Assistant Professor of History
B.A., Grove City College; M.A., Ph.D., University of Kentucky
Profile
Dr. Corinne Gressang began working as an assistant professor of history at Erskine College in 2020, teaching European and Latin American history courses. She specializes in the history of the French Revolution and currently serves as an Assistant Digital Coordinator for the Society for French Historical Studies and as a member of the executive council for the Western Society for French History.
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Dr. Gressang grew up in a semi-rural Western Pennsylvania town called Mars. She received her undergraduate degree in History with a minor in Legal Studies from Grove City College in 2013. From there, she earned an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky in 2015 and 2020, respectively.
Research Interests
Dr. Gressang’s dissertation topic developed after reading an editorial in a short-lived Catholic newspaper called L’Ange Gabriel (1799). The editor argued that the French nuns had suffered expulsion from their convents and that they were the most unfortunate victims of the revolutionary decade. Dr. Gressang’s curiosity about what became of these women became the focus of her dissertation, entitled “Breaking Habits: Identity and the Dissolution of Convents in France, 1789-1808” (https://uknowledge.uky.edu/history_etds/58/), which she defended in 2020 at the University of Kentucky.
Personal Interests
When she is not teaching, grading, researching, or writing, Dr. Gressang enjoys baking sourdough, caring for her plants, hiking, running, and video chatting with her nephew.
Publications and In-Progress Projects
- “Useful Nuns and Revolutionary Possibility,” Age of Revolutions Blog. Bryan Banks and Cindy Ermus, eds.. Published November 11, 2019, https://ageofrevolutions.com/2019/11/11/useful-nuns-and-revolutionary-possibility/.
- “Joseph Fiévée: Suzette’s Dowry” in The Cambridge Guide to the Eighteenth-Century Novel, 1660-1820. April London, ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2020).
- Gressang, Corinne, Review of Patriot and Priest: Jean Volfius & the Constitutional Church in Côte-d’Or, by Annette Adisho-Chapman, The American Historical Review. Expected Publication in 2021.
- “A Second Path: Nuns in the Early French Revolution, 1789-1791” in Religion in Rebellions, Revolutions, and Social Movements, Jean-Pierre Reed and Warren S. Goldstein, eds., (expected publication in 2022).
Media
- “Gabriel Gauchat: The Senses and Catholicism during the Reign of Terror,” Society for French Historical Studies, 2020, Online. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T5EwFWoZV4
- Panel Discussion, Panel 27: “Negotiating Boundaries of Belonging,” Society for French Historical Studies, 2020, Online. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIAf7YqUEiI
Professional Affiliations
- American Historical Association
- Western Society for French History
- Society for French Historical Studies
- Phi Alpha Theta
- American Catholic Historical Association
- Western Society for French History
Awards and Fellowships
- University of Kentucky Spring Dissertation Fellowship, 2020
- Kirwan-Elliott Prize, 2020
- Bryan Fellowship, 2019
- Graduate Student Teaching Award, 2019
- GradTeach Live! Finalist, 2019
- Massena Society Dissertation Research Fellowship, 2019
- American Catholic Historical Association Graduate Student Summer Research Grant, 2019
- American Historical Association Travel Grant, 2018
- Gilbert-Crowe Fund for Graduate Student Development, 2018
- Koch Foundation Dissertation Grant, 2017
- George Herring Graduate Fellowship, 2017
- Albisetti Summer Research Grant, 2017
- Dissertation Enhancement Award, 2017