NeMLA

2024, Boston, NY, March 7-10

I. Bodily Excesses (Session 1 of 2)
Organizer: Anne Brancky, Vassar College
Chair: Mathilde Savard-Corbeil, Duke University

• "Le corps et la judéité : le cas d'Esther Brandeau." Marcin Janczak, University of Toronto.
• "Ernaux, Beauvoir, and the Ethics of Being an Object of Desire." Barbara Halla, Duke University.
• "Autotheory of the Body: Excess and Limits in Quebec Feminist Literature." Mathilde Savard-Corbeil, Duke University.
• "The Maternal as Excess: Julia Kristen and Simone de Beauvoir." Ashley Bycykowski, Nardin Academy.

II. Bodily Excesses (Session 2 of 2)
Organizer: Anne Brancky, Vassar College
Chair: Cyrielle Faivre, University of Calgary

• "'Sans queue ni tête' : (lg)Noble Burlesque in Le Grand Bal de la douairière de Billebahaut." Lisa Kostus, Harvard University.
• "Prayer to (Her) Moon: Fatima Elayoubi's Re/Articulation of Immigrée Bodies." Aishwarya Marathe, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
• "Prattling in the Birthing Chamber: Les Caquets de l'accouchée (1622)." Kathryn Bastin, Eckerd College.

III. French Programs as Surplus: Communicating Our Value
Organizer and Chair: E. Nicole Meyer, Augustana University

• "In Defense of Uselessness." Annabel Kim, Harvard University.
• "French, Interdisciplinarity, and Community-engaged Learning: Value Added Strategies." Mary Rice-DeFosse, Bates College.
• "Communicating French's Value: Highlighting the Transferable Leadership Skills We Teach." E. Nicole Meyer, Augusta University.
• "Minor Power: Parlaying the Value of Language Studies Through its Inherent Complementarity." Andrew Stafford, Lycoming College.

2023, Niagara Falls, NY, March 23-26

I. Writing After Trauma: Narratives of Resilience and/or Resistance? (Session 1 of 3)
Chair: Adrienne Angelo, Auburn University

• "Resilience, Resistance, and Reconciliation in Maryam Madjidi's Autofictions." Adrienne Angelo, Auburn University.
• "Resilience, Survival, and Immigration in the Writing of Marie-Célie Agnant and Edwidge Danticat." Danica Guerra, University of North Texas.
• "Writing as a Key to Resilience in the Unpublished Memoir of Dr. Mireille Zonis." Joan Listernick, Boston University.
• "Mutability and Resilience in Fatou Diome's 'Le visage de l'emploi'." Elizabeth Woods, Boston University.

II. Writing After Trauma: Narratives of Resilience and/or Resistance? (Session 2 of 3)
Chair: Adrienne Angelo, Auburn University

• "After the Quake: Lake, Coup and Contre-coup in Yanick Lahens' Failles." Lyna Ami Ali, Emory University.
• "Writing for Resilience, Silence as Resistance: Elsa Fottorino's Narrative of Rape Trauma." Rachel Lehmann, University of Kent.
• "Working Through? Or Reworking? Explorations of Trauma in the Novels of Gisele Pineau." Daphne McConnell, Benedictine College.
• "Vanessa Springora's Le Consentement: Not Your Grandfather's Fairy Tale." Elizabeth Woods, Boston University.
• "Anne Gorouben's 100, boulevard du Montparnasse: Investigation through Enactment." Arwa Reda, University of Minnesota Twin Cities.
• "Trauma et agentivité dans L'Événement (2000) d'Annie Ernaux." Hannah Holland, University of Toronto.

III. Writing After Trauma: Narratives of Resilience and/or Resistance? (Session 3 of 3)
Chair: Adrienne Angelo, Auburn University

• "Rethinking the Testimonial Model: Insights Gleaned from Assia Djebar's Œuvre." Hanan Aly, Michigan State University.
• "La visualisation numérique des sentiments dans les Mémoires de Madame Roland." Justyna Czader, Purdue University.
• "To Write and to be Written: Writing and the Female Body in Marie-Célie Agnant and Nina Bouraoui." Alexandra Goldych, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• "Échapper l'étouffement : le journal intime dans le roman québécois juif." Marcin Janczak, University of Toronto.
• "Collective Mourning and Memorializing: Varda as Artist and Widow in Les Veuves de Noirmoutier." Xinyi Wang, Cambridge University.

IV. Gendered Resilience in Prison Writing
Chair: Anne Brancky, Vassar College

• "Prison and Patriarchy in Riz noir by Anna Moï." Serena Tien, Cornell University.
• "The Soul and the Imprisoned Body in Tahar Ben Jelloun's Cette aveuglante absence de lumière." Xiaoxi Li, Pennsylvania State University University Park.
• "'Je n'étais rien': Performance and Self-Fashioning in the Prison Writing of Marguerite de Launay." Jack Murphy, University of Texas at Austin.
• "Albertine Sarrazin: Uncommon Kinship Beyond Prison Walls." Anne Brancky, Vassar College.

