Philippe Baillargeon

Philippe Baillargeon received a BA and MA from McGill University and a MA and PhD from Princeton University. His teaching and research interests include the literature and culture of the Renaissance and the early seventeenth century, in particular Erasmus, Rabelais, Marguerite de Navarre, Pierre de L’Estoile, Béroalde de Verville, rhetoric, poetics, the history of ideas and Bakhtinian dialogism. He also regularly teaches courses on Québec literature and culture, especially on questions of identity in poetry and theater. His publications include a bibliography on Ambroise Paré and Renaissance medicine, articles on Le Moyen de parvenir and Erasmus' Praise of Folly, and on Rabelais' Tiers Livre and a forthcoming article on biblical paraphrases in Béroalde de Verville's works. In addition to his other responsibilities, Baillargeon is the founding director of the official testing center at UMass Amherst for the “Test de connaissance du français,” (TCF) the French government-sanctioned exam for assessing language skills for personal, academic or professional reasons. He is also the director of the UMass Oxford Summer Seminar, one of the oldest American summer programs at Oxford University.