Oxbridge Academic Programs - L’Académie de Paris

L’Académie de Paris | From the Director

Dear Students, Parents and Teachers,

Richard Michaelis Dear Students, Parents, and Teachers,

I am delighted to invite you to join the select group that will gather in the City of Light next July for an unforgettable summer.

It is no accident that Paris has always attracted the most brilliant thinkers and artists from all over the world. Its unrivalled beauty, the depth of its cultural and historical resources, and, above all, its respect for artistic and intellectual endeavor and achievement, have provided an ideal home and inspiration for creative minds from every background.

The goal – indeed the promise – of l’Académie de Paris is a simple one: to ensure that every student experiences this unique quality of Paris so that he or she may be inspired to attain the highest levels of imagination and achievement, and to uphold the rich legacy that the city passes on to all who spend time there.

I relish the opportunity to lead this exciting program. I was born and raised in Geneva at the confluence of three great European traditions and at the heart of world affairs. I was schooled in Switzerland, France, and Britain, and this upbringing has shaped my views of the world and my sense of self as a scholar and teacher. As a result, I have consistently sought to help others enjoy the opportunities I had, believing in the extraordinary moral and intellectual benefits one can derive from this type of experience.

I very much look forward to sharing your experience of Paris with you.

Yours truly,

Richard Michaelis
Director

Dr Richard Michaelis is a Francophone native of Switzerland. He has just finished editing Walter Scott’s nine-volume Life of Napoleon for publication and is currently writing a life of the French author and statesman, François-René de Chateaubriand. He is a lecturer at Hertford College, Oxford University, where he has taught and lectured in European and British history for over ten years and specializes in 18th- and 19th- century French cultural history. He has taught and lectured students from other universities and runs an annual seminar course on British History for Princeton University. Richard taught on The Oxford Tradition for five years and has directed The Paris Teacher Seminar and The Paris Connection for our Oxford Tradition and Cambridge Tradition programs. This is his third year directing l’Académie de Paris, and he works full-time in our New York office as Associate Director.