Le Modèle noir: An Anti-Racist Exhibition? 2026 PUP Lecture 1

The lecture series will be delivered by Professor Anne LaFont, and will be based on three case studies. It explores the extent to which objects, art, museums, and heritage-making processes in general are shaped by issues of racism—and, even more so, of anti-racism. The aim is to understand how the Black Lives Matter movement, which reached its international peak in the spring of 2020 in the wake of George Floyd’s M**der, intersected with, and impacted, in France, civil society’s calls regarding the political responsibility of heritage institutions. And even so, over a longer period (1983–2025), what were the French experiences regarding heritage and anti-racism? This history deserves specific attention, capable of explaining how, in this country in particular, the republican and universal ambition of museums and the effective engagement of the art and heritage worlds in the anti-racist struggle are articulated.

This first lecture will focus on the Musée d’Orsay exhibition: (2019), which represents an ambitious turning point in French heritage politics. We will also need to assess under what conditions an anti-racist project is explicitly articulated.

Tickets are free, but please register to attend!

Professor Anne Lafont, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris is the 2026 Guest Lecturer for the TORCH/ Princeton University Press Lecture Series.

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