The Voltaire Foundation is the world leader for eighteenth-century scholarship.
As a research department, our mission is to disseminate world-leading research into the Enlightenment, and to bring the debates of Voltaire and his contemporaries to the widest possible audience. Our newly launched Voltaire Lab pioneers the methodologies of digital humanities in eighteenth-century scholarship with international collaborations.
We have been at the heart of Enlightenment scholarship for over forty years and have an international reputation for stimulating and disseminating the most rigorous and up-to-date research into the eighteenth century. The writings of Voltaire and other eighteenth-century scholars were seminal in creating the political and social systems of today. Enlightenment thinkers were champions of rational thought, scientific enquiry, intellectual curiosity, and the separation of Church and State, all of which are more relevant now than ever.
We publish the definitive edition of the Complete Works of Voltaire (Œuvres complètes de Voltaire), and together with publishing partner Liverpool University Press, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment (previously SVEC), the foremost series devoted to Enlightenment studies with over 600 volumes published to date. The correspondences of several key French thinkers, including Voltaire, Rousseau, Bayle and Helvétius also feature among our publications. Search our publications for full details.
In 2022 the Foundation published the final volume of Voltaire’s writings, comprising 205 volumes in total. To celebrate this momentous achievement, and with a view to honouring and expanding the legacy of founder Theodore Besterman, the Voltaire Foundation is building a new hub for Enlightenment scholarship that will be unmatched worldwide.
Voltaire Foundation Fund Board of Management
Miles Young, Warden of New College, Oxford (Chair)
Eleanor Burnett, St Edmund Hall (Chair of Finance & Strategy Committee)
Professor Elisabeth Décultot, University of Halle
Professor Nathalie Ferrand, CNRS Paris
Professor Dan Grimley (Head of Humanities, Oxford)
Dr Jenny Mander, Newnham College, Cambridge
Professor Christophe Martin, Sorbonne Université Paris
Dr Gemma Tidman, Queen Mary University of London
Professor Thomas Wynn, Durham University
Co-opted members
Professor David De Roure, Wolfson College, Oxford
Professor Avi Lifschitz, Magdalen College, Oxford (Academic Programme Director)
Professor Dirk Van Hulle, Jesus College, Oxford
