Law 7128: Crossing Borders This course will explore the legal and policy issues associated with border crossings, and also provide students with insights about how the study of narrative and storytelling can help us better understand the challenges of displacement. The course consists of three major blocks: the first sets the historic, conceptual and philosophical framework for migration. The second reviews international refugee law. The third investigates the challenges and vicissitudes of migration of undocumented peoples. For each block, material from the realm of literature and language theory will be introduced to highlight the discursive elements that are natural components of human migration. We will analyze in detail the cornerstone documents of the present refugee regime, notably the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the 1967 Protocol, the revisions and proposed revisions to the Convention for the past 65 years, and the application of international law relating to migrants in the US context. We will also look at the Common European Asylum System and its handling of urgent migrant movements, notably from Syria, Eritrea, Iraq and Afghanistan. The course is designed to develop a toolbox of skills for those interested in this realm, from a legal, advocacy and discursive perspective. Seminar discussions will help students refine their argumentative and rhetoric skills in a realm that tends to invoke severe partisan actions and reactions on both sides of the debate. The readings in realm of “law and literature”, from the Ledwon reader, will offer invaluable support to a humanistic approach to this area, and to law in general.
French 4027: Émile Zola This course will introduce students to Emile Zola’s fiction, including examples of work from the long series of novels called Les Rougon Macquart, about a family under the Second Empire. Different facets of Zola’s writings will be discussed, including his method of researching his subject matter, the style of his writing, as well as the “environmental” influences of violence, prostitution, alcoholism and what he described as “the fatal convulsions that accompany the birth of a new world”.
French 4232: Literature and Law The goal of this course is to study narratives that occur in both literature and law, with special emphasis upon confession, the construction of the subject, the reception of texts, judicial argumentation and rhetoric, and intercultural translation and interpretation. We will examine some theoretical and judicial works, and then look to see how they can be applied to literary texts that feature situations or methods of reasoning that have legal aspects to them. In order to do this, we will examine seminal works in French (and in translation, for those who don’t read at this level), representing several centuries.
ENGLISH — 272 From the Romantics to the Beat Generation This course will explore the influence that Romantic poets, notably Lord Byron, and P.B. Shelley, had upon Beat Generation poets and writers. We will begin by discussing some of the seminal works in Romantic poetry, including Keats’s and Wordsworth’s descriptions of their poetic ambitions and projects, and we’ll then turn to some of the characteristics of the literature and politics of William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and a range of women writers of the Beat Generation including Diane DiPrima and Anne Waldman. We will undertake our reading under the assumption that there was something profoundly liberating in such works as the “Lyrical Ballads” and, moreover, in the comical and irreverent masterpiece by Lord Byron, Don Juan, which served as impetuses for the kinds of work we found in post-war American Beats. This course will offer students the opportunity to study but also to create their own creative work, if they so desire, as a means of exploring first hand the creative process inspired through the genius and the generosity of these writers.
French 362 — Émile Zola and Charles Dickens: Naturalism, Realism, and Social Engagement This course will introduce students to a group of seminal works by both Charles Dickens and Émile Zola, supplemented by essays and letters that discuss their respective approaches to social justice and the role that their literary work plays, or can play, to advance particular causes. Different facets of their writings will be discussed, including their respective methods of researching their subject matter, the style of their writing, as well as their concerns relating to contemporary oppression, violence, prostitution, alcoholism and social inequality. Students will also be introduced to the relationship between realism and naturalism, and will have occasion to explore the idea of the “public intellectual”, with particular reference to Zola’s “J’Accuse,” an open letter to the president denouncing the wrongful conviction of a Jewish officer of the French army for treason.
Courses taught (*graduate):
