Research Areas:
French, Caribbean, Chicana/o, Multilingual Literature, and Mediating Literature, particularly in relation to immigration and identity construction.
Teaching Areas:
Entry-level Composition, Advanced Composition, Business Writing, Listening and Speaking, First-year French, French Linguistics, Research Writing, and 20th and 21st-century Humanities.
Biography:
I earned my PhD in Comparative Literature from University of California Davis, specializing in French, Caribbean, Chicanx, and multilingual literatures. I also received a Masters degree in Comparative Literature from San Francisco State University, where I pursued an additional interest in sociolinguistics. My research interest focuses on Mediating Literature, a novel genre in which the author’s implied intent is to negotiate relationships between members of conflicting cultures resulting from immigration.
As a daughter of a French immigrant mother who had to relearn her maternal language, I find that I can especially appreciate the challenges our multilingual students face, especially our international students who work so hard to get a college degree in a foreign language.
For all my students, I love breaking down the belief I hear so often: “I’m just not a good writer.” I believe all my students have the capability of being good writers – writing takes practice and perseverance pays off.
Education:
Ph.D in Comparative Literature at UC Davis
MA in Comparative Literature at San Francisco State University
BA in Liberal Arts at San Francisco State University
AA in Early Childhood Education (1998)
Publications:
"Defiance Through Language: Code-switching strategies in Patrick Chamoiseau’s Chronique des sept misères" Defying the Global Language: Perspectives in Ethnic Studies. Ed. Cheryl Toman. Teneo Press, 2013.
"Tangled Voices: multilingualism at work in Patrick Chamoiseau's Chronique des sept misères." Antillanité, créolité, littérature-monde. Eds. Isabelle Constant, Kahiudi C. Mabana, and Philip Nanton. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013.
Degoul, Franck. "We are the mirror of your fears": Haitian Identity and Zombification." Better Off Dead: The Evolution of the Zombie as Post-Human. Trans. Elisabeth M. Lore. Eds. Deborah Christie and Sarah Juliet Lauro. Fordham University Press: New York, 2011.
