Our Graduate Students and Alumni

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, Mesa College

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