Graduate Students
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Chiraz Amani is a PhD candidate in Francophone Studies. She was born in Algeria and has a B.A. in French education, a M.A. in Didactics of French Foreign and Secondary Language from the École Normale Supérieure of Algiers and a M.A. in French from UL Lafayette. Her dissertation focuses on contemporary Algerian literature, and more specifically on the concept of literary Algerianness in novels published after the civil war. After three years of teaching in a public high school in Algiers, she was hired in 2020 through CODOFIL as a French teacher in Lafourche parish. She also worked at the Alliance Française de la Nouvelle-Orléans for two years and she’s now a teaching assistant at the Modern Languages department. She's a singer, a theatre comedian, and she likes to write poetry and songs. |
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My name is John Ashburn (ABD) and I am a PhD student and Graduate Teaching Assistant here at UL. I’m originally from Northeast Tennessee, and I completed my undergraduate studies in French & Spanish at Belmont University in Nashville. I’ve been in Lafayette since 2018 working on my Masters of French. I’m primarily interested in spoken & written language as it relates to identity, both individual & communal, particularly within queer, non-normative & non-binary groups of gender & sexual expression. |
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Morgan Beard is a first-year PhD student and Graduate Assistant in the Francophone Studies program. He is originally from Yellow Springs, Ohio, and holds a B.A. in French and a B.S. in Journalism, both from Ohio University. His undergraduate thesis, titled “La Satire Politique et la Liberté de la Presse au 19e Siècle,” covers the early development of political cartoons in France. He has spent time living in Belgium, France, and Tunisia. After two years working as a local newspaper reporter on Massachusetts’ South Coast, he enrolled at UL to further his studies of French language and culture with a focus on political satire and the press. |
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Abigail “Abby” Blair is a PhD student and Graduate Assistant in Francophone Studies and hails from a small mountain town, North Bend, in the cascades of Washington State. Her hometown is famous for the Twin Peaks TV show but was still within the Seattle Metro that exposed her to many of the vibrant and diverse cultures of the PacRim. In 2021, she graduated from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, and earned two bachelor's degrees and one minor: one in French Language International Affairs, the other in International Business and Leadership, with her minor in Asian Studies. Within the Business department, she was selected and a part of the highly selective Business Leadership Program and awarded numerous scholarships for her dedication and development within the sphere of International Studies. In 2022, she passed her DALF examination, proving her high bilingual competency in the language as well as earning her ScrumMaster certification in 2023 for future job prospects. She worked in many different industries in marketing, both domestically and abroad in France, before deciding to go back to graduate school to follow her passion to teach, research, and broaden the understanding of under-researched and represented areas of the Francophone World. She also serves as the Event Coordinator and actively performs and competes with Seattle-based Tahitian Dance Troupe, Harauti Mana. Her current research interests include the Asia-Pacific region of the Francophone world, more specifically French Polynesia, Vietnam, and Cambodia with regards to colonial and post-colonial impacts on foodscapes, agriculture, dance, language, and oral / local religious traditions. She is also interested in modern movements of recognition and advocation of indigenous voices, experiences, histories, and stories. While her chosen discipline is interdisciplinary in nature, she hopes to explore comparative approaches to the Francophone World during her studies at University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She loves to give recommendations on various East or Southeast Asian and Pasifika dishes, songs, and films. She sends out her warmest maeva and aroha. |
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Katarina Brankovic is a Ph.D. candidate and Graduate Teaching Assistant at UL. Her research interests include biopolitics, phenomenology, disability, and postcolonial studies. In her dissertation, she analyses the role of prosthesis in the (de)construction of the ontology of body in 21st century French literature. E-mail: katarina.brankovic1@louisiana.edu
