The CRRS is very sad to learn of the passing of Professor Emeritus Michel Jeanneret (1940-2019). Professor Jeanneret was the 2018 Distinguished Visiting Scholar who visited Toronto for a multi-part lecture and seminar series. For many years, he was a Professor of French Literature at the University of Geneva, head of the French Department and Vice-dean of the Faculty of Letters. Most recently, he split his time between Geneva and England with his wife, Professor Marian Hobson (CBE, FBA) .

Apart from being a Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University for five years, he held posts as Visiting Professor in Harvard, Princeton, Seattle, Irvine, as well as the College de France, Paris-Sorbonne, and the Universities of Beijing and Kyoto. He also served as an expert for different Research agencies in France in addition to being awarded major prizes by the Academie française, the Academie de Versailles, and by the Accademia dei Lincei (Rome). He was a Fellow of the British Academy, of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, and of Academia Europaea.

He co-chaired a research project, seconded by a large digitisation program, on an exceptional collection of World Literature kept in Geneva at the Martin Bodmer Foundation. Professor Jeanneret’s work continued to focus for the most part on Renaissance and seventeenth century literature as well as intellectual history.

One of Professor Jeanneret’s colleagues at the University of Geneva has written a tribute to him (in French), which can be accessed by clicking here.