As a professor, Dr. Melissa K Byrnes often reminds her students that she cares far more about how they think than what they know. She believes in a rigorous, interactive classroom environment. Her courses confront issues that have been hotly debated for centuries; her goal is to provide her students with a vocabulary and an analytical framework that allow them to grapple with these questions on their own. She expects students to leave her class with more open questions than they arrived with. Her job is to complicate their understandings of the world, to break down preconceptions and easy assumptions.

Byrnes received her PhD from Georgetown University in 2008, her MSFS from Georgetown University in 2003, and her BA from Amherst College in 2000. Since Jan. 2017, she has been regular contributor to Lawyers Guns & Money. She has been affiliated with the American Historical Association, the Council for European Studies, the Society for French Historical Studies, the Western Society for French History, the French Colonial Historical Society, the Social Science History Association, and the World History Association. 

Byrnes’s research focuses on migration, activism, rights, race, religion, imperialism, and decolonization. She is finishing a book on local approaches to the rights and welfare of North African migrants in the suburbs of Paris and Lyon (1945-1975). She has published peer-reviewed articles about how urban development programs excluded or included North Africans in local communities, on the ways French officials supported Muslim practices to shore up their imperial power, and about the way imperial and racial ideologies affected Franco-Portuguese diplomacy during decolonization. Recently, she has also been working on a few pieces about students and other activist groups building transnational solidarity networks to oppose state violence in Salazar’s Portugal.

Byrnes has received multiple grants and fellowships to aid in her research including:

• Research Assistantship Program (Southwestern University), 2021.
• Social Justice Fellowship (Southwestern University), 2016-17.
• Travel Grant (University of Portsmouth), Beyond Francafrique workshop, Feb. 2017.
• Faculty-Student Project Funding (Southwestern University), 2016-17.
• Competitive Development Funding (Southwestern University), 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16.
• Sam Taylor Fellowship, General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church, 2013.
• ACLS/Mellon Recent Doctoral Recipient Fellowship, 2009-10.
• ACLS/Mellon Dissertation Completion Fellowship, 2007-08.
• Bourse Jeanne Marandon, Association des Professeurs Francais et Francophones de l’Amerique, 2005-06.

Journal Articles

• “Diplomacy at the end of empire: Evolving French perspectives on Portuguese colonialism in the 1950s and 1960s,” Cold War History Vol. 19, No. 4 (November 2019), pp. 477-491.
• “Ramadan in the Republic: Imperial Necessity and Religious Assistance in the Rhône Department,” French Cultural Studies, Vol. 28, No. 1 (February 2017), pp. 5-16.
• “Liberating the Land or Absorbing a Community: Managing North African Migration and the Bidonvilles in Paris’s Banlieues,” French Politics, Culture & Society [special issue: “Algerian Legacies in Metropolitan France”], Vol. 31, No. 3 (Winter 2013), pp. 1-20.
• “Teaching the French Revolution from the Inside Out: Views from Egypt and the Caribbean,” World History Bulletin, Vol. XXVI, no. 1 (Spring 2010).

Popular Press

• Regular contributor, Lawyers Guns & Money, Jan. 2017-present
• “Saint-Denis, Solidarity, and Security,” Lawyers, Guns & Money, 3 Dec. 2015.
• “Solidarity and ‘Je suis Paris,’” Lawyers, Guns & Money, 18 Nov. 2015.
• “Racism, not Religion, is at the Root of European Attacks,” Austin American-Statesman, 28 Mar. 2015.
• “The First World War Before it was the First World War,” Austin American-Statesman, 26 Jul. 2014.
• “Last Word: Teaching Philanthropy and the Liberal Arts,” Southwestern Magazine, Spring 2014.
• “Movie evokes ancient desire to loot-and rescue-culture,” Austin American-Statesman, 6 Apr. 2014.
• “Why a History of Human Rights?” The Megaphone, 30 Oct. 2008.

Book Reviews

• Paul Silverstein, Postcolonial France: Race, Islam and the Future of the Republic, H-France Review, Vol. 19, No. 43 (March 2019).
• Eric T. Jennings, Free French Africa in World War II: The African Resistance, Journal of Military History, Vol. 80, No. 3 (July 2016), pp. 932-944.
• Susan Palmer, The New Heretics of France: Minority Religions, la Republique, and the Government-Sponsored “War on Sects,” Journal of Religion, Vol. 94, No. 1 (January 2014), pp. 139-141.
• Panikos Panayi and Pippa Virdee, eds., Refugees and the End of Empire: Imperial Collapse and Forced Migration in the Twentieth Century, Journal of World History, 24:3 (September 2013), pp. 733-735.
• John R. Bowen, Why The French Don’t Like Headscarves: Islam, the State, and Public Space, Nationalities Papers 36:3 (July 2008), pp. 586-588.