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Kyezie Bwanangela is a Ph.D. candidate in Francophone Studies and a Graduate Teaching Assistant. He holds an M.A. in French and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminal Justice. He has a passion for teaching, research, and community engagement in the field of Francophone Sub-Saharan African Literature studies and Politics. Throughout his career, he has had the privilege of working on numerous projects such as the McNair Summer Research Program, where he gained hands-on experience in research and publication at Grand Valley State University. Additionally, he was honored to receive the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Award for his work in promoting diversity and inclusion in the community at Grand Rapids Community College in Michigan. His professional journey is grounded in his values of social justice, equity, and the decolonization of knowledge. As a teaching assistant, he aims to create a collaborative and inclusive learning environment that fosters intellectual curiosity and linguistic proficiency. His dissertation project on "Crime, Punishment, and Dehumanization during the Colonial Period in the Congo Free State, as Depicted in the Film and Book King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild," utilizes a postcolonial and critical race theory framework to examine the complexities of colonialism and its enduring legacies. His career goal is to continue to contribute to ongoing discussions on the decolonization of knowledge and the importance of centering the voices and experiences of marginalized communities in scholarly work. He is excited to connect with others who share his values and passions and who are interested in exploring the intersections of power, culture, and identity in the colonial history of Africa. E-mail: kyezie.bwanangela1@louisiana.edu |
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Bhynty Charif is a second-year PhD student in Francophone Studies. She is French from Comoros and Madagascar. Passionate about literature, she first obtained a degree in French Literature at the Université de Paris-Est-Marne-La-Vallée. Her interest in Francophone culture and her desire to share the French language then led her to obtain a Master's degree with a specialization in language acquisition pegagogy (Université de Grenoble) and FLE (French as a foreign language) (Université d'Artois). Her professional career as a teacher of French as a Foreign Language spans almost 15 years in France and abroad (Africa), within the Alliances Françaises, Institut Francais, middle schools, and universities (Paris IV), in different socio-cultural contexts and learning communities (children, adolescents, adults, migrants). Based in Louisiana since 2014, Bhynty teaches in Saint Martin Parish, at Parks Middle School, in the heart of Cajun and Creole country. As a fervent defender of linguistic and cultural diversity, she is involved in numerous associations, particularly within the community of young French people with origins in Comoros in Paris as a cultural manager and newspaper editor. As a board member of the Alliance Française de Lafayette, she actively participated in the promotion of French-speaking culture in the parish. Today, she is part of the Union des Africans Francophones de Louisiane which promotes African culture in Louisiana. |
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William Dailey is a first year M.A. student in French. He is returning to UL, having first completed his undergraduate studies here in Modern Languages, French and Francophone Studies with a minor in Public Relations. In his senior year, he became the French program’s first Accelerated Bachelor’s to Masters (ABM) student, taking graduate-level French courses and earning advance credits for his Masters degree. Professionally, William has experience as a copywriter, a bilingual tour guide, and a traditional Cajun folk dance instructor. A Vermilion parish native, William’s academic interests include the Acadian oral tradition, Louisiana folk music, and Cajun humor. Presently, he is a graduate assistant at the Center for Louisiana Studies. Outside of school, he enjoys playing chess, Cajun dancing, playing guitar and piano, and cooking for his friends. |
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Louise Dalbudak (ABD) is a PhD candidate in Francophone Studies. Coming from an atypical career with bifurcations, I had the opportunity to join the Francophone Studies program at UL Lafayette to perfect my knowledge in French literature.Being motivated from an early age to learn about different cultures, I began my university career with a bachelor degree in Geography that I obtained in my hometown of Bordeaux. I also have a bachelor’s degree in Literature, Language and Civilization & International Relations that I obtained in Paris. Both of these degree programs gave me insight into the close relations that States are able to maintain, and the common culture that these exchanges generated, after decades of complicity. My interest in children's literature and my passion for transmitting knowledge, led me to achieve Master’s degree in Education and Instruction. I worked as a teacher for 5 years in France and am currently teaching in New Iberia in conjunction with CODOFIL. |