V. Writing and Lived Resilience in the French-Language Graphic Novel
Chair: Anne Brancky, Vassar College

• "Resilient History in the Graphic Mode: Raphaël Meyssan's Les Damnés de la Commune." Rosemarie Scullion, University of Iowa.
• "Female Migrant Resistance in Alpha: Abidjan-Gare du Nord." Agnès Shauffauser, University of North Florida.
• "'Elle a des couilles': Power, Race, and Gender in Queenie: La Marraine de Harlem." Marda Messay, Simmons College.

2022, Baltimore, Maryland, March 10-13

I. Women and the Invisible Labor of Care in French-language Literature and Film (Part 1 of 2)
Chair: Anne Brancky, Vassar College

• "Domestic Distortion: Staging Invisibility and Exploitation in Marie NDiaye’s Hilda." Matthew Rodriguez, Harvard University.
• "Refusing to Take Care: The Rejection of Family Duty in French Contemporary Theater." Morgan Callan Stinson, Catholic University of America.
• "Le paradoxe du care dans les romans feel good." Cecile Lebleu, Tulane University.
• "Found in Time: Film Editor Nelly Quettier and the Ellipsis Device." Maya Sidhu, University of California, Berkeley.

II. Women and the Invisible Labor of Care in French-language Literature and Film (Part 2 of 2)
Chair: Anne Brancky, Vassar College

• "The Invisible Birth Mother." Anne Brancky, Vassar College.

• "Cloister, Confinement, and Care." Youna Kwak, University of Redlands.

• "Medicine Women: Flowers and Periods in Renaissance France." Pauline Goul, George Washington University.

III. Professional Issues around Gender, Work and Care (Roundtable)
Chair: Anne Brancky, Vassar College

• "Childcare and Tenure: How COVID has Affected TT Positions at Research Institutions." Aubrey Gabel, Columbia University.
• " 'There is No Pandemic': The Lack of Options for Caregivers in a 'Post-Pandemic' World." Colleen Clemens, Kutztown University.
• "Intersectional Academic Work." Iwona Sadowska, Georgetown University.
• "Leaving the 'Work' Behind: A Complication of Work and Exploration of Care." Alessia Servin, Western University.

IV. Maternal Care in Contemporary Québécois Fiction
Chair: Anne Brancky, Vassar College
Chair: Sara Giguère, Université de Montréal

• "Househusbands and Crime-Solving New Moms: Maternal Care in the Contemporary Graphic Novel." Aubrey Gabel, Columbia University.
• "Comment avouer que ma mère était ma maladie?': The Chronotope(s) of the Patient." Cristina Robu, Indiana University-Bloomington.
• "Un geyser dans le ventre' : Woman versus Mother in Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette's La femme qui fuit." Olivia Choplin, Elon University.

2021 Virtual Special Sessions

I. Visual Africa: Francophone Women's Aesthetic Representations of Africa (Roundtable)
Chair: Anna Rocca, Salem State University

• "Women’s Subjectivity and Contemporary Video Art: The Lens of Fatou Kandé Senghor." Joseph Underwood, Kent State University.

• "Mille Soleils (Thousand Suns) from Mati Diop, an Aesthetic of the Interstice." Farah Clémentine Dramani-Issifou, Celsa Paris Sorbonne.

• "Through Mati Diop’s Eyes: Representing Social and Gender Realities of Women in Senegal." Caroline Laurent, King’s College-London.

• "Blackness, Citizenship, and Beauty in Mariannes Noires." Maria Sinon, University of California, Irvine.

• "‘Tunisian Women of the Book’." Anna Rocca, Salem State University.

II. Francophone African Women Writers Embracing Eco-feminism (Part 1of 2)
Chair: Anna Rocca, Salem State University

• "Narrating Environment and ‘Development’ in Ken Bugul’s Aller et Retour." Mary-Kay Miller, Salem State University.
• "(Un)becoming Human: Female and Vegetal bodies in the Work of Yamina Mechakra and Samira Negrouche." Abigail Fields, Yale University.
• "Double Oppression Ecofeminist Narrative Strategy in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions." Najwa Ahmed, American University.

III. Francophone African Women Writers Embracing Eco-feminism (Part 2 of 2)
Chair: Mouhamedoul Niang, Colby College

• "From Ndakaaru to Dakar: Eco-feminist Flâneries in Ken Bugul’s Cacophonie and Aller et retour." Hapsatou Wane, Georgia Southern University.
• "Deterritorialization and Defamiliarization in Léonora Miano’s Ecotopias" Thomas Muzart, Colby College.
• "Ce que murmurent les collines (Scholastique Mukasonga): An Ecological Memory." Ninon Vessier, Emory University.
• "Waste, Governance, and Nature: Engaging with Environmental Issues in Festins de la détresse." Mouhamedoul Niang, Colby College.