Peter Russella
Credentials: PhD Candidate in French
Pronouns: he/him/il/lui
Email: russella@wisc.edu
Address:
666 Van Hise Hall
- Fall 2025 Office Hours
- Mondays 2:30-4:30 PM, and by appointment
Education
- M.A. University of Wisconsin-Madison 2018
- Master 2 Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Faculté Victor-Segalen 2013
- B.A. Luther College 2010
Research Interests
I am interested in spatial literary studies, comics studies, and francophone studies. My SLA interests include the multiliteracies framework and drawing in the foreign language classroom.
Dissertation Title
À Feu Tournant : The Lighthouses of French-Language Literature, Comics, and Film
Courses Taught
UW-Madison
- French 101: First semester French
- French 102: Second semester French
- French 203: Third semester French
- French 204: Fourth semester French
- French 211: Exploring Paris (in English)
- French 271: Literature, comics, and film in French
- French 311: Advanced Composition and Speaking
- Asian 310: Intro to comics (in English)
- French for Reading and Translation (Online)
Luther College
- French 101: First semester French
- French 102: Second semester French
- French 201: Third semester French
- French 345: Conversation and Phonetics
French Institute: Alliance Française NYC
- Professional, corporate, and private French instructor
- À petit pas (ages 6-9).
Université de Bretagne-Occidentale – Faculté Victor-Ségalen, Pôle Universitaire Pierre Jakez Hélias
- Language lab courses for LCE-Anglais and LEA-Anglais, all levels.
- Business English for students in LCE-Anglais.
Conference Presentations
- February 2024 Emmanuel Lepage’s Breton Identity and the Modern French Lighthouse in Ar-Men: L’Enfer des enfers (2017). Presentation of ideas from my first dissertation chapter on space and time and cultural memory in the Ar-Men lighthouse at the 2024 20th & 21st French & Francophone Studies International Colloquium in Philadelphia, PA.
- November 2019 Teaching Comics in the Renaissance: Considering the King/Tyrant Duality in the Emblems of Andrea Alciato. Presentation of a study applying contemporary comics theory to Renaissance emblems at the 61st Annual Convention of the Midwest Modern Language Association in Chicago, IL.
- Spring 2016 Alas poor David: Looking for Hamlet in Francis Kerline’s translation of Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace as L’infinie comédie at the 3rd Annual David Foster Wallace Conference at Illinois State University.
Publications
Research
- Russella, Peter. 2025. “The Lighthouses on Victor Hugo’s Sea/Shore.” Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics 48 (3): 109-121.
- Russella, Peter. 2025. “Making the French Lighthouse Breton in Emmanuel Lepage’s Ar-Men.” Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 354–369.
Translations
- Russella, Peter, translator. Pink Floyd in Comics. By Nicolas Finet, Tony Lourenço, and Thierry Lamy alongside various artists, NBM Publishing, 2024.
- Russella, Peter, translator. Fists Raised: 10 stories of Sports Star Activists. By Karim Nediari and Chloé Célérien, NBM Publishing, 2022.
- Russella, Peter, translator. The Art of Sushi. By Franckie Alarcon, NBM Publishing, 2021.
- Russella, Peter, translator. Einstein: The Poetry of Real. By Marwan Kahil and Manuel García, NBM Publishing, 2019.
- Russella, Peter, translator. Sartre. By Mathilde Ramadier and Anaïs Depommier, NBM Publishing, 2017.
- Russella, Peter, translator. Marie Antoinette : Phantom Queen. By Annie Goetzinger and Rodolphe, 2016.
- Russella, Peter, translator. Thoreau: A Sublime Life (including an accompanying scholarly dossier). By A. Dan and Maximilien Le Roy, NBM Publishing, 2016.