This profile is part of a series of interviews chronicling the experiences of researchers who use The New York Public Library's collections for the development of their work.

Megan Brown is an assistant professor of history at Swarthmore College and is a recipient of one of the Library's Short Term Research Fellowships.  She is a historian of France and modern Europe, with a focus on decolonization, European integration, and more recently tourism. Her first book, The Seventh Member State: Algeria, France, and the European Community, will come out in 2022 with Harvard University Press.

When did you first get the idea for your research project?

While I was researching links between the European Economic Community (EEC, a precursor to today’s EU) and empire, I found a French lobbying group that was very keen to see the EEC linked with France’s colonies. To my surprise, the link went beyond ideology—the group organized a biennial car race to educate Europeans about their supposedly shared African territories.

What brought you to the Library?

As I was looking for different places to research the car race and the group that organized it, I was excited to learn that the NYPL holds a comprehensive collection of the group’s publication, including books by the organization's leader and by participants in the race.

What research tools could you not live without?

Libraries, archives, WorldCat, interlibrary loan

What’s the most unexpected item you encountered in your research?

The group’s publication includes issues from the 1950s that celebrate French colonialism, defend South African apartheid, and deride U.S. Jim Crow—all in a matter of pages. The inability of the group’s leaders to connect these different forms of racism and oppression never ceases to amaze me.  

How do you maintain your research momentum?

I try to keep my scholarly work to a 9–5 schedule, so that I can return refreshed every day.

After a day of working/researching, what do you do to unwind?

I like to listen to podcasts or old-time radio shows while cooking. My husband and I also spend an inordinate amount of time watching our older cat, Stella, glower at our new kitten Gertrude.  

What tabs do you currently have open on your computer?

I’m in the midst of prepping a lecture for my students on nineteenth century European queer life—activism, daily experiences, persecution and legal mistreatment, and more. I have about thirty tabs of primary source documents open that I’d like to get through before I actually draft up the lecture.

Is there anything you'd like to tell someone looking to get started?

My research projects have all wound up in places that are vastly different from where I started out. Be open to following your source’s lead.

Who makes the best cup of coffee in the neighborhood?

It’s not coffee, but I like “accidentally” arriving at the library before it opens so that I am forced to kill time eating a slice of babka from the Breads Bakery kiosk in Bryant Park.