Associate Professor of French
Languages, Literatures and Cultures
I teach courses in French language at the beginning, intermediate and advanced levels. My advances courses cover the areas of Francophone literatures, cinema and cultures, immigration in France and the study of Blackness in American novels, and French poetry. I always challenge my students to overcome the barrier that stigmatizes African creations, and their alleged inaccessibility for non-Africans.
Education
Ph.D., Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge
Courses Taught
- French for beginners
- Intermediate French II
- Introduction To The Francophone World
- Francophone Literatures
- Francophone Poetry
- Immigration in France: Les Identit茅s 贵谤补苍肠辞辫丑辞辫茅谤颈辩耻别蝉
- Francophone African Cinema Ethnicity in black literatures
Research Interests
My research deals with the expression of tradition in West African novels, envisioned within the parameters of African writers鈥 鈥渄ual nature鈥 allegedly 鈥渞ooted鈥 in ancestral tradition and Western style literacy. I question the nature of tradition and orality in African fictional novels and surmise that these concepts function as the reminiscence of the exotic representation of the non-European 鈥淥ther鈥, invented by ethnographers and adopted by African critics as the explanation of African exceptionalities.
Publications
In my incoming book, I argue that West African novels represent, in their very nature, a departure from oral tradition as they fully assume literacy and multiple traditions as characteristics of the post-colonial Africa. I therefore suggest that what is defined as 鈥渙rality鈥 in African literature could be better defined as a strategy of 鈥渄茅蝉茅肠谤颈迟耻谤别鈥 of the dynamic integration of disparate cultural elements throughout African history.