Faculty

Biography

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

Editorial projects involve a special issue of the Journal of African Cinemas, “Aesthetics of the Future: The Cinema of Jean-Pierre Bekolo,” currently in production (Fall 2024). This special issue 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.

A co-edited volume with tentative title: Research and Teaching in African Literature: Innovations in Critical Scholarship and Pedagogy. This is a newly launched editorial project that aims to combine a broad selection of topics with focus on new approaches in critical and pedagogical inquiries in the research and teaching of African literature.

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

• “Thinking in Action: Sharing, Caring, Curating” Virtual roundtable presentation by the Teaching Committee of the EC/ALA on observations, experiences, and practices in Open Pedagogy, OER-oriented (Open Educational Resources) courses in creative collaboration with librarians; 47th Annual Conference of the African Literature Association, May 19, 2022.
• “Past forward: Jean-Pierre Bekolo’s Naked Reality and Nous les Noirs” Virtual panel presentation of the Film, Visual, and Media Caucus at the 47th Annual Conference of the African Literature Association, May 20, 2022.
• “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