Research and Scholarly Communications Librarian
I am currently Research and Scholarly Communications Librarian. I support researchers with their publication journey and navigating the complexities of the Open Access landscape.
I first joined the University of Sunderland in 2010 as a history lecturer teaching early modern history having previously taught in a number of colleges in the University of London (Goldsmiths, Birkbeck, Royal Holloway). I then took up a position as an academic liaison librarian for the School of Education. In this role, I taught information and media literacy to students and helped them develop their research and critical thinking skills.
I obtained my PhD in 2008 from the Royal Holloway University of London under the supervision of Prof Justin Champion. My Phd was entitled: Jean Bodin’s Colloquium Heptaplomeres: Clandestine literature, heterodoxy and the possibility of toleration 1590-1750. This work allowed me to consider theories of religious toleration in the aftermath of the religious Reformation of the 16th century, as well as the circulation of heterodox ideas in the pre-Enlightenment and Enlightenment period. Following from this I developed interests in the varied ways of thinking about State/Church relationships, theories of resistance, and republicanism in the early modern period with a focus on France and England.
I graduated in 2022 with distinction from an MA in Library and Information Services Management from Sheffield University. My MA dissertation was on Authority and Knowledge creation: Wikipedia and higher education. It focuses on history lecturer's understanding of authority and their assessment of Wikipedia as a teaching or dissemination tool.
I have interests in digital literacy, understanding mis/disinformation, the nature of authority in public discourse, and information literacy in higher education.
Teaching and supervision
As an academic liaison librarian, I taught information and media literacy to support students. I help them develop their research and critical thinking skills.
As a history lecturer I taught a range of modules with a focus on intellectual history of Early Modern British and European History with a focus on intellectual history (in particular political thought). These included HIS114 English Society and Culture 1500-1750 at Stage 1, HIS219 History of Early Modern Political Thought at Stage 2. I offered a Stage 3, a special subject HIS393 Radicalism, Republicanism and Revolution 1400-1800 and the optional module HIS392 Heresy, Intolerance and Beyond 1550-1765.
I also taught historical skills and methods modules at both undergraduate and Master level. And taught a range of MA modules (HISM62 Foundations of Liberty in Early Modern Thought: Resistance and Religious Toleration and HISM17 Blasphemy and Unbelief in Early Modern Europe).
Research interests for potential research students
Research
My research is in the broad area of intellectual history in the early modern period. I am particularly interested in issues surrounding the question of legitimate government and resistance to tyranny and the inter-linked question of the relationship between Church and State in the aftermath of the Reformation. I have interests in the development of a republican discourse in the Early Modern period and its links with question about toleration and civil religion.
Following my recent MA in Library and Information Services Management, I have interest in the notion of authority for media and information literacy. I am also interested in Open Access and its potential to disrupt academic publication.
Publications
Article
Doucet, Delphine (2013) Questioning Authorities: Scepticism and Anti-Christian Arguments in the Colloquium Heptaplomeres. History of European Ideas, 39 (6). pp. 755-775. ISSN 0191-6599
Book Section
Doucet, Delphine (2024) Afterlife of a Clandestine Manuscript: The Case of the Colloquium Heptaplomeres (17th/18th c). In: Radical Ideas and the Crisis of Christianity in England, 1640–1740. The politics of Religion. Boydell and Brewer. (In Press)
Doucet, Delphine (2014) Du Colloquium Heptaplomeres de Bodin au Commentaire Philosophique de Bayle: diversite, verite, sincerite et conversion. In: Pierre Bayle et le politique. Honore Champion, Paris, pp. 49-66. ISBN 9782745327109
Conference or Workshop Item
Doucet, Delphine (2023) Authority of knowledge: historians on Wikipedia in Higher Education. In: LILAC, 19-21 April 2023, UNiversity of Cambridge. (Unpublished)
Doucet, Delphine (2018) Religion at the dinner table, a sixteenth century dialogue. In: Sunderland Literature Festival, 12 October 2018, Sunderland Museum, Pottery Gallery. (Unpublished)
- Early Modern European and British History (in particular French and British)
- Intellectual History of the 17th and 18th century
- Heterodox discourses in the early modern period
- Discourses of toleration in the early modern period
- Political thought of the early modern period
- Information literacy
- Notions of authority and expertise in academic and public discourse
- Open Access Publishing