Biography

Teaching and research interests include French language and culture, translation studies, African film aesthetics and criticism, 20^th and 21^st century France, the production of literature by the African diaspora in France, and French-speaking films in the Caribbean and Québec, French criticism, literary and postcolonial theory. 

Projects involve The Cinema of Jean-Pierre Bekolo, which investigates narrative and aesthetic modes of representation and identity in the film experience of French-Cameroonian filmmaker Jean-Pierre Bekolo, as well as his contribution to African filmmaking and criticism in the last thirty years. 

Compassionate Teaching, a project to investigate effective teaching strategies and pedagogical approaches to address anxiety and learning in the classroom and reflect on strategies that address new challenges in the in-person, online, or hybrid teaching and learning environments.  

Research Overview

Research Interests

• French language and culture
• French and Francophone literature and film (twentieth and twenty-first centuries)
• French literary translation
• French criticism, literary and postcolonial theory

Courses Offered (subject to change)

• FREN 101:  Elementary French I (Fall)
• FREN 102:  Elementary French II (Spring)
• FREN 111:  French in Focus: Intensive Elementary French (Summer)
• FREN 154:  Screening French Shorts: Intensive Intermediate French (Summer)
• FREN 157/FREN 207:  French in France: Study Abroad, Rennes, France (Summer 2019)
• FREN 200:  Advanced French (Fall/Spring)
• FREN 204:  Contemporary French Culture (Fall 2018-2020)
• FREN 211:  Aspects of French Grammar (Fall 2017)
• FREN 212:  French Literature in Translation (Spring 2018)
• FREN 235:  Texts Beyond Borders (Fall 2016)
• FREN 241:  Le Nouveau Roman (Spring 2015)
• FREN 242:  Théâtre Français (Spring 2016)
• FREN 260:  20th c. France at War (Spring 2019)
• FREN 270:  Women Write Women: Africa and the Caribbean (Fall 2016)
• FREN 279:  Immigration in French Literature and Film (Spring 2017)
• FREN 288:  French in Film: Africa, Caribbean, Québec (Spring 2016)
• FREN 295:  Musing the Museums: Migration and Everyday Life in France (Spring 2022)

Selected Publications

• “Qu’elle aille explorer le possible!” or African Cinema according to Jean-Pierre Bekolo” in Companion to African Cinema. Kenneth Harrow and Carmela Garritano (Eds.) Wiley Blackwell, December 2018.
• “Fanta Nacro's Night of Truth: the journey to the end of the night” in Under Fire: Critical Discourses on African Women in War and Conflict. Pauline A. Uwakweh (Ed.) Lexington Books, 2017. 
• “From Orality to Visuality:  The Question of Aesthetics in African Cinema.”  Renewal in African Cinema: Aesthetics and Ideology, Journal of African Cinemas 1.2  2009.
• “Reel” Fiction in Cameroonian Cinema:  The Postcolonial Re-shaping of Cultural Reality” in Cinema and Social Discourse in Cameroon, Alexie Tcheuyap (Ed.)  Bayreuth African Studies, 2005.

Recent Conference Presentations

• “Beyond the final paper: OER-enabled Pedagogy and Technology in the Teaching of African Literature” Virtual roundtable presentation at the 46th Annual Conference of the African Literature Association, May 26, 2021.
• “Teaching African Literature to undergraduates: Engaged Learning strategies” Roundtable presentation at the 45th Annual Conference of the African Literature Association, Columbus, Ohio, May 15-18, 2019.
• “Challenging the Visual, Taming the Gaze” Roundtable Presentation by the Teaching Committee of the EC/ALA, African Literature Association, Washington, DC, May 25, 2018.
• “Residues of the Future, Forecast of the Past: Environments of Modernity in African Literature and Film.” African Literature Association (ALA), Washington, DC, May 24, 2018. 
• "A Global Perspective in a Crystal Ball: Jean-Pierre Bekolo's Naked Reality." Africa and the World: Literature, Politics, and Global Geographies. African Literature Association Annual Conference, 15 Jun. 2017, Yale University, New Haven.
• "Communities in Transit in Moussa Touré's La pirogue." Justice and Human Dignity in Africa and the Africa Diaspora. African Literature Association Annual Conference, 9 Apr. 2016, Marriott Marquis Atlanta.

Teaching

Elementary, intermediate, and advanced French language; Literary translation from French to English; French literature of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; Francophone literature and film.

Honors and Activities

• Editor-Book and Media Review-JALA (Journal of the African Literature Association), Routledge, Spring 2018-Spring 2021
• Elected Executive Councilor of the ALA (African Literature Association), June 2017-2020
• Tournées French Film Festival organizer, Face Foundation Grant, Fall 2014-Spring 2017
• Founding member of the Film, Visual, and Media Caucus of the African Literature Association; Chair, June 2015-2017
• Mellon “Humanities for Life” Grant for building the open pedagogy, OER-oriented course “Musing the Museums: Migration and Everyday Life in France” in collaboration with MLC Librarian, Kristen Totleben, Spring 2021
• CTLTR Grant for creating web-based application for French language instruction, University of Rochester, Spring 2010
• Burton Research Grant to attend the Panafrican Film and Television Festival (FESPACO) in Burkina Faso, University of Rochester, Spring 1999