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Caroline Laurent

Assistant Professor, Department Chair, French Studies and Modern Language

  • Department: French Studies and Modern Languages

Professor Laurent began teaching at AUP in 2021. At AUP, she teaches French as well as courses on Francophone cultures and literatures. Before joining AUP, she taught Postcolonial Studies at Sciences Po - Saint-Germain-en-Laye in France, African and 91Ž«Ăœ Literature at King's College London in England, and French Language and Romance Literatures at Harvard University in the United States.

Laurent's research deals with twentieth- and twenty-first-century French and Francophone literatures and cultures, with special emphasis on Metropolitan France, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia. Her book manuscript,ÌęThe Words of Others: Remembering and Writing Genocide as an Indirect Witness, examines literary and graphic representations of genocidal violence. She focuses on the Holocaust, the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, and the Khmer Rouge genocide and mass killings in Cambodia. Specifically, by connecting the authors’ representational strategies to critical theories related to memory studies, she examines how indirect witnesses, that is individuals who did not literally or personally experience genocide, problematize their own testimonial acts. Her newest project entitledÌęConnected Histories of (Post)Coloniality: Circulation and Reception of Art Representing a Diverse Francophone PastÌęconsiders the representation and dissemination of histories through art forms, with the aim of dismantling a monolithic national(istic) narrative. By insisting on their creation, their circulation, and their reception, she shows how these historical representations encourage the formation of a new heritage that encompasses different communities. The foregoing creative processes also point to their perpetual transformation that would allow for new decolonized epistemologies and ways to illuminate the past in a context which is Francophone, but also alive in its plural, global, as well as multilingual realities.



Education/Degrees

  • Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures. Harvard University, 2016.
  • M.Phil. in European Literature and Culture. Christ's College, The University of Cambridge, 2006.
  • BA (Hons) in 91Ž«Ăœ Literature and History & Social Sciences. The American University of Paris, 2004.

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News

  • “Caine Prize 2023: Senegalese writers win for fantasy-horror story about dangers facing girls.”ÌęThe Conversation Africa. 16 October 2023.
  • “Mohamed Mbougar Sarr: Senegalese novelist's win is a landmark for African literature.”ÌęThe Conversation Africa. 9 November 2021.
  • “Goncourt Literary Prize - Senegal's Mohamed Mbougar Sarr wins prestigious award.”ÌęEye on Africa, France 24. 3 November 2021.
  • “David Diop: his haunting account of a Senegalese soldier that won the Booker prize.”ÌęThe Conversation Africa. 3 June 2021.
  • “Our World in Graphics.” Audio blog post with Haya Alfarhan.ÌęArts and Humanities Now. King’s College London, 7 August 2019.

Publications

Articles

  • “The Haunting Image and Memorial Construction for the 1.5 Generation: S-21/Tuol Sleng in Francophone Sequential Art.”ÌęTuol Sleng Genocide Museum: A Multifacted History of the Khmer Rouge Crimes, edited by StĂ©phanie Benzaquen-Gautier and Anne-Laure PorĂ©e, Brill, 2024, pp. 226-44.
  • “Secrets de famille et fantĂŽmes/compulsion spectrale dansÌęCent mille journĂ©es de priĂšresÌęde Hui Phang et Sterckeman.”ÌęSquelettes, ectoplasmes et fantĂŽmes, edited by FrĂ©dĂ©ric Chauvaud and Denis Mellier, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2023, pp. 119-41.
  • “MĂ©moire et Imag(e)ination : La ReprĂ©sentation de la violence et du gĂ©nocide cambodgien par l’art sĂ©quentiel.”ÌęArt sĂ©quentiel et catastrophes, edited by Charlotte Krauss and Françoise Lavocat, Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle, 2022, pp.Ìę275-96.
  • “Embodiment and Transmission: An Interview with Franco-Cambodian cartoonist Tian Veasna.” Interview with Angelica P. So.ÌęJournal of Graphic Novels and Comics, vol. 13, no. 3, 2022, pp. 486-98. DOI:Ìę
  • “Vers une mĂ©moire partagĂ©e des tirailleurs sĂ©nĂ©galais.”ÌęMemWar - Memorie e oblii delle guerre e dei traumi del XX secolo, edited by Roberto Francavilla, Anna Giaufret, and Laura Quercioli Mincer, Genova UP, 2021, pp. 51-68.
  • “Voyageurs malgrĂ© eux: Silence, Embodiment, and Exposure in Doan Bui and Minh Tran Huy.”ÌęFrench Cultural Studies, vol. 32, no. 4, 2021, pp. 346-63. DOI:ÌęÌę
  • “Le gĂ©nocide rwandais : L’Ecrivain-tĂ©moin indirect comme ‘donneur d’échos’ dansÌęMoisson de crĂąnesÌęde Waberi.”ÌęNouvelles Ă©tudes francophones, edited by Nicoletta Dolce and Irena Trujic, vol. 30, no. 1, University of Nebraska Press, Spring 2015, pp. 79-90. DOI:Ìę