Guest Lectures

• “Diplomacy at the End of Empire,” Guest appearance (remote) in Dr. Megan Brown’s seminar on Postwar Western Europe at Swarthmore College, 22 Apr. 2020.
• “Doing Good and Doing It Well,” Lecture, Newcomers and Friends of Georgetown, Georgetown, TX, 1 Feb. 2018.
• “Doing Good and Doing It Well,” Keynote Address, Seeds of Strength Annual Luncheon, Georgetown, TX, 22 Sep. 2016.
• “The History of Art Looting,” animated video for Digital Speakers Bureau, Center for European Studies, University of Texas at Austin (published Jul. 2015).
• “Working—and Getting Hired—at a Small Liberal Arts College,” Department of History, Georgetown University, 23 Oct. 2013.
• Discussion leader, International Day of Peace Celebration, Moksha Yoga and Pilates, Georgetown, TX, 21 Sep. 2013.
• “Migration and Municipal Foreign Policy: North Africans in the Suburbs of Paris and Lyon”; Institute for Historical Studies Workshop Series on “Reinventing Diplomacy,” University of Texas at Austin, 15 Apr. 2013.
• “La Comparaison et la vue d’en bas: L’immigration maghrébine à l’échelle locale,” guest lecturer for Dr. Nancy Green’s research seminar, “L’Histoire comparée et les migrations contemporaines,” École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, 17 November 2009.
• “La recherche de leur place: Deux communes et leurs populations nord-africaines,” invited speaker for the ongoing program, “Histoire des migrations internationales et des luttes contre les discriminations en Europe”; Migrinter and the Espace Mendès France; Poitiers, France; 9 November 2009.

