The Stanley Hoffmann Annual Lecture on France and the World — The Shape of Water: An Environmental History of the City of Light

Adolphus Busch Hall at Cabot Way
27 Kirkland St.
Cambridge
Thu., Apr. 2, 2026, 4 – 5:30 p.m.



Join the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES) for the fifth Stanley Hoffmann Annual Lecture on France and the World with a lecture by Caroline Ford, professor of history at University of California, Los Angeles.

Ford will explore the hydrological history of Paris from the eighteenth century to the twentieth century, when it emerged as a “modern” city and when its “urban metabolism” was fundamentally transformed. This transformation resulted in a hybrid hydraulic and hydrological waterscape that consisted of its two principal rivers — one above ground and one buried over — underground streams, pre-existing and newly built aqueducts, canals, fountains, and reservoirs. “The Shape of Water” examines the environmental consequences of this transformation for the city’s complex aquatic environment in a larger global context.

Gazette Classification: Special Events
Organization/Sponsor: Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies
Speaker(s): Caroline Ford, Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles, Chair Mary D. Lewis , Robert Walton Goelet Professor of French History & Director of Undergraduate Studies, Harvard History Department, Harvard University; Resident Faculty & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Contact Info: [email protected]
Harvard Key Required: No
More info: ces.fas.harvard.edu…