Dorthea Fronsman-Cecil

My background: “My area of expertise is modern and contemporary metropolitan France. I specialize in contemporary cultural productions representing economics, labor, class, and the search for subjective fulfillment within work and leisure. Currently, I am working on the manuscript for my first book, which won the Peter Lang Young Scholars Competition in French in 2019 and will be published in 2022. The book examines the French punk subculture’s texts, from novels and zines to songs and poetry. I analyze how they generate aesthetic and political theories, envision satisfying work, and reclaim urban space for marginalized communities.”

This fall I’m teaching: “I will be teaching FREN 101, FREN 103, and FREN 323. During the spring semester, I will offer two more language classes and another 300-level course.”

What students can expect from me: “Students can expect to engage with different media and get real-world linguistic input in my language and content courses. I love teaching grammar, and my students say that I make complicated grammatical structures easy to understand and learn. By using holistic teaching methods such as games and movement exercises in my class, I try to make the atmosphere of the class joyful, even in the fast-paced language class environment.”

I’m excited to be here because: “I am excited to teach students at Lafayette about the relationship between classical, canonical literary writing and the resistant texts of subcultures and avant-garde artistic movements in modern and contemporary France. In addition to being eager to teach my research, I am looking forward to using some wonderful new hybrid teaching resources and universal design to create a fun, flexible learning environment for my language students.”

Read about other new faculty members.