Graduate Students
Silvia Baage. Is currently working on research entitled: "Island literature of French expression; Rewriting the French colonial topos of the island".
Julia Burstein obtained a B.A. in both Spanish and French literature and an M.A. in French literature from the University of Oklahoma. She is currently working in Francophone Caribbean literature, particularly that of Guadeloupean women
Sandhya Bodapati. French sociolinguistics and pragmatics, foreign language pedagogy, second language acquisition.
Erica Cefalo. Nineteenth-century literature. Year in Nice.
Khady Diene is a PH.d student. She had her MA both in French litterature and American Studies from the University of Kansas. She is currently working on the question of identity in francophone and postcolonial litterature and film.
C.J. Gomolka. the role of aporia and sexuality in 19th century literature; sexual identity in the second half of the 19th century; queer theory; transgender theory; 19th century history; the non-dit in literature.
Phuong Hoang. Comparative study of Francophone African and Vietnamese literatures, post-colonial theory, women's issues in Francophone literature.
Anne-Marie Lanz. Eighteenth-century literature; diaries and epistolarity; 16th century; wars of religion.
Elena Lozinsky. Nineteenth and twentieth-century literature; translation; Marcel Proust.
Marilyn Matar. 20th century and contemporary French literature. Novel and narratives. Machrek Francophone with an interest in war writings.
Priya Nair. Twentieth century French and Francophone Literature and Film. Representations of India, Indian Culture and Mythology in French Literature and Film. Works of French and Francophone authors of Indian origin.
Dorothée Polanz. Automatisms and automatons in the French Libertine Novel, Erotism and Libertinage, Gardens and Parks in the XVIIIth Century, Orientalist painters, Decadents writers, Cabaret performances, Theatricality, The body in Modern French Performance, Directing and Acting XVIIIth Century fairground theatre.
Séverine Rebourcet. received an MA in French Didactics and Linguistics (Français langue étrangère) from the University of Paris-X Nanterre (France) and an MA in French literature from Portland State University, Oregon. She is currently writing her dissertation on Women’s Creole Literatures from the Indian Ocean focusing on the representation of cultural trauma in the Creole novel. Her primary research interests include the issues of Creole identity, trauma, diaspora, colonial history and cultural nationalism across the Creole World.
Working Dissertation Title: Les Voix du Volcan: L'Ecriture du Mal-Etre Créole dans le Roman Féminin Contemporain de l'Océan Indien
Raluca Romaniuc. Auteurs roumains d'-expression francaise. Trad uction. Littérature 19ème et 20ème siècles.
Cécile Ruel is interested in exploration narratives, travel literature, Kenneth White's geo-poetics, identity in post-colonial literature
Katherine Tek. Francophone postcolonial literature, Francophone identity and minority communities, youth in France
Sophie D. Vigeant. Poetics of identity in Beur's fiction (special focus on Nina Bouraoui) - Francophone Literature - Postcolonial Theory - Female Narratives and Autobiographical Voices.
Mary Cobb Wittrock. is a Ph.D. candidate working on her dissertation entitled "Chaotic Topography in Contemporary French and Francophone Literature". Originally from Georgia, she received her B.S. in physics from the College of William and Mary in 1993 and spent a year following graduation as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in Grenoble, France where she studied physics at University Joseph Fourier. She returned to the U.S to earn her M.S. in physics from Florida Sate University before moving to Washington, DC where she received her M.A. in French Studies from American University. Her dissertation, written under the direction of Dr. Caroline Eades, examines the fictions of Annie Ernaux, Frankétienne, and Jean-Philippe Toussaint through the lens of chaos theory as proposed by Ilya Prigogine and Isabelle Stengers. Mary Cobb's other research interest include in general 20th and 21st century French and Francophone literature, literature and science, Early Modern French women scientists and their writings, contemporary film adaptations from literature, electronic literature, and auto-fiction/biography. CV