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 1998
"Historical Research Into Ageing, Old Age, and Older People." Critical Approaches to Ageing and Later Life Eds. Sarah Harper, Anne Jamieson and Christina Victor. London: Open University Press. 49-62. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 1997
"Limogé for a Year: An American Teaches French History in Provincial France." The History Teacher 29, May: 379-89. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 1996
"Progress Report: The History of Old Age in the Western World." Ageing and Society 16: 233-43. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 1996
"'Ik was echtgenote en moeder.' Weduwen schrijven het Franse Ministerie van Justitie aan het begin van de negentiende eeuw" ("'I Was Wife and Mother.' Widows Write the French Ministry of Justice in the Early Nineteenth Century." Lange levens, stille getuigen: Oudere vrouwen in het verleden. Eds. Monique Stavenuiter, Karin Bijsterveld and Saskia Jansens. (Zuthpen, the Netherlands: Walburg Pers. 118-32. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 1995
"Retraite, vieillesse, et contrat social: L'exemple des juges de la Haute-Vienne sous la Restauration."
Entre travail, retraite et vieillesse: Le grand écart. Eds. A.-M. Guillemard and P. Ansart. Paris: L'Harmattan. 85-101. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 1995
"The New Age of Old Age: Review Article." Ageing and Society 14: 429-36. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 1994
"Aging and Prophecy: The Uses of G. Stanley Hall's Senescence." Societal Impact on Aging: Historical Perspectives. Eds. K. Warner Schaie and W. Andrew Achenbaum. New York: Springer. 198-203. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 1993
"Old Age, Retirement and the Social Contract in 18th- and 19th-Century France." Zur Kulturgeschichte des Alterns (Toward a Cultural History of Aging). Eds. Christoph Conrad and Hans-Joachim von Kondratowitz. Berlin: Deutsches Zentrum für Altersfragen. 77-95. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 1993
"Vieillards et mendiants, 1780-1794." Atlas de la révolution française, 7: Médecine et santé, by Jean-Pierre Goubert and Roselyne Rey. Paris: Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. 49. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 1993
"The Older Person in the Western World: From the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution." Handbook of the Humanities and Aging. Eds. Thomas R. Cole, Robert Kastenbaum and David Van Tassel. New York: Springer. 40-61. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 1992
Miroirs de la vieillesse ... en France au siècle des Lumières. Translation of Old Age in the Old Regime. Paris: Editions ESHEL. (Books and Publications: Book (Authored)) 1992
"Generational Discourse in the French Revolution." The French Revolution in Culture and Society. Eds. David G. Troyansky, Alfred Cismaru, and Norwood Andrews, Jr. New York: Greenwood Press. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 1991
"Looking for Grandparents in the French Revolution." Annales de démographie historique 1991. Paris: Editions de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. 127-31. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 1991
Introduction. The French Revolution in Culture and Society. Eds. David G. Troyansky, Alfred Cismaru, and Norwood Andrews, Jr. New York: Greenwood Press. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 1991
Troyansky, David G., Alfred Cismaru and Norwood Andrews Jr. The French Revolution in Culture and Society. New York: Greenwood Press. (Books and Publications: Book (Edited)) 1991
"Condorcet et l'idée d'assurances sociales." Condorcet mathématicien, économiste, philosophe, homme politique (Colloque international). Eds. Pierre Crépel and Christian Gilain. Paris: Minerve. 174-80. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 1989
"La 'vierge révolutionnaire': Marie dans les poèmes du Palinod de Caen à l'époque révolutionnaire." L'Image de la révolution française: Communications présentées lors du Congrès Mondial pour le Bicentenaire de la Révolution--Sorbonne, Paris, July 6-12. Ed. Michel Vovelle. Paris: Pergamon Press. 2005-13. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 1989
Old Age in the Old Regime: Image and Experience in Eighteenth-Century France. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. (Books and Publications: Book (Authored)) 1989
"Monumental Politics: National History and Local Memory in French Monuments aux Morts in the Department of the Aisne Since 1870." French Historical Studies 15.1: 121-41. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 1987
"Aging." Historical Dictionary of the Third French Republic. Ed. Patrick H. Hutton. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. 8-10. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 1986
"Le vieillard dans la société française du XVIIIe siècle: images et réalités." Annales de démographie historique 1985. Paris. 155-70. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 1986
"Marriage." Historical Dictionary of the Third French Republic. Ed. Patrick H. Hutton. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. 605-07. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 1986
"Medical Thought on Aging in 18th-Century France." Proceedings of the Western Society for French History 13: 80-89. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 1986