2025.01 College Honors Seminar in the Humanities and Creative Arts – Beat Generation’s French Connections.
2025.01 Special Topics in Traditions – Literature, Dance and Performance in Québec
2024.08 Fren 2700 Great French and Francophone Works in English Translation
2024.08 Core 1010 Being Human.
2024.01 FREN 4025 From Carnival to the Carnivalesque
2024.01 HONS 1810 College Honors Seminar in the Humanities and Creative Arts – Seeking Adventure.
2022.08 FREN 2700 Great French and Francophone Works in English Translation
2022.08 HONS 1860W College Honors Seminar in International Cultures – Fashion, Passion, and Murder
2022.01 EUS 2240 Topics in European Studies – European Migrations and Borders
2022.01 FREN 3002 Texts and Contexts: Revolution to the Present
2021.08 FREN 3730 The Beat Generation’s French Connection
2021.08 PSCI 3896 Selected Topics in Political Theory – Bernie Sanders and His Milieus
2021.08 MLAS 6700 Interdisciplinary Seminar – Alice (as a Refugee) in Wonderland
2021.01 FREN 1001 Commons iSeminar – Activism and Pedagogy in the Streets
2021.01 FREN 3002 Texts and Contexts: Revolution to the
2021.01 JS 1111 First-Year Writing Seminar – FYS:Radical Jews
2020.08 EUS 2240 Topics in European Studies – Refugees Populism & Covid 19 19
2020.08 FREN 4025 From the Carnival to the “Carnivalesque”
2020.01 Canada Research Chair teaching in Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University
*2020.01 Canada research Chair teaching in Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University
2019.09 Canada Research Chair teaching in Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University
*2019.08 Canada research Chair teaching in Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University
2018.08 European Studies: Crossing Borders
(with David Maraniss) 2017.01.SPR.AS.PSCI.3893.04 Topics in American Government)
2017.01.SPR.LAW.LAW.7128.01 Crossing Borders in Law & Literature
2017.01.SPR.AS.FREN.8050.01 19th C. French Literature: Émile Zola.
2016.08.FALL.AS.FREN.4232.01 Literature and Law
2016.01.SPR.AS.FREN.3730.01 Beat Generation & France
2015.08.FALL.AS.FREN.4027.01 Emile Zola
2015.05.SUM.AS.ENGL.288.01.2 Sp Topics Engl/Amer Lit (not currently available)
*Spring 2011, FREN394, “Censorship and Blasphemy in French Literature”.
* 2015.01.SPR.GS.MLAS.340.07 Interdisciplinary course on D. H. Lawrence
* 2014.08.FALL.AS.FREN.362.01 19th C. French Literature: Zola and Dickens
2014.08.FALL.AS.ENGL.350.06 Literary and Language Theory
2014.08.FALL.AS.ENGL.272.01 Movements in Literature
2014.05.SUM.AS.ENGL.288.01.2 Maymester in Switzerland
2014.01.SPR.AS.FREN.266.01 Beat Generation & France
2013.SPR. ENGL288 Maymester in Switzerland
- SPR. ENGL274 Nabokov and Bakhtin
2012 ENG 118 Intensive Writing Seminar
*Spring 2011, ENGL337, “Postcolonial Theory and Practice”.
Fall 2010, FREN241, “Émile Zola”.
Fall 2010, ENGL244, “Critical Theory”
Spring 2010, ENGL272 “The Beat Generation’s French Connection: Artaud, Genet, Rimbaud, Sade and the Parisian Beat Hotel”
* Spring 2010, FREN395, “Crime, Punishment and Confession”.
Fall 2009, ENGL 244 Fiction as Theory
*Fall 2009, FREN 362 Zola
Summer 2009, Vanderbilt Summer Academy (grade 10).
Summer 2009, Maymester in Montreal
Summer 2009, ENGL 118, Travel and Exoticism.
Fall 2008, ENGL244, “Reading Literature as Theory,” English Department, Vanderbilt University.
Fall 2008, ENGL288, “From the Romantics to the Beat Generation,” English Department, Vanderbilt University.
Fall 2008, FREN294, “Emile Zola: From Naturalism to Activism,” French Department, Vanderbilt University.
*Fall 2008, FREN394, “The Role of the Intellectual, US-France,” French Department, Vanderbilt University.
Fall 2008, JS118f, “The Magic of Language, Freud, Einstein, Ginsberg, Chomsky”, Jewish Studies, Vanderbilt University.
Summer 2008, ENGL118w, “Literature and the Laws of Obscenity”, English Department, Vanderbilt University
Spring 2008, ENGL220, “Laughter and the Academic Novel,” English Department, Vanderbilt University
Spring 2008, JS115W, “The Magic of Language,” Jewish Studies Programme, Vanderbilt University
Spring 2008, FR300, Methodologies, French Department, Vanderbilt University
Spring 2008, MLAS, Beyond the Ivory Tower, Master’s of Liberal Arts Program, Vanderbilt University.
Summer 2007, FR 220, Introduction to French Literature, Vanderbilt in France, Aix en Provence.