Conferences

• “Anti-Salazarism and Transnational Solidarity: Franco-Portuguese Student Activism in the 1960s”; Joint Society for French Historical Studies Conference and George Rudé Seminar in French History and Civilisation, virtual (hosted from Auckland, New Zealand), 5-31 Jul. 2020.
• Webinar (planned as a roundtable), “Teaching French History in a Global Frame”; Joint Society for French Historical Studies Conference and George Rudé Seminar in French History and Civilisation.
• Roundtable, “Using Digital Tools to Do Public History”; Society for French Historical Studies Annual Conference (SFHS), Indianapolis, IN, 4-6 Apr. 2019.
• Discussant, “The Empire beyond the Ivory Tower:  Non-Academics and the Legacies of Colonial History in Contemporary France”; SFHS, 2019.
• Chair, “Survival in the French Empire: Health, ‘Heathens,’ and Heritage”;  20th & 21st Century French & Francophone Studies International Colloquium, Oklahoma City, OK, 14-16 Mar. 2019.
• “Using ‘Rights’ to Enshrine Discrimination and Disadvantage: Local Policymakers and North African Migrants in the French Suburbs after 1945”; Social Science History Association Annual Conference, Phoenix, AZ, 8-11 Nov. 2018.
• “Awakening the Public Conscience: The French Committee for Amnesty in Portugal and Anti-Salazar Activism”; SFHS, Pittsburgh, PA, 8-10 Mar. 2018.
• Discussant, “Transnational Human Rights in the Twentieth Century: Decolonization and Activism in the ’68 Years,” SFHS, 2018.
• “Anti-Salazarism and Student Solidarity: Franco-Portuguese Student Activism in the 1960s”; 1968 in Global Perspectives, University of South Carolina, 15-18 Feb. 2018.
• Roundtable, “Interdisciplinarity, Study Abroad, and Diversity in the Classroom”; Association of American Colleges & Universities Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, 24-27 January 2018.
• “From ‘Ghetto’ to ‘Apartheid’: Education Policy as Housing Discrimination in the 1970s”; Society for French Historical Studies (SFHS) Annual Conference, Washington, DC, 20-22 April 2017.
• Roundtable, “Human Rights in the Modern Francophone World”; SFHS Annual Conference, Washington, DC, 20-22 April 2017.
• “Passing the Torch on the Civilizing Mission: French Hopes for the Portuguese Empire in the 1960s”; Beyond Francafrique Workshop, University of Portsmouth (UK), 22 Feb. 2017.
• “The View From Below: What We Learn From Local Migrant Histories”; Council for European Studies (CES) International Conference for Europeanists, Philadelphia, TN, 14-16 Apr. 2016.
• Roundtable, “Teaching Decolonization”; Society for French Historical Studies (SFHS) Annual Conference, Nashville, TN, 3-5 March 2016.
• “Living with ‘Our Algerian Brothers’: The Historical Effects of Space and Proximity on Community Relations with North African Migrants in the Parisian Suburbs”; Conference: “Migrants in the City,” University of Sheffield, UK, 12-13 Oct. 2015.
• “Harnessing Religion in the Service of Empire: French Laicite v. British Laissez-Faire”; Colloquium: “Translating Secularism,” Institut Francais de Londres, London, UK, 18-19 Sep. 2015.
• “Diplomacy in the Twilight of Empire: Franco-Portuguese Relations during Decolonization”; Council for European Studies International Conference for Europeanists, Paris, France, 8-10 July 2015.
• “Mediterranean Crossings: Over the Border or Along the Boulevard?”; Society for French Historical Studies Annual Conference, Colorado Springs, CO, 16-19 April 2015.
• Discussant, “Contested Visions of Metropole and Colony: From France to French West Africa in the 20th Century,” at the Western Society for French History Conference, San Antonio, TX, 13-15 Nov. 2014 (H-France webcast).
• “Ramadan on the Rhone: Muslims and Christians in Secular France,” at the Mediterranean Studies Association International Congress, Malaga, Spain, 28-31 May 2014.
• Discussant, “Reviving the Colonial Past in the Postcolonial Present in the Francophone World,” CES International Conference for Europeanists, Washington, DC, 14-16 Mar. 2014.
• “A Cosmopolitan Approach to Community Policies: North African Migrants in the Suburbs of Paris and Lyon”; Society for the Study of French History Annual Conference, Cardiff, Wales, UK, 30 June-2 July 2013.
• “Migration and Municipal Foreign Policy: North Africans in the Suburbs of Paris and Lyon”; Institute for Historical Studies Workshop Series on “Reinventing Diplomacy,” University of Texas at Austin, 15 Apr. 2013.
• “Slumlord with a Heart of Gold: What the Controversy over the Oliviers de Serres ‘Ghetto’ in Villeurbanne Reveals about Migrants’ Rights in the Republic”; Society for French Historical Studies Annual Conference, Cambridge, MA, 4-7 April 2013.
• “How Do We Deal with Good Intentions? Writing the History of Activism”; Feminist Studies Brown Bag, Southwestern University, 27 Feb. 2013.
• “The Algerian War through Metropolitan Prisms: How Ideas of Empire Shaped Local Immigration Policies and Policing,” for the panel “Late Empire and its Aftermaths in Africa”; French Colonial Historical Society Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA; June 2012.
• “From Comrades-in-Arms to Community Burden: How Decolonization Reshaped Municipal Migration Policies in Saint-Denis,” for the panel, “Coping with Decolonization: From Pondicherry to Paris”; SFHS Annual Conference, Charleston, SC; February 2011.
• “La Comparaison et la vue d’en bas: L’immigration maghrebine a l’echelle locale,” guest lecturer for Dr. Nancy Green’s research seminar, “L’Histoire comparee et les migrations contemporaines,” Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, 17 November 2009.
• “La recherche de leur place: Deux communes et leurs populations nord-africaines,” invited speaker for the ongoing program, “Histoire des migrations internationales et des luttes contre les discriminations en Europe”; Migrinter and the Espace Mendes France; Poitiers, France; 9 November 2009.
• “‘To All Our French Friends”: Portuguese Immigrants and Public Conscience,” for the panel, “Expecting the Unexpected: Unintended Consequences and Human Rights”; ISA Annual Convention, New York; 18 February 2009.
• “‘Terror Will Not Reign in Saint-Denis’: A Showdown Between City Officials and ‘Harki’ Police,” for the panel, “Decolonization and the Challenge to the Republican Order: Ethnic Violence in the Paris Region in the 1960s”; WSFH Annual Conference, Quebec City, Canada; 6 November 2008.
• “The ‘Liberation’ of the Bidonvilles: Urban Development in Saint-Denis and Asnieres-sur-Seine,” for the panel, “Ils venaient tous d’Algerie: Analyse comparative de l’acces aux logements publics des travailleurs algeriens, des Pieds-Noirs, et des Harkis dans les annees 1960”; SFHS Annual Conference, Rutgers University; 3-5 April 2008.
• “France is a Woman: Feminine Allegory and the Late-Medieval Conception of Nation”; Duke University Department of Romance Studies conference on “Constructing Images of the Self”; 20-22 February, 2004.