McKnight Hall
Room 11
300 North Washington St.
Gettysburg, PA 17325-1400
Education
PhD Cornell University, 2012
MA Cornell University, 2008
MA Université Savoie-Mont Blanc, 2004
Academic Focus
Nineteenth and twentieth-century French literature; Postcolonial studies; Polynesian studies; Visual culture
Research
My work is concerned with the ways in which literature and art have been used as tools to shape racial, social, and sexual minorities in the French Colonial Empire. It has appeared in, among others, Nineteenth-Century French Studies, Nineteenth-Century Contexts, MLN, Nottingham French Studies and Dix-Neuf, Journal of the Society of Dix-neuviémistes.* My current book-length project is tentatively entitled Postcarding the Other: Polynesia and the Nineteenth-Century French Imagination.
* If you are interested in a copy of any of my papers but do not have institutional access to them, please feel free to email me for a copy.
At Gettysburg College, I teach beginning through upper-level French language courses, as well as topic courses focusing on nineteenth-century through twenty-first culture, society, and literature. I also occasionally teach in the First-Year Seminar Program. My course, "You’re Not Yelping: From the Critique of Judgment to Consumer Rating Culture" (FYS 189-4), has been hailed as "a class that will change the way you think."
Spring 2024 Office Hours
Monday: 12:15-1:30pm; Wednesday: 1:30-3pm; Thursday: 11am-12pm; and by appointment.
Courses Taught
Elements of speaking, reading, and writing French. Enrollment limited to those who have not studied French previously. A student may not receive credit for both 101 and 103.
Fundamentals of French grammar, composition and pronunciation. Emphasis on oral comprehension, verbal communication, reading and writing in the broader context of French and Francophone culture. Classroom interaction stresses oral-aural method of language learning. Enrollment limited to those with previous study of French or according to achievement on the Departmental Placement Examination. A student may not receive credit for both 101 and 103.
Fundamentals of French grammar, composition and pronunciation. Emphasis on oral comprehension, verbal communication, reading and writing in the broader context of French and Francophone culture. Classroom interaction stresses oral-aural method of language learning. Enrollment limited to those with previous study of French. Successful completion of 103 is a prerequisite for entry into 104 unless a student is placed in 104 according to the Departmental Placement Examination. A student may not receive credit for both 102 and 104.
Grammar review and practice in oral French, with stress on reading and written expression in the spring. Contact with French culture is maintained throughout. Enrollment limited to those who have previously studied French and who have completed 101-102, or who are enrolled according to achievement on the Departmental Placement Examination. Successful completion of 201 is a prerequisite for entry into 202, unless student is placed there according to the placement examination.
Grammar review and practice in oral French in the fall semester, with stress on reading and written expression in the spring. Contact with French culture is maintained throughout. Enrollment limited to those who have previously studied French and who have completed 101-102, or who are enrolled according to achievement on the Departmental Placement Examination. Successful completion of 201 is a prerequisite for entry into 202, unless student is placed there according to the placement examination.
Oral, aural, and written practices of French structures. Collaborative writing, group discussions, individual compositions, and presentations. Recent French films serve as text. Course is a prerequisite for all 300-level courses. Offered every semester.
Overview of the various literal and figurative revolutions in France following the Revolution of 1789. Course examines the many political changes from the rise of the French Republic to the political, social, demographic, economic, intellectual and artistic developments in the multicultural France of the 21st century, including its place and role in the expanding European Union. Prerequisite: French 300. Required of all majors. Offered in the spring.
Study of critically-acclaimed contemporary French and Francophone films. The selections for “Contemporary French and Francophone Cinema,” explore how political and social issues centered around various forms of discrimination (unemployment, immigration, illness, gender and sexual identity) are conceptualized and addressed today in France. Major emphasis is placed on cinematography as students learn the vocabulary and visual grammar of film. Literature from the fields of cinema, sociology, history, and literature, as well as excerpts of foundational films, complement film screenings. Prerequisite: FREN 305 or 310.
This course explores the ideological and aesthetic stakes of tourism and voyage in the French and Francophone world. From Imperial France to the postcolonial world, it interrogates what travel writings tell us about fantasies and anxieties haunting our imagination. Have travel writings, tourism, and voyage served to perpetuate or undermine racial stereotypes? What impact (ideological, economic, environmental) has tourism had on local populations? Prerequisite: FREN 305.
Study of 19th-century Paris as a site of major cultural and social upheavals that have contributed to shaping modernity. Through an examination of figures populating the 19th-century changing Parisian urban space (the flâneur, the prostitute, the department store clerk, etc.), this seminar investigates the evolution of cultural, economic, and political institutions toward modernity. Topics covered include avant-garde literary and artistic movements; photography; urban planning; retail; finance; politics; and shifting paradigms of gender and economic class. Prerequisite: FREN 305 or equivalent
Study and practice in translating from French to English and from English to French. Course develops the ability to render idiomatic French into idiomatic English, and vice-versa.
Intensive study of a particular aspect of French literature, civilization, or culture to be determined by the instructor. Past offerings include The Art of Emile Zola, The Image of Women in French Literature: A Feminist Perspective, The Gaze and Self-Image in French Film, 1959-89 and Postcolonial Immigrations in France. Course is for seniors (in the final semester) to complete undergraduate work in French. Prerequisites: Limited to seniors, except with permission of instructor and approval of department chairperson. Offered every spring.
Yelp, TripAdvisor, RottenTomatoes, RateMyProfessors, like, dislike… Even though Peeple – “a Yelp for people,” in the words of its creators – faced some backlash in the fall of 2015, it seems that nowadays everything is available for everyone to rate and that our compulsion to order, evaluate, and judge has grown almost limitless. In this course, we study a number of examples – late 19th century French painting and literature, contemporary American fiction and nonfiction, kitsch and lowbrow art, mass tourism, as well as recent trends such as the cronut, kale, cat cafés, etc. – in order to see the ways in which judgment and taste have been fashioned and have evolved from the late 19th to the 21st century. How have external forces (such as institutions, ideology, mass culture, and technology) contributed to shaping taste and perception? Conversely, how have taste and trends affected the sensible world? Can we – should we – articulate and/or reconcile subjective, individual judgment with objective norms?