About
I came to the University of Birmingham as an undergraduate back in 1987 (don’t do the maths!) and I have never left. I have been with the department of French Studies since 1996 and currently hold the position of Teaching Fellow.
Biography
I graduated from the University of Birmingham in 1991 with a first class degree in French Studies (I spent my Year Abroad at the Université de Bourgogne, in Dijon, where I was awarded the DEUG). I stayed on to do a PhD and began teaching almost straight away, becoming a full-time member of staff in 1996.
Teaching
I teach French language on the BA programme at all levels (first-, second- and final-year), with a little bit of literature in first year. My language students can find extra support on my grammar pages.
Translating (from French into English) is one of my passions. I hold the Institute of Linguists' Diploma in Translation (2001), and I am an Associate Member of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting. I periodically work as a business interpreter at trade fairs, on behalf of the French Trade Commission, and I have recently worked as a translator for a French company specialising in alarm systems, and another working in the field of bathymetrics.
I am currently teaching on the MA Translation Studies (European languages and cultures pathway) and on the final-year Translation Theory and Practice module.
Research
My post is teaching-only, but I still find time to dabble in a little research. These days I am interested in Europe’s rather complicated relationship with the e-book and how Google’s attempts to bring Book Search to our continent have fared.
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Conference paper: ‘Europe and the e-book: a love-hate relationship’, delivered at Material Cultures 2010: Technology, Textuality and Transmission (Centre for the History of the Book, University of Edinburgh), July 2010.
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Conference paper: ‘When is a book not a book? New definitions in the digital age.’, delivered at the U21 Conference: Cultural Heritage and Technology (University of Birmingham), September 2010.
Other activities
In June 2010, I won the New Talent in Translation prize, organised by the French Book Office (Ambassade de France), judged by Adriana Hunter (literary translator), Will Hobson (contributing editor to Granta magazine and literary translator), and Alison Samuel (former Publishing Director of Chatto & Windus). The two source texts were an extract from François Beaune's Un Homme louche and an extract from Alain Mabanckou's Black Bazar.
Publications
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2001: ‘Promoting the Development of Speaking Skills’ (a module for the DELPHI project – Developing Language Professionals in Higher Education Institutions).
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1999: ‘The Language Group Project’, Birmingham University Teaching Forum (joint paper with Dr Damamme-Gilbert, November)
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1999: an informal presentation of the first-year language lectures, at a Learning in Large Groups staff development course at Birmingham (April)
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1999: ‘Language Provisions: Second Year and Beyond’, Birmingham French Studies Teaching Seminar (February)
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1998: ‘Integrating skills in an active learning environment: The Example of a second year language group project’, CILT/SCHML conference on ‘Language Learning Futures’ (May), University of Leeds Metropolitan (joint paper with Dr Damamme-Gilbert) .
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1998: ‘Independent group work in poetry seminars’, Good Practice in Teaching: volume 2, ed. by Ros McCulloch and Ann Morton (SDU, University of Birmingham, 1998), ISBN 0 7044 1956 4, pp.34-36.
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Finally, my PhD (awarded in 1999) was on the subject of The Female Subject in French Renaissance Women’s Vernacular Writing Before 1560: Rewriting the Models in Poetry and Prose Fiction.
Relevant publications
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2004 : ‘Les Contes amoureux de Jeanne Flore et les fictions du sujet féminin’, Actualité de Jeanne Flore : Dix-sept études réunies par Diane DESROSIERS-BONIN & Éliane VIENNOT, avec la collaboration de Régine Reynolds-Cornell (Paris : Honoré Champion, 2004), pp.145-164.
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1999: ‘Jeanne Flore’s Contes Amoureux and Fictions of the Female Subject’, in Women’s Writing in the French Renaissance, Proceedings of the Fifth Cambridge Renaissance Colloquium, 7th-9th July 1997 (Cambridge: Cambridge French Colloquia, 1999), pp.45-61.