RUMIA ABLEEVA
Personal Web Page | rxa180@psu.edu

MICHAEL AMORY
mda5004@psu.edu

Michael hails from Erie, PA, and is completing his M.A. in French Linguistics through the Integrated Undergrated-Graduate (IUG) Program. His research interests lie in Theoretical Linguistics, in particular, the syntactic-semantic interfaces. However, as of recent, has become more interested in the Applied aspects of Linguistics.

CEDRIC BRIAND
cub162@psu.edu

Cedric hails from Dijon, France, where he obtained a Master’s Degree in Langue et Littérapture des Civilisations Étrangères from the Université de Bourgogne. Raised in Burgundy and spending much time in Brittany as well, he was influenced by these environments’ Medievalism and Celtic culture, gaining an appreciation for various cultural genres such as fantasy, Gothic art, and Arthurian lore. His master’s thesis examined concepts of the masculine hero and its evolution from old epic to 20th-Century fantasy. Participating in exchanges with Brown University and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, led him to decide to pursue graduate studies in the American academic system, leading him to PSU. His current interests are in medieval studies, focusing especially on Arthuriana from original Welsh epic texts to Chrétien de Troyes to 20th- and 21st-Centuryfrancophone novel representations of the Arthurian stream, including the bande-dessinée among other popular cultural forms.

LAURA CALL
lmk266@psu.edu

Laura came to Penn State in 2006 after earning a B.A. in Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia and a B.A. in French at Clemson University. She completed her M.A. in French and Applied Linguistics in 2008, after which she participated in the department's teaching exchange in Lyon. Laura is currently transitioning to literature and civilisation where her interests include French environmental history, philosophy and justice in 20th-Century literature, art and film.

AMANDA J. DALOLA
ajd266@psu.edu

Since completing her M.A. in French Linguistics at Penn State in 2006, Amanda has been a grad student at large, teaching English at the Université Marc Bloch in Strasbourg and reveling in the semi-charmed Alsatian Sprachbünde. A die-hard linguist, her research interests include Scandinavian Languages, Romance Phonology, Lab Phonetics and Historical Linguistics. Hailing from the inland north dialect of upstate New York, she earned her B.A. in linguistics and English at Cornell University, where she not only learned the true value of 'merry', 'marry', and 'Mary, but also picked up the dirty habit of laxing front vowels before [l]. In her free time, she enjoys decorating, playing songs on repeat and modeling herself after the Golden Girls.

LUKE L. EILDERTS
Personal Web Page | lle117@psu.edu

Luke is a fifth-year ABD student working towards his Ph.D. in French civilization. He came to Penn State after having received his B.A. in French and German from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Since earning his M.A. in French Literature in 2003, Luke has participated in the exchange with Marc Bloch University in Strasbourg twice, as well as having returned to the Alsatian capital for month-long research trips during the summers of 2007 and 2008. His work focuses on the intersection of language, gender, and citizenship within contemporary French culture and his dissertation examines these themes through the lens of Gay Pride in France, with a spotlight on Alsace.

ZAC HAGINS
Personal Web Page | zrh106@psu.edu

Zac is a Ph.D. candidate in civilization. He earned his B.A. in French, B.S.B.A. in International Economics, and M.A. in French from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. During the 2006-07 academic year, he served as a Lecteur d'anglais at the Université du Maine in Le Mans, and he is currently participating in the department's exchange program, serving as a lecteur at the Université Lumière - Lyon 2. His research interests include photography and self-representation, Maghrebian and sub-Saharan literature and culture as well as education and identity issues in immigrant communities in France. His dissertation focuses on photographic representations of the French banlieues since the 2005 riots. He has presented papers at the Nineteenth-Century French Studies Colloquium and at a conference on "Humanising Photography" at the Centre for Advanced Photography Studies at Durham University in England.

BRANDY HANCOCK
Personal Web Page | bnb134@psu.edu

Brandy is a Ph.D. student in French literature. She completed her B.A. in French at Middle Tennessee State University in 2006 and was an assistante de langue anglaise in Tours, France. Since completing her M.A. in French literature at Penn State in 2009, she has been working on research projects involving the fantastic and the concept of genre in medieval narrative and has presented papers at the International Congress on Medieval Studies and Nineteenth-Century French Studies. In her free time, she enjoys going to the gym, watching films, and traveling.

HELENE HUET
hih103@psu.edu

Hélène is a second-year Master's student. She was a teaching assistant in Indiana in 2005-2006 and completed her undergraduate studies in English, with a specialization in American Civilization from the Université Lille 3. She also taught English for a year at a lycée and a collège in France before coming to Penn State. Her research interests are women, their sexuality, motherhood, and birth control. She also enjoys going to movies, travelling, and reading with a peppermint hot chocolate.

SOPHIA KHADRAOUI
sgk124@psu.edu

Sophia is a first-year Ph.D. student in Francophone studies. She earned an M.A. in American Civilization with a specialization in African-American History from La Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris III. The past two years she also served as a French teaching assistant at Susquehanna University and Bucknell University. Her research interests include identity and race issues in Caribbean literature. She enjoys travelling around the world and is fond of photography.

DEIRDRE MCANALLY
Personal Web Page | dmm443@psu.edu

Deirdre is an ABD student in French literature. She has presented papers at various conferences (Queen's College, Belfast; Oxford University; Université de Nancy) on topics related to nineteenth- and seventeenth-century literature. She has a forthcoming article on Rotrou's La Belle Alphrède. Her areas of interest are Naturalism and literary theory (narrative, ecocriticism, space, feminist literary theory). In her spare time, she enjoys taking her cocker spaniel, Lucie, for long walks. She hails from Tennesse, Idaho, Seattle, and Boulder, among other places.

