I graduated from
Baylor University in 2005 with a BA in French and International Studies and went on to graduate with a MA in French and Francophone Cultural Studies from the
University of Leeds (UK) in 2007. Currently, I'm a PhD student in the Department of French and Italian at Vanderbilt University. In addition to my core specialization in French Literature, I am minoring in and participating in the Graduate Certificate Program in
Jewish Studies. I also participate in the Queer Theory Reading Group at the
Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities.
My acadmic interests are centered on the histories and narratives of Jewish communities in the French and Francophone world, particularly in the 20th century as well as the relation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to contemporary left-wing Jewish criticism. Some more specific topics within these general areas of interest include:
1) Black and Jewish diasporic connections in the Francophone Caribbean, Francophone Africa and Europe: Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sedar Senghor, Frantz Fanon, Daniel Guerin, André and Simone Schwarz-Bart.
2) "Le mal d'identité" or crisis of identity among French speaking North African Jews during the late colonial period and decolonization (1930-1965). Authors whose work is important for my project include French speaking Algerian Jews such as: Alice Cherki, Hélène Cixous, Jacques Derrida, Benjamin Stora, Daniel Timsit; and French speaking Moroccan and Tunisian Jews: especially Victor Malka and Albert Memmi. I also study the life and work of other North African authors such as Frantz Fanon, Mohammed Harbi, Abdelkebir Khatibi in a comparative way with these Judeo-Franco-Maghrebian authors.
3) Radical Jewish critique of Israeli nationalism and occupation: Joel Kovel, Sara Roy, Ilan Pappe, Jacqueline Rose, Noam Chomsky, Ammiel Alcalay
