Gayle K. Brunelle, Ph.D.

Biography

Gayle K. Brunelle received her Ph.D. in early modern European history and Atlantic World from Emory University. Dr. Brunelle is an affiliate of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, UCLA and the UCLA Center for 17th-& 18th-Century Studies & William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. She is the author of four books: The New World Merchants of Rouen, 1559-1630. Volume Sixteen, Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies, (Kirksville, Missouri: Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers/Truman State University Press, 1991); Murder in the Métro: Laetitia Toureaux and the  Cagoule in 1930s France, co-authored with Annette Finley-Croswhite, (Baton Rouge:  Louisiana State University Press, 2010); Samuel de Champlain: The Founder of New France. A Brief History with Documents. (New York: Bedford/Saint Martin’s Press, 2012) and Assassination in Vichy: Marx Dormoy and the Struggle for the Soul of France, co-authored with Annette Finle-Croswhite, (Toronto:  University of Toronto Press, 2020). She has published numerous peer-reviewed scholarly articles and book chapters in edited collections. Her current research projects include: Tropical Chimeras: France in Guiana, 1604-1676, which will be a monograph study of France’s efforts to colonize French Guiana in the 17th century. Under contract with Louisiana State University Press; and Fortunes of Violence: Simon Lecomte, a Merchant in Toulouse during the French Wars of Religion, a microhistory study of Simon Lecomte, a merchant from Paris who spent twenty years in Toulouse during the French Wars of Religion. This book explores the underlying social and economic causes of judicial and extra-judicial violence. Under contract, the University of Toronto Press. She is also editing a volume in the forthcoming series from Bloomsbury Press, A Cultural History of Exploration and has authored numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. Dr. Brunelle resides in France.

Dr. Brunelle is a writer and historical consultant to film and script projects, including  “Le crime mysterieux,” of the series “Les crimes presque parfaits,” a series on the Planete + Justice Channel in France (view episode). The documentary received a five-star critical rating.  She is listed in the credits.