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Rébecca Desplanque is a first-year M.A. student in French and Francophone Studies and a Graduate Teaching Assistant at UL. Originally from Toulouse, France, she holds two licences in French and Italian from the Université Jean Jaurès (Toulouse) and completed a M1 in Roman Studies, working on the transcription of an Italian Renaissance manuscript and spending a semester at the Università di Pisa in Italy. She then taught French in a middle school in Toulouse for a year. She is interested in philology, art history, and feminism, and more generally enjoys literature that questions everyday life from multiple angles. |
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Sarah Djos-Raph (ABD) (née Denslow) (she/her) is a mother, a wife, a philanthropist, a friend, and a Ph.D. candidate in Francophone Studies and graduate teaching assistant in French. Originally from Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, she holds a B.A. in International Affairs with a concentration in Women’s Studies and a B.A. in French from The University of Maine. Additionally, she holds a M.A. in French from The University of Louisiana at Lafayette. As an American-Beninese dual citizen, her dissertation centers around feminine figures and sorority in contemporary Beninese literature written by women Beninese writers, and her research interests include West African nationalism, identity, and diaspora. Sarah has previously served as a Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Fulbright Canada Killam Fellow, and Peace Corps Volunteer, and she is a current Rotarian and runs a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of youth. |
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Léa Fougerolle is a Ph.D. candidate (ABD) in Francophone Studies. Born in Langres, France, she initially graduated from the Université de Lorraine in Nancy, where she earned a B.A. in Cultural Studies (2014-2017). She then spent three years at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, obtaining an M.A. in Social Sciences with a major in Sociology (2017-2020) by writing two theses with the guidance of Cyril Lemieux (LIER-FYT). In 2019, she relocated to the Philadelphia area and served as a Fulbright Foreign Language Assistant at Ursinus College for one year. Following a transitional year spent between Belgrade and Novi Sad in Serbia, she returned to the U.S. and eventually settled in Lafayette to join the department. She is now a Doctoral Fellow in the program and is conducting research on sensory experiences within a corpus of 20th and 21st-century Francophone poetry. Her dissertation is titled "Faire corps. Écriture du sensible et (éco)poétique de l’écriture dans les œuvres d’Eugène Savitzkaya, Matthieu Messagier et Caroline Sagot Duvauroux (1970-2020)" and combines two of the fields that Léa is the most interested in: sensory and poetry studies. On the side, she is also a former Editorial Assistant of Études Francophones, and a regular contributing editor for Venti Journal in Chicago. Her multitude of interests encompass modernist and contemporary literature, the exploration of how social changes and ecological issues can be addressed through literature, visual studies (primarily photography), as well as everything olfaction and nose-related. Finally, she also has a strong inclination toward translation studies and is actively involved in creating a small journal that could host French and American poetry in translation.E-mail: lea.fougerolle1@louisiana.edu |
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Isaac Kodjo Gadosse is a first-year Ph.D. student in Francophone Studies. He was born in Ghana and has a B.A. in French from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi. After seven years of teaching in a public high school in Kumasi, Ghana, he travelled to the USA in 2021 to pursue an M.A. in French from Georgia State University in Atlanta. Prior to teaching in public high school, he taught in middle school in Kumasi. He likes political discourses, especially current political happenings in Africa, comedy, stand up performance He wants to delve into drama influence in educational and socio-economic policies in South Sahara francophone culture and literature. |
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Emma Harlet (ABD) is currently completing a joint-supervised Ph.D. dissertation (cotutelle) in Francophone Studies at UL Lafayette and in Anglophone Studies at the Université Bordeaux-Montaigne in France. She grew up in the north of France where she received a Licence and Master's degree in American History and Literature at the Université Catholique de Lille.