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Conferences & Lectures

  • “Reclaiming Việt Nam: Memory and Embodied Transmission in Papin’sÌęLes Os des filles.”ÌęWomen, Memory, and Intergenerational Transmission in the Francophone World. Women in French Australia. Virtual Seminar Series, 29 November 2023.
  • “The Presence of Perec’sÌęJe me souviens
Ìęin Francophone Works or How to Create a Literary Memory of Past Traumatic Events.”ÌęPerecÌę: Je me souviens. Je me souviens de Perec. Perec: I remember.ÌęI remember Perec. MLA Convention 2023. San Francisco, 5-8 January 2023.
  • “PassĂ©, exil et souffrance : le corps-archive dansÌęLes Os des fillesÌęde Line Papin.”ÌęSELF XX-XXI – ExpĂ©riences. Paris, 16-18 June 2022.
  • “(Mi)Lieu de mĂ©moire: Southeast Asian Identities in Paris’s Chinatown.”ÌęPostcolonial Realms of Memory: Sites and Symbols in the Modern Francosphere. Winthrop-King Institute for Contemporary French and Francophone Studies. Florida State University. Tallahassee, 7-8 October 2021.
  • “Entomological Re-Appropriation of Propagandist Rhetoric: FromÌęInyenziÌętoÌęPhalĂšneÌęin Koulsy Lamko.”ÌęNarrating Violence: Making Race, Making Difference.ÌęNordic Summer University Study Circle Narrative and Violence and The George and Irina Schaeffer Center for the Study of Genocide, Human Rights, and Conflict Prevention at The American University of Paris. Paris, 29-31 March 2021.
  • “Through Mati Diop’s Eyes: Representing Social and Gender Realities of Women in Senegal.”ÌęVisual Africa: Francophone Women’s Aesthetic Representations of AfricaÌę(WiF Roundtable), NeMLA Conference 2021. Virtual Convention, 11-14 March 2021.
  • “‘Je’ to ‘Tu’ in Loo Hui Phang’sÌ곱’IłŸ±è°ùłÜ»ć±đČÔłŠ±đ: Siblings in Stories of Migration and Exile.”ÌęSiblings in French and Francophone Literature, NeMLA Conference 2021. Virtual Convention, 11-14 March 2021.
  • “Forgetting and Remembering France’sÌęTirailleurs SĂ©nĂ©galais.”ÌęMemWar – Memory and Oblivion of Twentieth-Century Wars and Trauma. UniversitĂ  di Genova. Virtual Conference, 9-11 December 2020.
  • “Secrets de famille et compulsion spectrale dansÌęCent mille journĂ©es de priĂšresÌęde Hui Phang et Sterckeman.”ÌęSquelettes, ectoplasmes et fantĂŽmes. AngoulĂȘme – CIBDI, 18-19 November 2020.
  • “Hybridity and Writing: The Representation of Violence in Rwanda and Burundi.”ÌęNarrating GenocideÌę(Roundtable), NeMLA Conference 2020. Boston, 5-8 March 2020.
  • “Being and Belonging: from ‘I’ to ‘We’ in ClĂ©ment Baloup’sÌęViệt KiềuÌęMemoirs.”ÌęNarrative Voice in Autobiographical Graphic Novels, NeMLA Conference 2020. Boston, 5-8 March 2020.
  • “‘Presque malgrĂ© nous, nous commencions de nous Ă©tablir en ces lieux oĂč nous n’avions pensĂ© que passer’: Migration and Embodied Silence in Franco-Vietnamese Literature.”ÌęNarratives of Forced Migration in The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. University of Stirling. Stirling, 16-18 September 2019.
