The colloquium was founded by Mary Ann Caws, Gerald Prince, Dina Sherzer, and Jean-Jacques Thomas. During its first few years, it was shepherded by Gerald Prince and Dina Sherzer, who supported the organizers of each colloquium; then, until the establishment of the current steering committee for the Twentieth and Twenty-First-Century French and Francophone Studies International Colloquium, it was shepherded by Gerald Prince.
In recent years, the Twentieth and Twenty-First-Century French and Francophone Studies International Colloquium has had between 250 to 350 participants coming from all over the world.
For the past 37 years, the colloquium has taken place at the following universities or locations. Changes in the name of the colloquium are noted next to the year changed.
1983: City University of New York
1984: University of Michigan
1986: Louisiana State University
1987: Duke University; The name became “International Colloquium in 20th Century French Studies” instead of “French Literature”
1988: Claremont College
1989: Columbia University
1990: Iowa City
1991: University of Texas
1992: University of Pennsylvania
1993: University of Colorado
1994: Dartmouth College
1995: Stanford University
1996: University of Maryland
1997: Ohio State University
1998: Amherst College; “International Colloquium in 20th Century French and Francophone Studies” although the “Francophone” disappeared until 2004
1999: University of North Carolina
2000: University of Pennsylvania
200l: University of California, Davis
2002: University of Connecticut
2003: University of Illinois
2004: Florida State University; “Twentieth and Twenty-First-Century French and Francophone Studies International Colloquium”
2005: University of Florida
2006: University of Miami
2007: Texas A&M University
2008: Georgetown University
2009: University of Minnesota
2010: University of Guelph
2011: University of San Francisco
2012: California State University, Long Beach, CA
2013: Georgia Institute of Technology
2014: New York University, City University of New York, Columbia University
2015: Louisiana State University
2016: St. Louis University, Washington University, Webster University
2017: University of Indiana, Bloomington
2018: Brown University
2019: Oklahoma City (University of Oklahoma/University of Central Oklahoma/University of Tulsa)
2020: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
2021: Virtual colloquium