My interest in French culture and literature stems from a study abroad experience I had as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania.  Tired of classes and school in general, I went on the only study abroad program available to engineers, which happened to be in Compiègne, France.  I returned to Penn to finish dual degrees in French (which I loved) and engineering (practical). Having experienced the excitement of living in a different culture, I joined the Peace Corps upon graduation, and the next two years found me in Fiji, teaching math and science and living through a military coup. In the end, I opted for what I loved and decided to go to grad school to learn more. My years in France and Fiji forced me to think about interactions between different ethnic groups and cultures, and cultural interaction between Christians and Muslims in the Middle Ages became the topic of my dissertation.

Here at Vanderbilt I am continuing my research on the French Middle Ages, looking at the development of racial consciousness in medieval European literature and the importance of the Middle Ages to modern notions of race. I teach courses in medieval and Renaissance French literature and culture, as well as introductory literature and grammar courses.

Teaching

My teaching style is interactive and largely informal. Students in my classes are encouraged to seek out their own interests and apply them to the language and literature work we do as a class. Group work plays a large role in our in-class work, and I also encourage cooperative learning outside the classroom.

Courses Taught: 

Undergraduate

• French 210 - French and Francophone Cinema
• French 211 - Textes et contextes: des origines à la Révolution
• French 220 - Introduction to French Literature
• French 232 - French Poetry from Villon to Malherbe
• French 234 - Medieval French Literature
• French 294 - Christians, Jews, and Muslims: Dialogues in the Middle Ages
• Film 125 - Introduction to Film Studies
• EUS 235 - Filming World War II

Graduate

• French 101G - French for Reading Knowledge
• French 302 - Histoire de la langue française
• French 332 - La captivité au Moyen âge
• French 394 - Race and Representation

Research

My research tends to read the literary work in its cultural context. I see literary works as artifacts influencing and influenced by the cultures in which they are produced.  I recently published an article on what the use of Muslim characters in a medieval French play can teach us about attitudes toward Crusade, and I have started a study of medieval attitudes toward racial and ethnic difference.

Representative Publications

Books:

Race, Class, and Gender in "Medieval" Cinema. Eds. Lynn Ramey and Tison Pugh. The New Middle Ages Series. (New York: Palgrave, 2007)

Christian, Saracen and Genre in Medieval French Literature (New York: Routledge, 2001)

Selected Recent Articles:

“’La geste que Turoldus declinet’: History and Authorship in Frank Cassenti’s Chanson de Roland (France, 1978).” In Hollywood in the Holy Land: the Fearful Symmetries of Movie Medievalism. Ed. Nickolas Haydock and Edward Risden. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009: 147-160.

“Monstrous Alterity in Early Modern Travel Accounts: Lessons from the Ambiguous Medieval Discourse on Humanness,” Esprit Créateur, 48.1 (2008): 81-95.

"In Praise of Troubadourism: Creating Community in Occupied France, 1942-43" In Race, Class, and Gender in "Medieval" Cinema. Eds. Lynn Ramey and Tison Pugh. New York: Palgrave, 2007.

"The Death of Aude and the Conversion of Bramimonde: Border Pedagogy and Medieval Feminist Criticism." In Approaches to Teaching the Song of Roland Eds. William Kibler and Leslie Zarker Morgan. NY: MLA, 2006, pp. 232-37.

"Laughter and Manhood in Jehan de Saintré (1456)." Fifteenth Century Studies, 31 (2006): 163-74.

"La perception du sarrasin XIe-XIVe siècles: l’image du musulman dans la littérature française" In Histoire de l’islam et des musulmans en France, du Moyen Age à nos jours, aspects religieux, politiques et culturels. Eds. Mohammed Arkoun and Jean Mouttapa. Paris: Albin Michel, 2006: 194-203.