Bio

Dr. Sheldon Huggins is an Associate Professor in French and Spanish. He earned his doctorate in Modern Languages and Literatures at Middlebury College, Vermont along with an AM in French Language and Literature. During his doctoral studies, he completed residencies abroad in Buenos Aires and Paris. His specializations include 17th- and 18th-century travel voyages, French history and civilization, linguistics and language pedagogy. His research, which focuses on early travel writing to the North, South poles and arctic circle, examines the complex contributions of ethnography, anthropology and botany to travel writing. Dr. Huggins has published extensively and presented papers on the travel of the 17th century French libertine author J-F Regnard. He has a forthcoming article (Spring 2026) entitled, «Le voyage en Laponie de J-F Regnard (1681) : Le pacte autobiographique envers une analyse ethnographique». He has also published an extensive monograph entitled Repérer le nord : le sublime de l’astronomie et la géodésie chez Maupertuis. His research articulates the challenges of the author’s expedition to the arctic circle in 1736. By using mathematical and astronomical calculations, Maupertuis sought to confirm Newton’s prediction that the earth was flattened at the poles. In his spare time, Dr. Huggins enjoys cooking, travel, reading planetary science journal articles, and chado or Japanese tea ceremonies.