Spring 2007, FR251 Zola, Vanderbilt in France, Aix en Provence.
Spring 2007, FR270 Senior Seminar, Vanderbilt in France, Aix en Provence.
Spring 2007, FR267 Rabelais and the Carnivalesque, Vanderbilt in France, Aix en Provence.
Fall 2006, FR251 Zola, Vanderbilt in France, Aix en Provence, Aix en Provence.
Fall 2006, FR220, Introduction to French Literature, Vanderbilt in France, Aix en Provence
Spring 2006, CLT294, Postcolonial Literature and Theory, Comparative Literature Department, Vanderbilt University.
Fall 2005, FR294, Montreal-Paris-New York, French Department, Vanderbilt University.
Fall 2005, JS115, Radical Jews, Marx-Chomsky, Jewish Studies, Vanderbilt University.
*Fall 2005, FR300, Méthodologies, French Department, Vanderbilt University.
*Fall 2005, ENG337, Literary Theory, English Department, Vanderbilt University.
Spring 2005, Retirement Learning, “Confessions and ‘laying bare’ in literature and law,” Retirement Learning Department, Vanderbilt University.
*Spring 2005, FR294, Le role de l’intellectuel, French Department, Vanderbilt University.
Spring 2005, JS115W, Einstein, Freud and Chomsky, Jewish Studies, Vanderbilt University.
Spring 2005, CLT255, European Realism, Comparative Literature Program, Vanderbilt University.
*Fall 2004, CLT380, Literary Theory, Comparative Literature/English Department, Vanderbilt University.
Fall 2004, FR 270, Littérature et passion, French Department, Vanderbilt University.
Spring 2004, FR270, Littérature et droit, French Department, Vanderbilt University.
*Spring 2004, CLT278, Postcolonial and Multicultural Fictions, Comparative Literature Program, Vanderbilt University.
*Spring 2004, CLT294, Migration Issues Canada/Quebec-USA, Faculty-Student seminar, Vanderbilt University.
*Fall 2003, CLT294, The Beat Generation’s Other America, French Department, Vanderbilt University.
Fall 2003, FR212, Conversational French, French Department, Vanderbilt University.
Spring 2003, Eng 282, Theories of Literature, English Department, University of Western Ontario.
Spring 2003, Eng 464, The Beat Generation, English Department, University of Western Ontario.
*Spring 2003, CLC 539b, The Carnivalesque, Comparative Literature Department, University of Western Ontario.
*Fall 2002, Eng792, The Holy Barbarians, English Department full year course, University of Western Ontario.
Fall 2002, Lit370, Narrative, Refugees and the American Dream, Comparative Literature Department, Yale University.
Fall 2002, Lit320, The Quest for the Key to Human Language, Comparative Literature Department, Yale University.
Fall 2002, Lit316, Multiculturalism and Literature, Comparative Literature Department, Yale University.
*Fall 2002, IR 900, From Multiculturalism to Public Policy, a graduate reading course, International Relations Program, Yale Center for International and Area Studies, Yale University.
*Fall 2002, IR 900, Refugee Law and Discourse Theories, a graduate reading course, International Relations Program, Yale Center for International and Area Studies, Yale University.
Winter 2002, LIT 760, The ‘Holy Barbarians’: anarchie, langage, littérature, a graduate course, Département d’Études littéraires, UQAM (University of Québec, Montréal).
Winter 2002, LIT 440, M. M. Bakhtine, Département d’Études littéraires, UQAM (University of Québec, Montréal).
Winter 2002, LIT 1420, Introduction à la théorie littéraire, Département d’Études littéraires, UQAM (University of Québec, Montréal).
Winter 2001, LIT 1625, Corpus étranger, Département d’Études littéraires, UQAM (University of Québec, Montréal).
Winter 2001, LIT 5015, The Short Story, Department of English as a Second Language, UQAM (University of Québec, Montréal).
Winter 2001, LIT 1420, Introduction à la théorie littéraire, Département d’Études littéraires, UQAM (University of Québec, Montréal).
Automne 2000, LIT 901/LIT 833, Littérature et droit, Département d’Études littéraires, UQAM (University of Québec, Montréal).
Automne 2000, LIT 355J, La littérature des révoltés, Département d’Études littéraires, UQAM (University of Québec, Montréal).
Intersession 2000, ENG516A/516B, Portrayals of the Intellectual in Fiction and Beyond, a full-year graduate course, University of Western Ontario.
