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French & Italian Faculty


  • Department Chair

  • Lucile Duperron
    Associate Professor of French (2000; 2002).
    Bosler Hall Room 111
    duperron@dickinson.edu
    (717) 245-1691

  • Department Faculty

  • Nancy C. Mellerski

    Nancy C. Mellerski
    Professor of French and Film Studies (1977).
    Bosler Hall Room 205
    (717) 245-1248 | mellersk@dickinson.edu | Visit Web Site
    B.A., State University of New York at Binghamton, 1966; M.A., University of Toronto, 1968; Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1980.

    She specializes in French literature of the 20th century, focusing on the evolution of the modern novel, narrative and feminist theory; and in cinema studies. Her most recent research and publications are in the fields of film, particularly the reconstruction of the Vichy period in French cinema, and in comparative detective fiction. Professor Mellerski teaches in the Film Studies Minor program as well.

  • Sylvie G. Davidson

    Sylvie G. Davidson
    Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures; John J. Curley '60 and Ann Conser Curley '63 Faculty Chair in Global Education (1979).
    Bosler Hall Room 124
    (717) 245-1598 | davidson@dickinson.edu
    Licence-ès-Lettres, Université de Montpellier, 1967; Maîtrise d'Italien, 1968; Doctorat ès Lettres, 1978.
    Ganoe Award for Inspirational Teaching, 1995-1996; Dickinson Award for Distinguished Teaching, 2004-2005.

    Professor Davidson has directed the Toulouse year program and the Bologna Summer Immersion program on several occasions and is engaged in issues related to global education. Her scholarship has concentrated on French and Italian literatures, fine arts, and music of the Renaissance and 17th century. Her current research is centered on Humanism in Southern France.

  • Catherine A. Beaudry

    Catherine A. Beaudry
    Associate Professor of French (1987).
    Bosler Hall Room 218
    (717) 245-1275 | beaudry@dickinson.edu
    B.A., Catholic University, 1975; M.A., Columbia University, 1980; M. Phil., 1985; Ph.D., 1987.

    Her scholarship has focused on 18th century French literature, particularly Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the advent of autobiography in modern culture. Her current research involves reader-oriented criticism and the use of Speech Act Theory in literary analysis.

  • Dominique Laurent

    Dominique Laurent
    Associate Professor of French (1995).
    Bosler Hall Room 221
    (717) 245-1299 | laurent@dickinson.edu | Visit Web Site
    Licence, Universite Catholique de L'ouest, 1978; M.A., Vanderbilt University, 1985; Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University, 1996.

    His research examines the image of America in the French press in the XIXth and XXth centuries. He has been teaching French language and civilization classes (Fr 116, Fr 230, Fr 236) and senior seminars (Fr 365) on "The French press" and "France between the Wars". In addition Professor Laurent has taught a freshman seminar on "The Great War" (fall 2000). In the fall of 2002 he will be teaching another freshman seminar on "America in the eyes of the world".1

  • Lucile Duperron

    Lucile Duperron
    Associate Professor of French (2000; 2002).
    Bosler Hall Room 111
    (717) 245-1691 | duperron@dickinson.edu
    B.A., Université; Lumière-Lyon, 1988; M.A., 1991; M.A., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1997; Ph.D., 2003.

    Her research is in the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). It focuses on the psycholinguistic factors involved in language learning, especially how input (the linguistic data that learners receive) shapes second language (L2) learners' evolving grammar. She is currently working on the role of input in the L2 acquisition of tense and aspect in the classroom and the study abroad environments.

  • Ian Andrew MacDonald

    Ian Andrew MacDonald
    Assistant Professor of French (2006).
    Bosler Hall Room 117
    (717) 245-1756 | macdonai@dickinson.edu
    B.A., Mount Allison University, 1993; M.A., University of Colorado at Boulder, 1996; Ph.D., 2004.

    His research interests include community-based performance, improvisation, and the socially and politically engaged theatre of contemporary France. Most recently he has presented conference papers on the theatre of Hélène Cixous and the Théâtre du Soleil, and on strategies for social action in the theatre of Armand Gatti.

  • Benjamin Ngong

    Benjamin Ngong
    Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies (2007).
    Bosler Hall Room 110
    (717) 245-1738 | ngongb@dickinson.edu
    Licence ès-Lettres Modernes, Université de Yaoundé, 1988; Maitrise ès Lettres Modernes; D.E.A., Littératures française et comparée, Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens (France), 1991; Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 2007.

    His research and teaching interests include 20th-century French novel, Francophone African and Caribbean literatures, cultures, and film, colonial and postcolonial studies. His published and forthcoming articles focus on the relationship of power to social and political violence as portrayed in African and Caribbean literature and film.

  • Anna E. Hudson

    Anna E. Hudson
    Visiting Instructor in French (2005).
    Bosler Hall Room 13M
    (717) 245-1045 | hudsona@dickinson.edu
    B.A., Millersville University, 1976; M.A., Westminster Theological Seminary, 1978; M.A., University of California at Santa Barbara, 1987 .

    Her interest is bringing the Francophone and German speaking worlds to the beginning levels of the classroom. Her specialty in second language acquisition is teaching not only how to communicate in both languages, but to also make connections and comparisons between our culture and the various communities of those worlds, so that the students will one day be able to use their target language globally.

  • Sylvie Toux

    Sylvie Toux
    Resident Director of the Dickinson Toulouse Center and Program (2004).

    touxs@dickinson.edu
    Licence, Université de Bourgogne, France, 1983; Maitrise. French, 1984 & Maitrise, Theatre, 1992, Université de Paris; D.E.A., French, Université de Paris, 1985; D.E.A., Modern Language & Literature, Universit&eacute de Bourgogne, 198