Christy Pichichero received her Bachelor’s of Arts in Comparative Literature from Princeton University (1998), a Bachelor’s in Music (2000) in opera singing and musicology from the Eastman School of Music, and her Master’s (2003) and Ph.D. (2008) degrees from Stanford University. Pichichero was also a visiting researcher at King’s College, Cambridge University and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris.
Christy’s research interests center around the literature and culture of early modern France, from the late sixteenth century to the early nineteenth century. She is currently revising her dissertation, Battles of the Self: War and Subjectivity in Early Modern France, for publication. An interdisciplinary study of the culture of war in France over the long eighteenth century (1650-1815), this manuscript examines literary works, treatises of moral philosophy, and archival military writings to reveal that war, military strategy, and tactics formed a meta-discourse central to the Enlightenment, having remarkably pervasive influences on French culture and serving as crucial frameworks for developing modern ideas about human nature, selfhood, and rights.
In addition to her research, Christy is actively involved in student and TA advising and in larger questions and processes of teaching and learning, undergraduate and graduate education, and diversity in higher education/academia. She was recruited by Stanford’s Vice-Provost for Graduate Education to help develop the curriculum for the Diversifying Academia, Recruiting Excellence (DARE) Program fostering professional and self-development for underrepresented minorities aiming to enter the professoriate. She will be a freshman advisor for the academic year 2008-2009.
Christy was a varsity soccer player at Princeton and had a first career as a professional opera singer, specializing in French art song and comedic/character mezzosoprano roles like Carmen in Bizet’s Carmen and Cherubino in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. She loves watching and playing sports, drinking fine wines, traveling, and throwing home-made pizza and ice-cream parties for family and friends.