Summer 2015 Faculty
William Bishop – Paris Landscapes
Will Bishop received his PhD in French from the University of California, Berkeley in December, 2003. His dissertation addresses questions of translation in texts by Beckett, Genet, Celan and Rimbaud. Several sections of his dissertation have been published in the journal diacritics (35:4 2005) as an article on "The Marriage Translation and the Contexts of Common Life: From the PACS to Benjamin and Beyond". He has taught French language and literature classes at the University of California, Berkeley, at the UC Center program, and a course on translation at Columbia University's program in Paris at Reid Hall.
Christina von Koehler – Paris as Palimpsest
The recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship for Research in France on the Paris Opera, she holds an M.A. in Political Economy from Columbia University’s School of International Affairs and an M.Phil in Modern European History from the City University of New York. A former dancer and arts administrator, she has curated and written the catalogues for several exhibitions, including “La Fontaine: The Power of Fables” at the New York Public Library. She has taught history and civilization courses at Baruch College and John Jay College in New York, at the UC Paris Center program, at New York University in Paris, and at the Paris campus of D.C.’s American University. She also lectures on opera and ballet for Stanford University in Paris.
Chelsie Yount-André – Tastes of Paris
Chelsie Yount-André is a Ph.D. candidate in cultural and linguistic anthropology in the dual doctoral (cotutelle) program at Northwestern University and l’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Her research examines food sharing in Senegalese households in Paris and Dakar to shed light on the role of children in the reproduction and transformation of “economic moralities,” normative expectations of material obligation and entitlement. She analyzes everyday verbal and material exchanges to shed light on the ways transnational families negotiate expectations of how one ought to earn, spend, and redistribute resources. Her dissertation illustrates how immigrants reinforce stratification among transnational populations in their attempts to demonstrate integration into French society. She is a member of the Centre Edgar Morin (IIAC) and has taught at Northwestern University and the School of the Art Institute Chicago.
Carole Viers-Andronico – French 10
Carole Viers-Andronico received her PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2008 with a dissertation applying methodologies from translation studies and philosophies of aesthetics to texts produced by members of the Parisian literary group OULIPO. She is currently Academic Coordinator for the UC Paris Center programs in French Language and Culture and French and European Studies and has taught French language and literature courses at the UC Paris Center program, Comparative Literature courses at the University of California, Los Angeles and California State University, Long Beach, as well as French and Italian language and literature courses at Tulane University. She is also a literary translator.
Lea Scattolin – French 12 AB
Léa Scattolin has taught French language courses at the UC Paris Center program since 2007. She holds both an M.A. in French as a Second Language and an M.A. in Communication & Publishing, which she combined with a third degree in Applied Foreign Languages (German, English and Polish), from the University of Paris Sorbonne. She has taught French language and civilization courses to international students from around the world, including American students from Columbia University at Reid Hall, New York University in France, Carleton College and Center for University Programs Abroad.
Adina Ruiu – French 12 AB
Adina Ruiu is completing a Ph.D. in history at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales and the Université de Montréal. She received an M.A. in literary studies from the Université du Québec à Montréal (2006) and an M.A. in Canadian Studies from the University of Bucharest (2000). A number of fellowships, including the doctoral fellowship of the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and research fellowships from the Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec, the Université de Montréal and the École Française de Rome, have allowed her to pursue her research in French, Italian and Canadian archives. Her fields of interest are early modern European and global history and the history of emotions, which she studies by focusing on the Jesuit missions to North America and the Ottoman Empire. She tries not to neglect her previous scholarly pursuits, such as contemporary French and Quebec literature, and to save a bit of time for personal projects of writing and photography. Parallel to her research activity, she has taught French language and civilization, and early modern European history at the University of Bucharest and the Université de Montréal.
Mona El-Khoury – French 23 AB
Mona El Khoury is a PhD candidate in Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University, where she has taught French language and literature classes for three years. A native French speaker, born and raised in Paris, Mona has lived in the United States for six years. After completing her Masters in Philosophy from Paris Sorbonne, she spent a year at Middlebury College in Vermont. She developed a special interest in Francophone literatures and postcolonial theories and decided to pursue her studies in a graduate program in the US. Mona holds a Master in Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard University, and she is now completing her PhD dissertation on contemporary Franco-Algerian literature. Her research has brought her back to her native Paris, where she is delighted to teach French language to University of California students.
Sabrina Petitjean – French 34 AB
Sabrina Petitjean received her M.A. in applied linguistics and phonetics from the University of Paris Sorbonne in 2004. She followed this degree with a year of specialization in didactics in languages and cultures. Since 2004, she has taught French language and civilization, as well as phonetics, in many international academic programs. She has had the opportunity to teach students from many American universities such as UC, Yale, Harvard, and Georgetown. She is also a trainer in argumentative techniques and teaches writing to advanced students, studying at French universities. Since 2006, she teaches French for specific purposes (business, diplomacy, media and culture) to international business schools such as H.E.C. In 2008 she joined the teaching staff of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Paris and is now a member of the jury's assessment of French language exams, such as TEF.
Claudia Fontu- French 45 AB
Claudia Fontu received her M.A. in French Literature and her M.A. in American Literature from the University of Paris Sorbonne III in 2006. Her PhD at the University of Paris Sorbonne III is in progress. She has taught French language and civilisation classes at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and has taught French language classes at the UC Paris Center program, at Franklin and Marshall College in Paris, at University of Florida in Paris, as well as French literature classes at the University of Southern California in Paris. Since 2010 she has also taught French language courses and is a teacher trainer at the Department of French Language Didactics at the Institute of Linguistics, Paris. A former journalist, she translated three books of Romanian poetry into French. She is also a painter.
Ioana Mercey – French 56 AB
Ioana Mercey received her M.A. in French Literature from the University of Limoges in 2004 and her M.A. in Foreign Language Pedagogy at the University of Paris Sorbonne III in 2006. She has taught French language classes at the French Institute in Santiago de Chile and at the Alliance française in Paris. Since 2008 she has also taught French language and civilisation classes to North American students for the MICEFA academic exchange program in Paris. Fond of cinema, she organized a film festival in Paris, in 2010 and teaches a French Film course (La société française à travers le cinéma).
Pierre Bras–French 60/101 and Pre-ILP Practicum
After earning a Ph.D in Law from the Université de Montpellier, Dr. Pierre Bras went to study in the United States, where he received a Ph.D in French from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He has taught French language and civilization classes at the UC Paris French and European Studies program, as well as French literature and French language classes at all undergraduate levels at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and at Centre College (Kentucky), where he worked as a Visiting Assistant Professor. His dissertation, entitled Law and its Diversions in Modern and Contemporary French Literature, addresses the works of Honoré de Balzac, Marcel Proust, and Albert Cohen. Dr. Bras is also interested in the works of Simone de Beauvoir. In 2011, he edited the proceedings of the International Conference on “Simone de Beauvoir et la psychanalyse” which was held in Paris in March 2010. More recently, he has developed his passion for contemporary art by collaborating with the Spanish artist Pilar Albarracin, with whom he published a catalogue, Le Duende Volé [The Purloined Duende], in 2012.