Dr. Vlas Dima (UW Madison), Moderator
Dr. Mary Anne Lewis (Ohio Wesleyan) “The Moroccan Years of Lead Go Abroad: Globalizing the Narrator in Malika Oufkir and Michèle Fitoussi’s La Prisonnière and Tahar Ben Jelloun’s Cette aveuglante absence de lumière”
Dr. Sylvie Ngilla (University of San Diego) “Afropolitanisme/Afropéanité: espaces d’identité et de création chez les dramaturges de la diaspora africaine”
Dr. Corbin Treacy (Florida State University) “Algérlande: Translation and Postcolonial Affinity”
Participants Bios:
Mary Anne Lewis (Ohio Wesleyan, PhD Yale University), specialist in North African literature and culture. Title of the talk: “The Moroccan Years of Lead Go Abroad: Globalizing the Narrator in Malika Oufkir and Michèle Fitoussi’s La Prisonnière and Tahar Ben Jelloun’s Cette aveuglante absence de lumière.” Biography: Mary Anne Lewis is Assistant Professor of Modern Foreign Languages at Ohio Wesleyan University. Her thesis, entitled The Maghreb Goes Abroad: The “Worlding” of Postcolonial Francophone North African Literature and Film in a Global Market, seeks to broaden and nuance current understanding of francophone North Africa by examining the ways in which some of its most well known literary and cultural works and figures have navigated a global market.
Sylvie Ngilla (University of San Diego, PhD Minnesota), specialist in Contemporary African drama. Title of the talk: “Esthétique du déraillement des corps dans le théâtre de Dieudonné Niangouna.” Biography: Dr. Sylvie Ngilla (Ph.D., University of Minnesota, and Université Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle) teaches French and Francophone theater and literature in the Department of Languages, Cultures, and Literatures at University of San Diego. She specializes in contemporary francophone theater in Africa and its Diaspora in France and the Caribbean; the relationship between aesthetics and politics ; postcolonial and global contexts. She has published articles on the aesthetics of chaos in the plays of Koffi Kwahulé and Kossi Efoui (l’Esprit créateur, Africultures).
Corbin Treacy (Florida State University, PhD Minnesota), specialist in North African literature and film. Title: “Algérlande: Translation and Postcolonial Affinity.” Biography: Corbin Treacy is in his second year as an assistant professor of French in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics at Florida State University, where he teaches courses on Magrhebi literature and film. His research focuses on the interplay of politics, aesthetics, and history in contemporary North African literature. He is in the process of completing his first book project, Aesthetics and Aftermath in Algeria, a study of contemporary novels by authors born after the transition to independence.
Sponsored by: The Anonymous Fund, The Department of French & Italian, African Cultural Studies and the Center for Interdisciplinary French Studies