"The Cult of the Cemetery." Historical Dictionary of the Third French Republic. Ed. Patrick H. Hutton. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. 173-74. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 1986
"The Cult of the Fallen Soldier." Historical Dictionary of the Third French Republic. Ed. Patrick H. Hutton. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. 351-52. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 1986
"Images de la vieillesse des femmes en France moderne." Pénélope: pour l'histoire des femmes 13, Vieillesses des femmes. Paris, automne. 11-15. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 1985
"Old Age in the Rural Family of Enlightened Provence." Old Age in Preindustrial Society. Ed. Peter N. Stearns. New York: Holmes and Meier. 209-31. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 1982
"Vers une histoire comparée de la vieillesse: le tournant des mentalités américaine et française." Le vieillissement: Implications et conséquences de l'allongement de la vie humaine depuis le XVIIIe siècle. Ed. Arthur Imhof. Lyon, France: Presses universitaires de Lyon. 179-91. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 1982
Awards, Honors and Fellowships
PSC-CUNY Grant to support two months of archival research in France. (Grants and Fellowships) 2023
Leonard and Claire Tow Professor, 2012-13. (Awards and Honors) 2012
Fulbright Senior Scholar, Centre de Recherches Historiques, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, 1996-97. (Grants and Fellowships) 1997
Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums
"Jacques-Joseph Juge de Saint-Martin: Surviving the French Revolution in the Limousin." In Session 2C. Surviving the French Revolution: Meanings. Annual Meeting of the Society for French Historical Studies, Detroit, March 17, 2023. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2023
"The theme of gender in A Cultural History of Old Age," Interdisciplinary Workshop: Aging Women across the Ages, University of Bergen, May 4, 2023. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2023
"Generations of Cultural History and the Study of Old Age," "Historical Gerontology: Aging and Old Age in Historical and Cultural Perspective," University of Haifa, December 18, 2022. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2022
Keynote Lecture: "Ageing in the Shadow of Revolution," Workshop: "Growing Old in the Soviet Union, 1945-1991," University of Basel, December 8, 2022. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2022
"History and Ageing: Authority, Marginalization, and Celebration," Plenary talk, "Last Chapter: Late Life Festival," Bergen, Norway, June 18, 2021. Recorded and delivered over Zoom. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2021
"JR's 'Wrinkles of the City' Project. Representing Global Old Age, 2008-2015," Framing Ageing: A Clinical, Cultural and Social Dialogue, Humanities Institute, University College Dublin, January 22, 2021, Delivered over Zoom. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2021
"Visibility/Invisibility between Narrative and Image," Framing Ageing, University College Dublin, December 2, 2021 (delivered over Zoom). (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2021
Invited lecture, « Debating the History of Ageing, » University College Dublin, 9 October 2018: https://player.fm/series/ucd-humanities-institute-podcast/debating-the-history-of-ageing-by-david-troyansky (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2018
"Clôture de la journée (comment and summing up)." Les institutions face au veuvage. Université de Bordeaux. Dec. 8. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2014
"Emotion et carrière: demandes de pensions et récits de vie dans la magistrature française post-révolutionnaire." Communication au colloque, L'Emotion: De l'espace privé à l'espace public, XIXe-XXIe siècles. Paris, April 11-13. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2012
"Society for the Study of French History." 24th Annual Conference. Newcastle University. United Kingdom, June 27-29. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2010
Professional Leadership
Co-Director, New York Area French History Group, 2016-23. (Professional Leadership: Organizational Leadership Position) 2023
President, Western Society for French History. (Professional Leadership: Organizational Leadership Position) 2008
Vice president and president-elect, Western Society for French History. (Professional Leadership: Organizational Leadership Position) 2007
Pedagogical Achievements
Maître de Conférences Associé, Université de Limoges, 1992-93. 1993
Community Activities
Participant in "Then and Now: The Opportunities and Challenges of Healthy Aging in New York City," New York Academy of Medicine, November 15, 2022. 2022
Other Professional Activities
Fulbright Panel, considering US student applicants for study in France, 2021-22. 2022
Podcast: "Observations about the Hard-Won Wisdom of Old Age," International Horizons, with John Torpey, Ralph Bunche Institute, CUNY Graduate Center, October 31, 2022. 2022
Member, Scientific Committee for organization of three workshops on the theme of "Widows, Widowers and Widowhoods in Europe in the Contemporary Period (19th-20th Centuries)." Université de Bordeaux. 2014, 2015, 2016. 2014
