Lesley Walker
Associate Professor
Chair since July 2004
Education
PhD, University of Minnesota
Background:
I completed my PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota in 1996; spent a semester as an Ahmanson-Getty Fellow at UCLA; and joined the IU South Bend faculty in the fall of 1997.
Teaching Interests:
I teach all levels of French language, literature, and culture as well as an occasional general education course, called “A Short History of Love.” In fall 2008, I taught a class on the French Revolution that focused on the history and literature from the period and its later filmic representations. Last summer, I team-taught for the second time a course with my colleague in English, Joseph Chaney, that included a three-week study trip to London and Paris. In addition to French studies, I have an abiding interest in cinema and African literature and have developed new courses in these areas and plan to continue these efforts.
Research Interests:
My research field is eighteenth-century French studies, specifically women's art and literature. My book, A Mother’s Love: Crafting Feminine Virtue in Enlightenment France was published in 2008 by Bucknell Unversity Press. Last October, I organized along with my colleague Dr. Julia Douthwaite, Professor of French at the University of Notre Dame, an international conference on the French Revolution that welcomed scholars from France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, and the United States. I continue to conduct research on French women writers and artists, but my time frame has shifted to the postrevolutionary period from about 1795 to 1830.
