Contemporary life writing encompasses a broad spectrum of practices, from traditional literary forms such as autobiographies to social media narratives. Third- person life writing also experiments with varied forms, from historical biographies to “biofictions” that speculate on the imagined lives of real figures. Beyond literature, the social sciences also see a turn to (auto)biographical narrative as a tool for cultural and historical analysis. Centers for the study of life writing exist in the UK, North America, and China, whereas France has resisted importing this conceptual category, despite its strong tradition of scholarly work on autobiography. This project aims to bridge the gap between French literary and scholarly traditions and the critical frameworks developed most extensively in the U.S. academy (e.g., illness, disability studies, gender and sexuality studies, postcolonial studies). The IIRP will also serve as an anchor for extending the project beyond Paris and Chicago to a European network of researchers. Involving a seminar, panels at international conferences, and a targeted set of colloquia at the University of Chicago Center in Paris, the three-year research plan is organized around three topics: 1) Writing the Self/Writing Others; 2) Politics of Life Writing; 3) Life Writing Across Disciplines, Arts, and Media.