Florence Ramond Jurney

A native of France, Florence Ramond Jurney received a Licence, a Maitrise, and a Diplome d'Etudes Approfondies at the Universite de la Sorbonne (Paris IV). She holds a doctorate in Romance Languages from the University of Oregon. Professor Jurney's scholarly interests include Gender Studies, Post-Colonial and Cultural Studies, as well as Francophone Studies. She specializes in the study of exile and migration in the Caribbean. At Gettysburg College, Professor Jurney is developing classes on Francophone literatures and cultures and on Caribbean literature. She is teaching both in the French and Italian Department and in the Africana Studies Program. Professor Jurney has just published a new book, "Representations of the Island in Caribbean Literature: Caribbean Women Redefine Their Homelands" (Edwin Mellen Press, 2009). In her study, she explores several Caribbean writers in whose works female subjects express their relationship to their island of origin. As members of the diaspora, they define themselves through their island's history and their personal story, thus rewriting History with a feminine voice. Their reappropriation of a History of the Caribbean enables them to renegociate their exile, a phenomenon which Jurney analyzes in the context of the postcolonial world they live in. She also argues that female characters of the diaspora offer a new "diasporic" identity in which a Caribbean space includes their experience of exile and supersedes a physical grounding in the island. Her publications include articles on Maryse Conde, Gisele Pineau, Simone Schwarz-Bart and Edwidge Danticat. Her first book "Voix/es libres: Maternite et identite feminine dans la litterature antillaise" was published by Summa Publications (2006).