Associate Professor of French
Biography
Dr. MacLeod teaches all levels of French and has recently taught courses on the Francophone graphic novel, childhood in Francophone literature, an introduction to Francophone film, and an introduction to the history and cultures of the Francophone world. His courses at all levels frequently incorporate digital and audio-visual projects such as podcasts, digital stories, and student-designed graphic novels. As an undergraduate at Bowdoin College, Dr. MacLeod spent a year studying French and Francophone literature in West Africa at Université Gaston Berger, in St. Louis, Sénégal. After graduating with a B.A. in French literature in 2005, he lived in Clermont-Ferrand, France for two years, working as an English teaching assistant at the Université Blaise Pascal. He has also conducted research and presented at international conferences in Haiti, Algeria, and Rwanda.
In his research, Dr. MacLeod examines how contemporary Francophone African authors and filmmakers respond to collective and individual stories of violence. His 2020 article in Research in African Literatures shows how a filmmaker and Tutsi genocide survivor was inspired by social-media and dating websites to make an innovative transmedia documentary about love in post-genocide Rwanda. He has also published in The Irish Journal of French Studies, Contemporary French Civilization, and the French journal Etudes Littéraires Africaines on topics ranging from novels about child soldiers, Rwandan tutsi survivor testimony, and the zombie in Quebecois film.
Areas of Research Specialization
- Francophone African Literature, Film, and Culture; Representations of the child soldier; literature, film, and testimony of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda
Areas of Teaching Specialization
- Francophone Literature, Film and Culture; Francophone Africa, Caribbean, Canada, North Africa, and multicultural France; French language instruction at all levels
Internal Affiliations
Education
-
B.A. in French Literature at Bowdoin College, 2005
-
M.A. in French and Francophone Studies at The University of Pennsylvania, 2011
-
Ph.D. in French and Francophone Studies at The University of Pennsylvania, 2016