JEANNETTE MILLER
jem395@psu.edu

Jeannette is a Ph.D. candidate in Civilization. Her research interests include colonial and post-colonial immigration to France, memoirs written about the Algerian War for Independence and the experiences of Algerian immigrants living in France, and the French colonial empire and its decolonization. She spent the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 academic years in Paris, Aix-en-Provence, and Perpignan conducting research for her dissertation, "Algerian, French, Rapatriés, Refugees, Immigrants? The Harkis and the French Post-Imperial Nation-State (1962-2008)." She earned her B.A. from the University of Virginia and her M.A. from New York University's Institute of French Studies. In her free time, she enjoys playing and watching tennis, listening to all kinds of music, watching foreign films, and visiting friends all over the US and the globe.

SHUREKA CANNON NYAWALO
stc139@psu.edu

Shureka is currently a second-year Ph.D. student. Originally from Aurora, Illinois (about 39 miles west of Chicago, one of the far-west suburbs), she attended Truman State University in Missouri, earning a BA in French in 2004. During her sophomore year at Truman, she spent one semester at l'Université Catholique de l'Ouest in Angers, France. After graduation, she spent one academic year at l'Université de Genève in Geneva, Switzerland, before coming to Penn State in the fall of 2005. In August 2007, Shureka earned her Master's in French with a specialty in linguistics from Penn State. She spent the 2008-2009 academic year as a lectrice d'anglais in Montpellier, France through the department's teaching exchange with the Université Paul Valéry - Montpellier III. During her free time, she enjoys hanging out with friends, watching movies, engaging in conversation, and playing games. She loves to travel and tries to leave the country on vacation as often as her wallet and coursework will allow!

FABRICE PICON
fxp138@psu.edu

FLEUR PRADE
Personal Web Page | fap116@psu.edu

Fleur is in her seventh year at Penn State working on her dissertation. Her research interests are contemporary France since 1980 and French politics concentrated in the Fifth Republic. She has presented papers on the Parity Law in France and the Feminization of Professional Titles in French. She also loves working on non-literary translations. She was born in Paris, France but grew up in Sarasota, Florida. She completed her B.A. at the University of Delaware and her M.A. at Middlebury College.

DENISE RODRIGUEZ
dnr120@psu.edu

SANDRA ROUSSEAU
ser217@psu.edu

Sandra is a second-year Master's student. She arrived at Penn State in 2007 as the exchange student from Lyon II where she completed her master's degree in American civilization. Her research interests are linked to French memory, and all fields which are linked to it (devoir de memoire, memoire vs. histoire...). In her free time, she enjoys photography and cooking.

PATRICIA A. SIEWE
pus136@psu.edu

SANDRINE SIMEON
sps211@psu.edu

Sandrine is a Ph.D.student. Born in France, she completed her undergraduate studies at Paris III and earned a Master's degree in cinema from Concordia University in Montréal. Endeavoring to experience the film industry first-hand, she played different roles behind the camera on several features in Canada. Her research at PSU focuses on the various practices of filming theater and the teaching methods of theater through film. Her interests also include creative writing as well as the interactions between French cinema and culture.

ANDREW STAFFORD
ars322@psu.edu

Andrew is a second-year Master's student. His interest lies predominantly in 19th-Century French Literature (especially the works of Gustave Flaubert...especially Madame Bovary!). Whenever he can find time, Andrew loves to escape to New York city to see a show or shop and just take it all in.

AMANDA SHOAF VINCENT
Personal Web Page | aas195@psu.edu

Amanda came to Penn State as an M.A. student in 2000 after earning a B.A. in Literary and Cultural Studies at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. She is looking forward to defending her dissertation, which focuses on parks created within Paris from 1977 to 2001, in Fall 2009. Her research interests include landscape history and theory, contemporary French architecture and urban design, and twentieth-century art and literature. She loves spending time in France, most recently in Paris on a Chateaubriand research fellowship but also as a lectrice d'anglais at the Université Lyon II-Lumière in 2002-03, and as a student in Montpellier (1998-99). In her spare time, she enjoys photography, traveling, and cooking, and has recently started gardening.

YING WANG
yzw115@psu.edu

Ying is an ABD student in French literature and women's studies. Her dissertation focuses on the representation of problematic body in nineteenth-century women's writings. Her research interests include feminist theory, body theory, narratology, women's history, and translation theory and practice. She earned an M.A. in French literature from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Before she came to the United State, she received an M.A. in literary translation from Dalian University of Foreign Languages in China. The book she translated into Chinese, Pierre Daix's La vie quotidienne des surrealists 1917-1932, was published in China in 2005. She is spending the spring semester of 2009 in Paris doing dissertation research. During her free time, she enjoys playing with her beloved little daughter Diane.

RACHEL I. WILLIAMS
rlw233@psu.edu

Rachel is an ABD student in French literature, studying 19th-century literature and concentrating on women writers and translation studies. She received her B.A. in anthropology at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, in 2002 and her M.A. in comparative literature in 2004 at Binghamton University through the Translation Research and Instruction Program/Center for Research in Translation, where she also received a certificate in literary and non-literary translation and worked as a translator and administrator at the Translation Referral Service. She spent the 2007-08 academic year in Lyon, teaching and doing research.