Though the Maison Française d'Oxford (MFO) is unique in the United Kingdom, it belongs to a network of 27 similar research institutes planted by France all over the world. Their main parent institution in France is the Ministry of European and Foreign Affairs (Ministère d'Affaires Etrangères et Européennes; MAEE); most institutes also receive support from the National Centre for Scientific Research (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CNRS) and some work in partnership with other French specialist research institutions focusing on Asian or African area studies, archaeology or Egyptology. All institutes collaborate with local academic institutions and involve local scholars, students and support staff in their projects.

From its history, the MFO inherits four parent institutions: in addition to the MAEE and CNRS already mentioned, it works under the academic authority of the Universities of Paris and Oxford. After a brief historical survey of the MFO, we shall consider its guiding principles and then look at a few case studies illustrating our modes of cooperation with the University of Oxford, other British universities, and French research and higher education institutions.

History

At the end of the Second World War, the project of a French academic institution in Oxford, as a gift offering for the support of the British people, was promoted by archaeologist Claude Schaeffer, who had worked for the Universities of Paris and Oxford and had been an officer in the British Navy during the war. The new centre would provide a haven of French culture for English-speaking students reading French or working on French topics in Oxford. Its first Director was a former Resistance chief from the south of France, the Shakespeare scholar Henri Fluchère, who led the destinies of the MFO from its creation in 1946 to his return to France in 1962. The spirit of the nascent Maison involved conviviality, and the practice of French language and culture as its main focus. Fluchère and his helpers and friends organised visits by French artists and intellectuals, lectures, readings, concerts and cultural activities, while resident undergraduate and graduate students honed their linguistic skills in their everyday intercourse.