Winter 2000, CLC252, Introduction to Literary Theory, University of Western Ontario.
Fall 1999: ENG516, Rethinking the Subject in Discourse: Representation, Confession Answerability, a graduate course cross-listed with the Centre for Theory and Criticism, and Comparative Literature, University of Western Ontario.
Fall 1999: ENG200, Reading Theory, Reading Criticism, a survey of literary theories, full year, University of Western Ontario.
Fall 1999: CLC545, Literature, Law, Radical Alternatives. A reading course on literature-law theory, and on 20th C fiction dealing with related interests, notably works by Kafka, Orwell, Auden, Koestler, Sartre, Camus, University of Western Ontario.
Winter 1999: CLC491G; ML695B: Literary Depictions of Utopia: Anarchism, Anarcho-Syndicalism, and the Spanish Civil War. Half year, graduate and upper-level undergraduate in Comparative Literature, University of Western Ontario.
Winter 1999: ENG578B: Radical American Literatures and Essays of the 20th Century. Half year graduate English course, University of Western Ontario.
Fall 1998-99: ENG020: Survey of English Literature, Department of English, University of Western Ontario.
Summer 1998: Cold War Literature, a directed reading course (graduate level.), Department of English, University of Western Ontario.
Summer 1998: Feminism and Anarchy, a directed reading course (undergraduate level), Department of English, University of Western Ontario.
Inter-session 1998: ENG 404: Law and Order: Literature, Media and the Law, Upper level undergraduate course, English Dept., University of Western Ontario.
Winter 1998: TC 501B: Modes of Theory, the graduate course on theory at the Theory Centre, University of Western Ontario.
Fall 1997: English 503A: The Author as Social Critic, a graduate course on literature and social protest, University of Western Ontario.
Fall/Winter 1997-98: English 300: Theories of Literature and Culture, an undergraduate course on literary and cultural theory, University of Western Ontario.
Fall 1997: Marxism and Anti-Bolshevik Communism, directed reading course, Theory Centre, University of Western Ontario.
Fall 1997: Structuralism and the Cold War, a directed reading course, English Department, University of Western Ontario.
Fall/Winter 1996-97: TC 501: Modes of Theory Course, the graduate course on theory at The Theory Centre, University of Western Ontario.
Fall/Winter 1996-97: From Modernism to Post-Modernism: Relations and Divergence, a full year graduate course cross-listed in English and Comparative Literature, University of Western Ontario.
Fall/Winter 1996-97: English 254E: Twentieth-Century British Literature, undergraduate full course, University of Western Ontario.
Fall 1995: Faculty Lecturer, Département de Langue et Littérature française. McGill University. La Théorie de la réception: analyse d’un courant théorique de la critique contemporaine, a graduate course on reception theories and their application to literary texts.
Fall 1995: Lecturer, Département d’Études littéraires, UQAM (University of Québec, Montréal). Introduction aux Études littéraires, an undergraduate course on literary theory.
Spring 1994: Lecturer, Département d’Études littéraires, UQAM (University of Québec, Montréal). Effective Communication, an undergraduate course on writing.
Spring 1993: Lecturer, Département d’Études littéraires, UQAM (University of Québec, Montréal). Langue et littérature, an undergraduate course on semiotics, structuralism and post‑structuralism as applied to literature.
Fall 1991‑Spring 1992: Lecturer, Comparative Literature Department, Carleton University. From Modernism to Postmodernism, a full‑year graduate seminar.
Fall 1991: Lecturer, Comparative Literature Department, Carleton University. Realism in the Novel, a graduate seminar.
1990: Lecturer, Département des Études littéraires, UQAM (University of Québec, Montréal). Corpus d’auteur: James Joyce, Mikhaïl Bakhtine et la théorie du roman (Lectures given in French).
1987: Teaching Assistant, McGill University. Survey of English Literature II (201B), Romanticism to Post‑WWII for Professor C.D. Cecil.
1986: Teaching Assistant, McGill University. Survey of English Literature I (201A), Chaucer to Romanticism, for Professor Mary Davison.
1981‑84: Volunteer Assistant, Lemberg Community Centre, Brandeis University, Boston. Supervision, evaluation and teaching children between the ages of two and five years old.
Summer School, Extension and Continuing Education
“Romantic Poetry”, a summer course at the University of Northampton, England, summer 1999.