For her Master’s thesis she studied the French heritage of Louisiana in the late 20th century. In her research, she seeks to illuminate and better understand Louisiana’s deep and complex culture, and her dissertation focuses on the concept of creoleness in the work of francophone and anglophone female writers from the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries. |
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Camille Harrington of Cow Island, Louisiana, is a second-year M.A. student and a recent graduate of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where she earned her B.A. in French, with minors in both Cajun and Creole Studies and Anthropology. Camille’s interests are centered around cultural preservation and development in Louisiana, with a focus on sociolinguistics and Cajun and Creole folkways. She is currently assisting at the Center for Louisiana Studies, combining her experience in French and francophone studies with her interest in public history and public humanities. |
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Colby LeJeune is a PhD student from L’Anse LeJeune, a rural community in Acadia Parish, Louisiana. He earned a B.S. in Linguistics and in Geology from Tulane University before going on to spend several years working in rice cultivation and research. Colby is a current board member of the Cajun Prairie Habitat Preservation Society, which aims to conserve Southwestern Louisiana’s indigenous grassland ecosystems, and much of his research interests lie in the confluence of the human and the natural in the region, especially the folk taxonomy, animal and plant names, and ethnobotany of the Louisiana French. He is also interested in other aspects of both space and place, principally toponymy and the classification of landforms, and their relation to other spheres of culture, such as music. Phonological, morphological, and other variation in Louisiana French and Creole language varieties round out his research interests. |
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Mitch Maggio is an M.A. student in French and Francophone Studies. He holds a B.A. in Modern Languages with concentrations in Spanish and French from ULL. During his undergraduate studies, he worked as a Spanish tutor in the language lab and earned the title of Outstanding Graduate in Modern Languages for the class of 2022. After graduation, he participated in the North American Language and Cultural Assistant Program, in which he taught English at an official language school in Huelva, Spain. Subsequently, he taught mathematics at a bilingual (English/Spanish) public high school in Metairie, LA. His scholarly interests include but are not limited to: New Orleans history; 20th-century French philosophy; and the literature, politics, and delineation of Latin America and the Caribbean. |
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Jonathan J. Mayers is a first year PhD student and Doctoral Fellow in Francophone Studies. Originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he served as Baton Rouge Poet Laureate 2021-2023, he is a visual artist, independent curator, and Louisiana Creole cultural and Kouri-Vini language activist. He holds a BFA in Painting (2007) from Louisiana State University and a Master of Fine Arts degree (2011) from the University of New Orleans. Mayers founded Latannyèrizm, a style of Louisiana Creole art that melds language, visual art, physical place, and identity, and has had notable solo exhibits at Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans: L’Eparpillage (2017) and Nostalji ki fé rékòt (2023). Alongside Dr. Oliver Mayeux, he is co-editer of Févi (2022), the first anthology of poetry created entirely in Kouri-Vini, the endangered Creole language of Louisiana. Mayers is also curator of Mitoloji Latannyèr | Mythologies Louisianaises, an expanding exhibition project that features collaborative works of contemporary literature and visual art by Louisiana artists through heritage languages in the region including the Kouri-Vini, Louisiana French, and Tunica languages. He is also helps run Chinbo, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to providing educational and learning materials in Kouri-Vini. Mayers’ visual and literary works can be found in Latær lèv (2023), Folklore Figures of French and Creole Louisiana (2021), Ti Liv Kréyòl (2020), Ancrages, no. 30, Traces, The Iron Lattice, and multiple issues of Feux Follets. He is currently on the editorial board of Feux Follets and Résonance. His interests lie in neologizing, creating, and the effects that literature, visual art, and social media have had on the Kouri-Vini language revitalization movement spearheaded by Louisiana Creoles such as Dr. Christophe Landry, Clif St. Laurent, and Adrien-Guillory Chatman, among other dedicated community members. Image credit: Est-Nord-Est / Jean-Sébastien Veilleux photographe |
