Faculty Profile
Benjamin Ngong
Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies (2007)
Contact Information
Bosler Hall Room 110
717.245.1738
Bio
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.
Education
- 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
2016-2017 Academic Year
Fall 2016
FREN 201 Intermediate French
Intensive second-year study of French, with attention to grammar review, conversation, reading in a cultural context and some writing.
Prerequisite: 102 or the equivalent. This course fulfills the language graduation requirement.
FREN 201 Intermediate French
Intensive second-year study of French, with attention to grammar review, conversation, reading in a cultural context and some writing.
Prerequisite: 102 or the equivalent. This course fulfills the language graduation requirement.
FREN 236 Intro to Cultural Analysis
An introduction to the practice of reading and writing about French and francophone themes in an analytical and contextualized way. This course considers how cultural production conveys ideologies, values and norms expressed in both historical and contemporary contexts. Normally offered as writing-intensive.
Prerequisite: 230.
Spring 2017
FREN 230 Comm in Fr & Francophone Cont
Intensive oral and written practice of French in the context of issues and themes such as a sense of place, the lessons of time, the social contract, and intellectual and artistic life. This course makes use of texts, films, multi media and interactive computer strategies in the development of conversational and writing skills. Intended as the gateway to the major or minor in French and Francophone Studies.
Prerequisite: 201 or the equivalent.
FREN 364 Francophone Afr Novelist Diasp
This course examines the movement between Africa and France, the dream destination for many Sub-Saharan Francophone Africans who have made their way to France, either as students or workers throughout the 20th Century. The course invites reflection on transnational movements from the perspective of Francophone African authors and filmmakers, whose works are supplemented by readings documenting relevant social and historical phenomena such as the “Tirailleurs Sénégalais,” “Sapeurs,” and “Sans-papiers.” Students read across the spectrum of French immigration literature, relevant historical, sociological, or critical texts and review films, both documentary and fiction.
Prerequisite: 245 or 246, or at least a semester of study in Toulouse or Yaoundé, or permission of the instructor. Priority given to senior majors in French.