Irline François

Associate ProfessorWomen, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Irline François is an Associate Professor of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Goucher College, Maryland. She teaches courses on transnational feminist theory, Latin American women’s social movements, Haitian history/culture of resistance as expressed in the arts, and Brazilian gender and migration. She was a Fulbright teaching/research award recipient in Brazil 2010-2011, at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She was also a FMS Mellon fellow at Cornell University in 2009, and a research fellow at the Women’s Center (Archivio delle Donne) at the University of Naples, Italy in 2007. Her areas of expertise include Pan-Caribbean women writers, Afro-Latin, Afro-diasporic media and film studies, and diasporic/women of color feminisms. Dr. Francois recently edited a volume on narrations and contemporary forms of historiography entitled Writings on Caribbean Writings, History, Literature, Art and Culture One Love. (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK, 2018.) She has translated from French into English, Mémoire d’une Amnésique (Memoir of an Amnesiac) by Jan Dominique (Caribbean Studies Press, 2008). She has also published several articles and a book chapter on Francophone, Caribbean, and Latin American women writers.

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Research, Scholarship, Creative Work in Progress

Dr. Francois’s research focuses on the literary and historical experiences of African-descendant women and men from the Caribbean, Western Europe and the Americas. Her scholarship has evolved and includes issues of migration, memory, language, European and American colonialism, black feminist intellectual production, the psychic cost of slavery from a comparative perspective, geography’s role in rethinking the politics and social struggle of marginalized groups, and historical haunting and healing through visual cultural arts. She is currently completing the writing of a book entitled, Longings, Belongings and Un-belongings: Haunting Narratologies in Haiti and the Americas. It examines how historical haunting has impacted the Afro-gendered subject in the Americas.

Publications

EDITED VOLUME

Writings on Caribbean History, Literature, Art and Culture: One Love. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK  (Spring 2018)

BOOK CHAPTERS

Reflections of a Transnational Caribbeanist following the murder of AfroBrazilian female political activist, Marielle Franco in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on March 14, 2018. (Under Submission)

‘Écrire á la hauteur de ce malheur debout et juste, ‘Haiti After the Earthquake: The Shape, Role and Power of Writing, Ed. Emmanuelle Anne Vanborre. Currents in Comparative Romance Languages and Literatures, Peter Lang Publishers (Fall 2014): 111-122. Print.

Dictionary of Caribbean and Latin American Biography, Contributor Section; Jan J Dominique, Editors Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Franklin W. Knight, Oxford University Press, (Fall 2015)          

BOOK

Translation of Novel from French into English. Mémoire d’une Amnésique [Memoir of an Amnesiac] by Jan Dominique.  Caribbean Studies Press, (January 2008)

REFEREED ARTICLES AND ESSAYS IN PRINT

“Gendered Use of Violence in the Caribbean.”  Co-Editor. Introduction.  Anglistica: Violence in the Caribbean. An Interdisciplinary Journal of English and Italian Cultural Studies: Anglistica, 14, (2010) 1-5.

“Paradise Deferred: Utopia, Eutopia, and Dystopia in Myriam Warner-Vieyra’s Juletane.”

Anglistica, 14, (2010), 71-82.

“From Confinement to Freedom: Jan  Dominique’s Mémoire d’une Amnésique.  Écrire en pays assiégé. Haiti Writing Under Siege.” Eds. Marie-Agnès Sourieau and Kathleen M. Balutansky. Rodopi. Amsterdam, New York. (Winter 2004): 285-301.

 “ The Daffodil Gap: Jamaica  Kincaid’s Lucy. ” Ma Comère. Ed. Jacqueline Brice-Finch. Vol 4. (Spring 2002): 84-100

 “ ‘Under Feminist Eyes’ Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso  Sea.”  Transatlantiques: Atlantic Cross-Currents. Eds. Susan Z. Andrade and Eileen Julien. Vol  9. (Winter 2002) New Jersey: Africa World Press. 117-128.

External Awards, Honors, Grants

2011-2012    
Fulbright Teaching/Research Grantee. Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Cinema e  Género Internacional Da Afrodiáspora Núcleo de Estudos das Performances Afro-Ameríndias (NEPAA) Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

2007
University of Naples, Italy, Archivio Delle Donne.  Visiting Fellow

2005
Mellon Fellow. The Future of Minority Studies (FMS) Summer Institute at Cornell University, “Feminist Identities/Global Struggles.” 

Conference Papers & Panel Participation

“Sycorax’s Daughters: Suzanne Césaire and Christiane Taubira.” Caribbean Studies Association, (CSA) Santa Marta, Colombia. Presenter. June 4 - June 7, 2019.

“Nas Seguimos na Luta: Reflections of a Transnationalist, Intersectional Caribbeanist following the murder of Afro-Brazilian feminist political activist, Marielle Franco in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in March 14, 2018.” Latin American Studies Association (LASA) Boston, MA. May 24-May 27, 2019.

