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Our Graduate Students and Alumni

Meet our current graduate students

Rick Adle

Graduate Assistant I, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Graduate Student, French

4220 Jiménez Hall
College Park MD, 20742

Luigi De Luca

Graduate Student, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Graduate Student, French

1210 P Marie Mount Hall
College Park MD, 20742

(301) 405-1013

Theavy Din

Graduate Assistant II, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Graduate Student, French

4220 Jiménez Hall
College Park MD, 20742

Rachid Jaafar

Graduate Assistant II, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Graduate Student, French

4220 Jiménez Hall
College Park MD, 20742

Charlotte Joublot Ferré

Graduate Assistant II, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Graduate Student, French

4220 Jiménez Hall
College Park MD, 20742

Apolline Lagarde

Graduate Student, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Graduate Assistant II, French

4220 Jiménez Hall
College Park MD, 20742

Madeline Muravchik

Graduate Assistant III, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Graduate Student, French

4220 Jiménez Hall
College Park MD, 20742

Inaam Ngadi

Graduate Assistant III, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Graduate Student, French

4220 Jiménez Hall
College Park MD, 20742

French alumni dissertations and job placement

2023

Samuel Blank

Dissertation title: "Hidden Spirituality: Marginalized Desire in the Works of Albert Cohen".
Advisor: Andrea Frisch
Current position: Instructor, San Diego French-American School and Alliance Française de San Diego

Léandra Cormier

Dissertation title: “La malgachisation du théâtre: au croisement des traditions autochtones et des expérimentations théâtrales entre les années 1950 aux années 1990”.
Advisor: Valerie Orlando
Current Position: Director of the Language House, Goucher College

Elizabeth Robinson

Dissertation title: "Gynocolonial Legacies: Lasting Influences of the French Founding Mothers in North America"
Advisor: Mercédès Baillargeon
Current position: Instructor of French, United States Military Academy West Point

2021

Charlee Bezilla

Dissertation title: “Fictions of Hybridity in the Anthropocene: Literature and Science in the Work of Rétif de La Bretonne”
Advisor: Sarah Benharrech
Current position: Visiting Assistant Professor, George Washington University

2022

Jillian Bruns

Dissertation title: The New Medusas: The Rewriting of Misogynistic Myth in 21st-Century French (Feminist) Literature and Cinema
Advisor: Mercédès Baillargeon
Current position: Lecturer, École catholique d'Arts et Métiers, Lyon, France

Morgan McMahon

Dissertation title: The Rejection of Cruel Optimism in French Contemporary Theater: Trois Pièces d’Initiation
Advisor: Caroline Eades
Current position: Clinical Assistant Professor, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC

2019

Cae Joseph-Massena

Dissertation title: Le texte èziliphonique : ‘Penser la voix’ dans la fiction de romancières haïtiennes contemporaines : La Danse sur le volcan de Marie Vieux-Chauvet, Le Livre d’Emma de Marie-Célie Agnant et Fado de Kettly Mars
Advisors: Valérie Orlando and Yolaine Parisot (cotutelle Université Paris-Est Créteil)
Current position: Assistant Professor, U of Miami, Miami, FL

Sophie Dali Vigeant

Dissertation title: Écriture et imaginaire : poétique de l’identité dans l’œuvre de Nina Bouraoui
Advisor: Pierre Verdaguer

2018

Annmarie Daly Ruppert

Dissertation title: Resiliency and Hope, Vengeance and Recovery: Representing "Survivance" After the Trauma of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide in the Testimonies of Esther Mujawayo, Yolande Mukagasana, and Révérien Rurangwa
Advisor: Valerie Orlando
Current position: Academy/Assistant Professor, US Military Academy at West Point, NY; Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army

Khady Diene

Dissertation title: De la littérature universaliste senghorienne au tout-monde de Glissant : Métissage et dialogue des cultures dans l’écriture de Fatou Dioma, Alain Mabanckou, Gaston Kelman et Aminata Sow Fall
Advisor: Valerie Orlando
Current position: Lecturer (full-time), Howard University, Washington, DC and teach part-time at Montgomery College

Cécile Ruel

Dissertation title: Politique, poétique, philosophique: le récit de voyage de Simone de Beauvoir aux États-Unis
Advisor: Joseph Brami
Current position: Teaching Assistant Professor of French, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Hannah Wegmann

Dissertation title: In Search of the City: Power, Identity, and Narratives of Urbanization from Stendhal to Zola
Advisor: Joseph Brami
Current position: Undergraduate Student Advisor, University of Maryland, College Park, MD

2016

Phuong Hoang

Dissertation title: The Sword and the Pen: Life Writings by Militant-Authors of the Viet Minh and Front de Libération Nationale (FLN)
Advisor: Valerie Orlando
Current position: Research Faculty, National Intelligence University, Washington, DC

Anne-Marie Lanz

Dissertation title: “Je ne vous dirai point, mon trés cher fils”: Correspondance de Catherine de Charriére de Sévery 1780-1783
Advisor: Sarah Benharrech
Current position: Teacher, Burleigh Manor Middle School, Ellicott City, MD