  • “‘Je l’ai cherchĂ©e sans plus y croire’: Victims and Survivors of the Khmers Rouges inÌęLa Colline empoisonnĂ©eÌęby Poustochkine.”Ìę“The Missing Picture”: Rethinking Genocide Studies and Prevention, International Association of Genocide Scholars 2019 Conference. American University of Phnom Penh. Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 14-19 July 2019.
  • “ListeningÌęto Others: Writing the Rwandan Genocide as an Indirect Witness.”ÌęThinking with Jean-Luc Nancy, Oxford International Conference 2019. Oxford, 28-30 March 2019.
  • “Violence, or the Memory of Childhood in GaĂ«l Faye’sÌęPetit Pays.” ASAUK: African Studies Association in the UK 2018 Conference. University of Birmingham. Birmingham, 11-13 September 2018.
  • “‘RĂ©sister, par tous les moyens’: Mobilisation in the Dystopian Political Work of Karim Amellal’sÌęBleu Blanc Noir.”ÌęSous les pavĂ©s, Contemporary French and Francophone Studies Colloquium. Brown University. Providence, 12-14 April 2018.
  • “The Haunting Image and Memorial Construction: Tuol Sleng in French Comic Books.” ACLA Conference 2017. Utrecht University. Utrecht, the Netherlands, 6-9 July 2017.
  • “‘C’est le chemin qui dĂ©cide de l’endroit oĂč tu vas atterrir:’ The Plural Representation of Migration in Barroux and Bessora’s graphic novelÌęAlpha.” Cincinnati Conference on Romance and Arabic Languages & Literatures. University of Cincinnati. Cincinnati, 31 March-1 April 2017.
  • “Beyond Borders: How to ‘Openly’ Speak of the Rwandan Genocide Through Literature.”ÌęGlobal Trajectories: Towards New Critical Horizons, Inaugural French and Francophone Graduate Conference. Harvard University. Cambridge, 12 May 2016.
  • “Between Life and Death, Past and Present: The Heritage of a Specter inÌęLa PhalĂšne des collinesÌęby Lamko.”ÌęPassages, Seuils, Portes, Contemporary French and Francophone Studies Colloquium. St. Louis, 17-19 March 2016.
  • “MĂ©moire et Imag(e)ination: La ReprĂ©sentation de la violence et du gĂ©nocide cambodgien par l’art sĂ©quentiel.”ÌęSequential Art and Catastrophes: Comics, Mangas, Graphic Novels. UniversitĂ© Paris 3- Sorbonne Nouvelle. Paris, 11- 13 February 2016.
  • “Le GĂ©nocide rwandais: Voix collective et mĂ©moire multidirectionnelle (Moisson de crĂąnesÌęde Waberi).” Congress of theÌęConseil InternationalÌęd’Etudes Francophones. San Francisco, 29 June-6 July 2014.
  • “The Pain of Incest in DĂ©wĂ© Gorodé’sÌ곱’ÉpČč±č±đ: from the Individual to the Caledonian Nation.”ÌęThe Poetics of Pain, Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference. CUNY. New York, 25-26 February 2010.

Affiliations

  • Memory Studies Association
  • Modern Language Association
  • International Association of Genocide Scholars
  • British 91Ž«Ăœ Literature Association
  • Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies
  • Northeast Modern Language Association
  • Women in French

Research Areas

  • 20th- and 21st-century French and Francophone Literatures;
  • 91Ž«Ăœ Genocide Studies;
  • History and Memory;
  • Psychoanalysis;
  • Postcolonial Studies;
  • Diaspora Literature;
  • Cultural Studies;
  • Graphic Novels and Narratives;
  • Popular Culture