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Rodrigo Munhoz is a Ph.D. student in Francophone Studies and a Graduate Assistant at UL. He holds degrees in Languages and Literature (Portuguese and French) from the Universidade Estadual de Londrina (UEL) in Brazil and and the Erasmus Mundus Master's degree (2011) in "Media Engineering for Education'' from Université de Poitiers (France), Universidad de Educación a Distáncia de Madrid (Spain) and Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (Portugal). He was a collaborating professor in the French language section of the Department of Modern Foreign Languages at UEL. He also worked at the UEL Language Laboratory as a teacher of French and Portuguese. He is an official evaluator of the Celpe-Bras, certificate in Portuguese as a foreign language. He was also a French teacher in public education in the state of Paraná, Brazil. He was a volunteer of the educational radio station UEL FM, producing and presenting the weekly show of songs in French "Les Belles Chansons" and also manages his own channel on Youtube "Francês Total", dedicated to the teaching of French. He has experience in the field of languages, with an emphasis on modern languages teaching and the use of technology in education. |
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Sandrine Ndongo Toto is a M.A Student in Francophone Studies. She was born in Cameroon and has a B.A. in French Studies, a M.A. in Teaching of French as Foreign and Second Language from the University of Buea. After two years of teaching in a private school in Douala, she was hired in 2020 through CODOFIL as a French teacher in Evangeline parish. As she pursuing her journey, she is committed to advancing her knowledge and expertise in the engagement of female authors of the Francophone Literature (Quebec-Middle Age and Contemporary Sub-Saharan). |
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Pierre-Olivier Pire is a PhD candidate (ABD) and Graduate Fellow from Belgium in the Francophone Studies program. He holds a B.A. in French education (2017) from the École Normale Catholique du Brabant Wallon and graduated in 2020 with a M.A. in Langues et littératures françaises et romanes (French and Italian) from the Université Catholique de Louvain. His master’s thesis “Le courant de la négritude : embargo sur le Congo ?” focused on francophone literary production in the Congo during and after the colonization. |
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Jean-Sylvain Prétat is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Francophone Studies program and Editiorial Assistant of Études Francophones journal. He was born in Aubervilliers. He first graduated from Sorbonne Université in Paris, earning a Masters degree in Philology, specialized in the 19th century. He then founded and opened a literary cabaret (2016-2023) in the Latin Quarter of Paris, rue du Cardinal Lemoine : L’Eurydice. In his Cabaret, he created a gazette, had a salon, made literaries games, declamed poetry on stage every week, frequented the bonne société of Paris, writers, philosophers, students from the best schools of France. He was a member of the jury of the Absinthiades and created his own absinthe recipe that he started selling a few years later. He was known to have a restless soul, traveling extensively on three continents, every month for about 80 countries visited. Most of his time was spent in the former USSR or the Carribeans islands, having a passion for the Russian langage and literature and Creole. During the COVID crisis, he was in Tanzania and Ukraine where he wrote a play and for the 2022-2023 school year and was a student at the Institut Catholique, studying biblical Greek, biblical Hebrew, biblical Coptic with a focus on the scriptures. He has also published four books, including Les Rires de Samyaza (poetry), La Voleuse d’étoiles (tales), Anthologie de la poésie romantique with Unicité publishing that are all available in Dupré Library. Email : jean-sylvain.pretat1@louisiana.edu
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Marissa Ramsey, affectionately known as “Mars,” is an M.A. candidate in French Studies at ULL. Her passion for French languages traces back to age five, when her parents enrolled her into Iberia Parish’s French Immersion program. In 2021, she graduated with her B.A. in French Studies from Centenary College of Louisiana and continued to pursue French opportunities in the state. Marissa is no stranger to higher education! She holds an M.A. in Student Affairs in Higher Education and previously served as an Assistant Director of Student Involvement. Her academic interests concern the preservation of Louisiana French history, culture, and languages. Marissa is a founding member of L’Assemblée de la Louisiane, where she hopes to inspire the next generation of Louisiana French speakers to protect and defend their state’s languages, coasts, and unique heritage. In her free time, she enjoys reading her horoscope, having meals with friends, and jumping on her trampoline! |
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Eyinfun Taiwo is a first-year PhD student in Francophone Studies and a Graduate Teaching Assistant. Hailing from Nigeria, his academic journey began with a passion for French literature, leading him to obtain a Bachelor of Arts in French from Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti. His research interests are deeply rooted in Contemporary and Comparative French Literature, the French Revolution and Modern Age Literature, and Post-Independent Francophone Literature and Culture. His undergraduate thesis, titled |