2015

Anne Rehill

Dissertation title: Coureurs de Bois, Backwoodsmen as Ecocritical Motif in Four Works of French Canadian Literature
Advisor: Valerie Orlando
Current position: Independent Scholar, Writer, Editor

2014

Cybele Arnaud

Dissertation title: Briller sur scène: L’Astronomie dans le théâtre du grand Siècle
Advisor: Hervé-Thomas Campangne
Current position: Clinical Assistant Professor, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC

CJ Gomolka

Dissertation title: Shades of Gay: Representations of Male Same-Sex Desire in French Literature, Culture, and Ideology from 1789-1926
Advisor: Valerie Orlando
Current position: Associate Professor, Depauw University, Greencastle, IN

Marilyn Matar

Dissertation title: Les Représentations littéraires de la guerre civile libanaise: pour une poétique du lien
Advisor: Joseph Brami
Current position: Language House Director, University of Maryland, College Park, MD

2013

Julia Frengs

Dissertation title: Writing Oceanic Bodies: Corporeal Representations in the Works of Déwé Gorodé, Claudine Jacques, and Chantal T. Spitz
Advisor: Valerie Orlando
Current position: Associate Professor at University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE

Erica Maria Cefalo

Dissertation title: Redefining Religion through Literature in Nineteenth Century France
Advisor: Joseph Brami
Current position: Undergraduate Student Advisor, University of California, Davis, CA

Raluca Romaniuc

Dissertation title: Ethique de l'irréparable. Lecture de l'exil cioranien
Advisor: Joseph Brami
Current position: Assistant Professor, Undergraduate Student Advisor, George Mason University, VA

2012

Silvia Baage

Dissertation title: Rewriting The French Colonial Topos Of The Island In The Works Of Marie Ferranti, Jean-François Samlong, and Chantal Spitz
Advisor: Caroline Eades
Current position: Lecturer, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC

Nermine Elhaddad

Dissertation title: (Re)Négociations des frontières: Pensée du monde et discours sur la modernité chez Jean D'Ormesson
Advisor: Pierre Verdaguer
Current position: Lecturer, University of Alexandria, Egypt

2011

Aissatou Diop-Hashim

Dissertation title: Sanni Kaddu : À la redécouverte du discours féministe au Sénégal
Advisor: Valerie Orlando
Current position: Training Instructor, Department of State, Washington, DC

2010

Dorothée Polanz

Dissertation title: La Théâtralité: Analyse d'une notion critique à travers trois média et époques (roman, peinture et cinéma au XVIIIe, XIXe et XXe siècles)
Advisor: Hervé-Thomas Campangne
Current position: Associate Professor, James Madison University, VA

Sandhya Bodapati

Dissertation title: Apologies in French: An Analysis of Remedial Discourse Strategies Used by L1 Speakers
Advisor: Lindsay Yotsukura
Current position: Instructor, Kingsway College School, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Séverine Rebourcet

Dissertation title: Les Voix du volcan : l'écriture du mal-être dans le roman féminin de l'Île de la Reunion
Advisor: Valerie Orlando
Current position: Assistant Professor, College of Mount Saint Vincent, Riverdale, NY

Mary Cobb Wittrock

Dissertation title: Chaotic Topography in Contemporary French and Francophone Literature
Advisor: Caroline Eades
Current position: French Teacher, George C. Marshall High School, Falls Church, VA

2008

Elena Lozinsky

Dissertation title: Les Carafes dans la Vivonne : l’emploi intertextuel des genres littéraires fin-de-siècle dans À la Recherche du temps perdu
Advisor: Joseph Brami
Current position: Lecturer, SLLC, French, Russian, University of Maryland, College Park, MD; Literary Translator

Sheila Turek

Dissertation: In the Margins: Representations of Otherness in Subtitled French Films
Advisor: Caroline Eades
Current position: Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin, Whitewater

2007

Virginie Cassidy

Dissertation: Les enjeux du divertissement dans les Nouvelles françaises de Jean Regnault de Segrais
Advisor: Hervé-Thomas Campangne
Current position: Director, Center for World Languages and Cultures, University of Denver

Edward Dawley

Dissertation: Regards français sur l'Amérique: de l'entre-deux-guerres à la Guerre froide
Advisor: Pierre Verdaguer
Current position: Associate Professor, Delaware State University, DE

Theresa Kennedy

Dissertation: Françoise Pascal's "Agathonphile martyr, tragi-comédie": An Annotated Critical Edition
Advisor: Hervé-Thomas Campangne
Current position: Full Professor, Baylor University, TX

2005

Zacharie Nzepa Petnkeu

Dissertation: Cinéma et mythes dans l’espace francophone : les représentations des figures historiques dans les films d’Afrique noire et des Antilles
Advisor: Eileen Julien
Current position: Associate Professor, Concordia College, Moorhead, MN ; retired

Safoi Babana-Hampton

Dissertation: La ‘nouvelle’ littérature marocaine de langue française et l’espace public : le cas d’Abdellatif Laabi
Advisor: Eileen Julien
Current position: Associate Professor, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI

2001

Suzanne LaLonde-Romano

Associate Professor, University of Texas, Brownsville, TX

Cecile Hanania

Professor, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA