Associate Professor Education: University of Texas at Austin, Sorbonne Paris IV, University of North Texas, Lycée Hélène Boucher
Q: When did you come to work at Swarthmore in 1991 Q: What were you doing before you came here? I was teaching at Brown University in Providence, RI Q: For Native Speakers, what made you decide to teach French in the United States? The renaissance and development of Caribbean, African and Quebec literatures in the 70s and their role in Hexagonal French literature. Q: What other languages do you know? Creole, English, Spanish, German, (Brasilian, Kiswahili, Italian, latin, Greek) Q: Where has your language taken you (to live, to work, to study)? The American continent, the African continent and Europe so far. Q: Which places (abroad or in the US) are "your places," besides Swarthmore? Oak-Park, Long Island, Paris, Grenoble, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Q: Name one course you love to teach, and why. FR12L , I like to see how the students discover some of the genres that are less known to them, such as poetry. But I do love the Honors seminar because of the deep engagement and participation of students who are ready for challenging discussions and discoveries. Q: Describe a book or article you have written and what you learned from writing it. Co-editing "Post-Colonial Subjects, Francophone Women Writers" with my colleagues was a very challenging, enriching and fulfilling experience\; it was like having an intense seminar and enjoying every discussion we had in order to conceive and achieve our project. W e also got to know and appreciate each other. We also had wonderful meals during those many week end meetings. Q: If you had to choose one image to decorate your office door, what would it be? la Soufrière, the active volcano in Guadeloupe. Q: If you could choose the visual images; films; works of literature; songs that would travel into space on the next Voyager to represent humanity to the universe, which would you choose? Cahier d'un retour au pays natal and Discours sur le colonialisme by Aimé Césaire. Gershwin's Summertime. Q: What is much better in Francophone culture than anything you see in the US? Taking time to live, work, eat and truly enjoy what one does. Q: What do you appreciate most about Swarthmore? The diversity of the students, the relatively small classes being able to easily get to know colleagues from other disciplines Q: What is the role of french in the North America? French can help students discover not only some of the French speaking places in Europe, the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean, but also and most importantly the cultures of Africa and the Islamic world which should be of great interest particularly to people in the USA. Q: Describe student projects or a paper that you thought was really great. Semi creative final projects from poetry classes and FR 12L classes in general; the discussions from my theatre seminar in the fall of 99. Q: What are our most interesting recent alumni/ae doing with French? teaching at universities and high schools, museums jobs, graduate studies in Caribbean and African and French studies, humanitarian jobs all over the world, working in the art world, etc... Q: What other disciplines have you studied, and how do they contribute to your work with French? languages,literatures, philosophy, history, the arts, which are the backbone for my discipline.