“Haunting Capital: Comparative Representations of Slavery in Brazil and Haiti, Northeast Modern Language Association, (NeMLA) Washington, DC. March 21-24, 2019.

“Contrapuntal Dimensions of Afro-Caribbean Spirituality in the works of Cuban and Haitian artists: María Magdalena Campos-Pons and Édouard Duval-Carrié,” Chair and Presenter, Caribbean Studies Association. (CSA) Havana, Cuba, June 4-8, 2018

“Honoring and Re-membering Michelle Cliff.” NEMLA. Northeast Modern Language Association. Pittsburgh, PA. April 12-15, 2018

“Women’s Bodies at Checkpoints, Borders, and in Refugee Camps,” Chair. National Women Studies Association. (NWSA) Baltimore, Maryland. November 16-19, 2017

“Gendered States of Injury: Biopower, Necropolitics, Decolonial Aesthetics, and Feminist theory in the works of Edwidge Danticat and Junot Díaz. NEMLA. Northeast Modern Language Association. Baltimore, Maryland. March 24-March 26, 2017                                        

“Haiti’s Genealogies of Resistance: Decoloniality, Dis-possession, State Complicity and Matrices of Violence at the Empire’s Return.” Decoloniality. National Women’s Studies Association. (NWSA) Montreal, Canada, November 10-13, 2016

“Haunting Capital, Legacies and Lifelines’ in Évelyne Trouillot’s The Infamous Rosalie.”

Caribbean Studies Association. (CSA) Port-au-Prince, Haiti, June 5-11, 2016

“History, Memory and Forgetting: Danticat, Dominique, and Lahens’s Haunting Narratologies.” Collegium for African American Research, CAAR, Liverpool Hope University, June 24-28, 2015

 “One Love: Examining Contemporary Caribbean Literatures and Cultures.” Roundtable Chair. 46th Annual Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association”. Chair. NEMLA, Toronto, Canada, April 30, 2015- May 3, 2015                                              

“Pedagogical approaches to the Literature of the Caribbean Diaspora.” 45th Annual Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association, NEMLA, Susquehanna University. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, April 3-6, 2014                                              

“Haunting Narratologies’: Yanick Lahens’ Failles and Edwidge Danticat’s Creating Dangerously.” Haitian Studies Association.  HSA, Representations, Revisions, Responsibilities: New Narratives for Haiti. Port-au-Prince, Haiti, November 7-9, 2013      

‘Témoignages, Cris et Refondement dans Failles de Yanick Lahens,” 23rd Annual Conference Haiti at the Intersection of the Caribbean: Tracing the Past, Mapping the Future, Haitian Studies Association. HSA. University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston, Jamaica. 10-12 November 2011                      

“Feminist Pedagogies of the Transnational: Conflicts, Contexts and Solidarity. Difficult Dialogues II,” NWSA (National Women’s Studies Association). Denver, Colorado, November 11-14, 2010                                               

“Ne pas Craquer: Railroad Tracks, Gitanes and Rum: Claire Denis’s 35 Shots of Rum.” CAAR (Collegium for African-American Research). Paris, France April 6-9, 2010

 “Cappuccinos, Gitanes, and Rum Barbancourt?, Mèsi BonDié: Claire Denis’ 35 Shots of Rum.” MESEA (The Society for Multi-Ethnic Studies: Europe and the Americas) University of Pécs,  Hungary. (June 2010)

“Gendered Regimes of Injury: Haunting Specters, Re-memory of Violence in Edwidge Danticat’s The Dew Breaker and Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao University of Lisbon, Portugal. (November 2009)

“One of these Things is Not Like the Other: Brazil in the Small Liberal Arts College Curriculum.” LASA (Latin American Studies Association), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (June 2009)

“The Caribbean Unbound”: Franklin College Conference Gendering Hispaniola Migration: Haiti and the Dominican Republic. 10th International Interdisciplinary Congress of Women, Women’s Worlds Conference. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain (July, 2008)

 “Gender and Nation in Literary Narratives of Migration.”: 6th MESEA Conference: Migration Matters: Immigration, Homelands and Border Crossings in Europe and the Americas. University of Leiden, Netherlands (June, 2008)                                         

Academic or Professional Associations

  • BRASA: Brazilian Studies Association
  • CAAR: Collegium for African American Research
  • CSA: Caribbean Studies Association
  • HSA: Haitian Studies Association
  • FULBRIGHT Association Peer Reviewer
  • LASA: Latin American Studies Association
  • MESEA: The Society for Multi Ethnic Studies: Europe and the Americas
  • NEMLA: Northeast Modern Languages Association
  • NWSA: National Women’s Studies Association