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

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **April 2, 2026** 

 04:00PM - 05:30PM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **Lower Level Conference Room, Adolphus Busch Hall**  



 

 



 

Speaker: [**Caroline Ford**](https://history.ucla.edu/person/caroline-ford/)*, Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles*  
  
Chair: [**Mary D. Lewis**](https://ces.fas.harvard.edu/people/000063-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*  
  
Join the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES) for the fifth [*Stanley Hoffmann Annual Lecture on France and the World*](https://ces.fas.harvard.edu/study-groups/stanley-hoffmann-annual-lecture-on-france-and-the-world-ces-harvard) 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.

### **About**

The Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES) inaugurated the [*Stanley Hoffmann Annual Lecture on France and the World*](https://ces.fas.harvard.edu/study-groups/stanley-hoffmann-annual-lecture-on-france-and-the-world-ces-harvard) on March 6, 2020. This lecture series honors the intellectual legacy of Stanley Hoffmann, who served as Paul and Catherine Buttenwieser University Professor at Harvard University and was a co-founder of CES. Hoffmann, a prominent public intellectual on both sides of the Atlantic, served on the Harvard faculty for nearly 60 years, drawing thousands of students to his celebrated courses.

## **Sponsors**

- [Stanley Hoffmann Annual Lecture on France and the World](https://ces.fas.harvard.edu/study-groups/stanley-hoffmann-annual-lecture-on-france-and-the-world-ces-harvard)



 

 



 

 

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