Founded in 1983, the Center for French Colonial Studies, also known as the Centre pour l’étude du pays des Illinois, promotes and encourages research into the social, political, and material history of the French colonies and French people of the Middle Mississippi Valley and the Midwest, with special focus on the Illinois Country in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries. The non-profit organization’s membership consists of historians, archeologists, preservation technologists, architects, genealogists, historic interpreters, and interested laypeople.

Recognizing a “publications gap” between shorter articles and monograph-length works, CFCS initiated its Extended Publications Series in order to make additional scholarship available to the public. This series publishes essays, short monographs, and translations of primary documents that might not otherwise enjoy a place in print owing to their in-between length or esoteric nature. Previous publications include "The Voyageur in the Illinois Country. The Fur Trade's Professional Boatman in Mid America" by Margaret K. Brown; "Code Noir: The Colonial Slave Laws in French Mid-America," a bilingual edition with a preface by Carl J. Ekberg; and "Plumbing the Depths of the Upper Mississippi Valley: Julien Dubuque, Native Americans, and Lead Mining," which includes essays by Pierre Lebeau, Lucy Eldersveld Murphy, and Robert Wiederaenders, as well as newly translated primary documents.

Independent and university-based scholars, as well as advanced graduate students (ABD), are eligible. Maximum manuscript length is 125 single-spaced pages. Electronic submissions (.doc or .docx attachments) will not be returned.
Please direct inquiries to:
Benn E. Williams, CFCS Extended Publications Series Editor
benn.e.williams@gmail.com
More information about the CFCS can be found at
http://depts.noctrl.edu/cfcs/