Peter Russella

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

As a researcher I am interested in comics studies, spatial literary studies, insular studies, science & technology in literature, francophone studies, and translation studies. As a teacher I am interested in multiliteracies and multimodal instruction, creative writing and drawing, phonetics, and teaching France’s cultural diversity at beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. I am also a working literary translator and a member of the American Literary Translators Association.

In my current research project, I am examining the representation and role of the modern lighthouse in French-language literature, comics, and film from the development of the Fresnel lens in 1822 to the retirement of the last French lighthouse keepers in 2019.

DISSERTATION TITLE

À Feu Tournant : The Lighthouses of French 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)
• 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 at the United Nations, Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, Crédit Suisse, Reed Krakoff, Société Générale, among others.
• 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

• April 2022 The Lighthouse, traumatic memories, and comics form: A study of nested chronotopes in Emmanuel Lepage’s Ar-Men : L’Enfer des enfers. Presentation of selected notions from the first chapter of my dissertation focusing on the intersection of space, time, and cultural memory in comics at the 2022 GAFIS Graduate Research Symposium in Madison, WI.
• November 2019 Teaching Comics in the Renaissance: Considering the King/Tyrant Duality in the Emblems of Andrea Alciato. Presentation of a study which applied contemporary comics theory to Renaissance emblems at the 61^st Annual Convention of the Midwest Modern Language Association in Chicago, IL.

• March 2019 Isolation and Shame: Considering the space of the lighthouse in Franco-Belgian Comics. Presentation of a study into the construction of the comics world and its impact on emotion, specifically in comics featuring lighthouses at the 2019 GAFIS Graduate Research Symposium in Madison, WI.
• January 2019 Mothers, Whores, and Summer Diamantis: Western Women in Maylis de Kerangal’s Naissance d’un pont presented at the FRIT Research Seminar in Madison, WI.
• 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.
• Fall 2014 Americanizing Wordplay and Jokes in Modern French Tales. Presentation on translating Boris Vian and Claude Ponti from French to English presented as part of the 2nd Annual Faculty Research Symposium at Luther College.

PUBLICATIONS

Translations

• Translation of the graphic novel Einstein : La poésie du reel by Marwan Kahil and Manuel García Iglesias as Einstein: The Poetry of Real. Published spring of 2019 by NBM Publishing.
• Translation of the graphic novel Sartre by Mathilde Ramadier; Anaïs Depommier and accompanying scholarly materials. Published in summer of 2017 by NBM Publishing.
• Translation of the graphic novel Marie Antoinette : Reine phantom by Annie Goetzinger and Rodolphe. Published in June of 2016 as Marie Antoinette: Phantom Queen by NBM Publishing.
• Translation of the graphic novel Thoreau : La vie sublime by A. Dan and Maximillion Le Roy and accompanying scholarly materials. Published in March of 2016 as Thoreau: A Sublime Life by NBM Publishing.