Education

• 1987-1994: Ph. D. in French, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor: Major field of concentration: Twentieth Century French and Francophone Literatures; Minor Field: Women's Studies
• 1985-1987: M.A. in French, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• 1983-1985: Licence-ès-Lettres, The University of Grenoble, Grenoble, France
• 1984: Scuola di Lingua Michelangelo Buonarroti, summer course in Florence, Italy
• 1979-1983: B.A., magna cum laude, Northern Michigan University: Double major: French and English

Recently Taught Courses

• French and Francophone Film 
• Literary Translation, Theory and Practice
• Odysseys: Travel Writing in French
• Introduction to Reading French Texts

Research Interests

Postcolonial Literature, Theory, and Film, Translation Studies, Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies, Gender Studies

Recent Publications

Amkoullel, The Fula Boy (translation of Amkoullel: L’Enfant peul, Volume I of the Memoirs of Amadou Hampâté Bâ, with scholarly introduction by Jeanne Garane and preface by Ralph Austen. Duke University Press, 2021. For more information, and to order the book directly from Duke University Press at a 50% discount (valid until October 15th, 2021 with the coupon Fall21) please visit https://www.dukeupress.edu/amkoullel-the-fula-boy and enter the coupon code Fall21 during checkout. Amkoullel, the Fula Boy was recently listed on the NYTimes online list of new translations. 

Published:
The Leopard Boy. Daniel Picouly's 1994 Prix Renaudot novel, L'Enfant léopard Paris; Grasset, 1999.  University of Virginia Press. January, 2016.

Abdourahman Waberi’s short story collection, Le pays sans ombre  (The Land Without Shadows). CARAF Books. University of Virginia Press, 2005. Includes introduction.

Organized the republication of  Marjolijn de Jager’s out of print 1994 translation of Ken Bugul’s Abandoned Baobab: The Autobiography of a Senegalese Woman Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008. (Includes afterword) 

Edited Books
FRENCH LITERATURE SERIES Volume XLII: Hybrid Genres/L’Hybridité des genres Contains a brief introduction and 11 essays. Amsterdam: Brill/Rodopi, 2018. 

FRENCH LITERATURE SERIES Volume XLI: Odysseys: Travel Narratives in French/Odyssées: Récits de voyage en langue française BRILL/RODOPI, 2017) Contains a brief introduction and 15 essays, 244 pages

Discursive Geographies: Writing Space and Place in French/Géographies Discursives: L’écriture de l’espace et du lieu en français. (Anthology). Amsterdam: Rodopi,  2005. Includes introduction (see list of publications)

Fellowships

Camargo Foundation Fellowship for Amkoullel, The Fula Boy

NEH Summer Institute, University of Illinois, June-July 2013 , The Centrality of Translation to the Humanities: New Interdisciplinary Scholarship 

NEH Summer Institute, “Black Film Studies: Integrating African American Film into the Arts and Humanities Curriculum” University of Central Florida July 6-31, 1999

NEH Summer Institute, "French Cultural Studies: Identities, Communities, and Cultural Practices," Northwestern University June-July 1995