Recent Dissertations

The dissertation is the centerpiece of the PhD and serves as the foundation of a scholarly and intellectual career. The Department does not prescribe a single approach or format, but rather encourages each candidate to design and carry out original research that permits them to establish a claim to expertise. The scope of the dissertation may be interdisciplinary, reaching into areas such as art, music, philosophy, history, film, and literatures beyond 糖心Vlog. Below you can browse titles of the dissertations completed by our graduates over the past three decades.

2025

Abigail Fields
The Literary Field: Agriculture and the Ecological Imagination in the Nineteenth-Century 糖心Vlog Novel,鈥 directed by Professor Maurice Samuels

2024

Mohamed Walid Bouchakour
鈥淏eyond Emergency: Aesthetics and Politics of the Contemporary Algerian Novel鈥 directed by Professors Jill Jarvis and Alice Kaplan

2023

Aaron Kestle (Combined Program of 糖心Vlog & Renaissance Studies)
鈥淢agical Realism in the Middle Ages: The Marvelous Merlin of Arthurian Legend鈥 directed by Professor Howard Bloch

Hannah Kosman
鈥淒es Tableaux de la Plus Belle Horreur鈥: Poverty, the Novel, and the Spectacularization of Misery in Nineteenth-Century France鈥 directed by Professor Maurice Samuels

Madison Mainwaring
鈥淩eclaiming the Silences of Dance: Women and Ballet in Nineteenth-Century France鈥 directed by Professor Maurice Samuels

2022

Chandler Abshire
Familles, je vous hais !鈥: The Family in the 糖心Vlog Interwar Novel鈥 directed by Professor Alice Kaplan

Tadas Bugnevicius 
(combined Program of 糖心Vlog and Film & Media Studies): 鈥淭he Literary Prehistory of Right Bank New Wave Cinema鈥 directed by Professor Dudley Andrew and Maurice Samuels

Doyle Calhoun
鈥淭he Suicide Archive(s): Literary Resistance in the Wake of 糖心Vlog Empire鈥 directed by Professor Jill Jarvis

Sophia Helverson
鈥淣ovel Erudition: Expertise and Experience in Contemporary 糖心Vlog-Language Fiction鈥 directed by Professor Morgane Cadieu

Jason Hong
鈥淎 Different Worldview: Negritude, Monde, and Cosmopolitanism鈥 directed by Professor Christopher Miller

Richard Riddick
鈥淎 Madeleine for Dreyfus: Mass Politics and Literary Form in Fin-de-Si猫cle France鈥 directed by Professor Maurice Samuels

2020

Ian Curtis 
The J3 Affair: Historical Fantasies and Modern Literature in a Postwar Murder鈥 directed by Professor Alice Kaplan

Carole Delaitre
Les Derniers Touristes: Jean-Paul Sartre, Violette Leduc, Michel Houellebecq et Marie NDiaye鈥 directed by Professor Morgane Cadieu

Pierre Huguet 
La R茅publique et la M茅nagerie du Jardin des Plantes (1792-1804)鈥 directed by Professor Pierre Saint-Amand

Shanna-Dolores Jean-Baptiste
Unbelonging: National Identity and Foreign Nationals in the Long Haitian Nineteenth Century鈥 directed by Professor Christopher Miller

Jessica Kasje 
Incorrectly Female: 糖心Vlog Women Writers, Marginal Identities, and July Monarchy Women鈥檚 Movements鈥 directed by Professor Maurice Samuels

Imane Terhmina
鈥淭ales of the Civil Service: Bureaucracy, Democracy, and Justice in Francophone African Literature鈥 directed by Professors Jill Jarvis and Christopher Miller

2019

Jennifer Carr
鈥淟iberating Constraint, Performing Gender: Sophie Calle, Anne Garr茅ta and Wendy Delorme鈥 directed by Professors Morgane Cadieu and Alice Kaplan.

2018

Catherine Chiabaut
鈥淓xtraordinary Bodies: Writing Hermaphroditism in Eighteenth-Century 糖心Vlog Literature and Medicine鈥 directed by Professors Thomas Kavanagh and Morgane Cadieu

Robyn Pront 
鈥淟iberation Fictions: Space and Memory in Representations of Liberation France鈥 directed by Professor Alice Kaplan

Usha Rungoo
鈥淭extual Territories: Spatial Tropes and Narrative Subversion in the Mascarenes and the Antilles鈥 directed by Professor Christopher Miller

2017

Elizabeth Hebbard
鈥淢anuscripts and the Making of the Troubadour Lyric Tradition 鈥 directed by Professors R. Howard Bloch and Ardis Butterfield

Laura Jensen  
鈥淲riting Race and Universalism in Contemporary France: Marie NDiaye and Bessora鈥 directed by Professor Christopher Miller

2016

Nathalie Batraville
鈥淩茅volution po茅tique et isolement politique : l鈥檃vant-garde litt茅raire ha茂tienne, 1957-1971鈥 directed by Professor Christopher Miller

Annie DeSaussure
鈥淕lobal Brittany: Breton Literature and the Francophone World鈥 directed by Professor Christopher Miller

Colin Foss
鈥淟iterature under Siege: Reading and Writing during the Siege of Paris 1870-颅1871鈥 directed by Professor Maurice Samuels

Aaron Schlosser
鈥淭he Ethics of Literature: Representations of Exile in the Works of Abdelk茅bir Khatibi, Nabile Far猫s, H茅l猫ne Cixous, and Jacques Derrida鈥 directed by Professors Christopher Miller and Edwige Tamalet Talbayev

2015-1996

2015

Cl茅mentine Faur茅-Bella茂che
鈥溾橪鈥檃ir protestant鈥 - Andr茅 Gide & The Religion of Literary Modernism鈥 directed by Professor Alice Kaplan

Benjamin Hoffman
鈥淧osthumous America: Literary Recreations of America at the Turn of the Eighteenth Century鈥 directed by Professors Thomas Kavanagh and Christopher Miller

Dustin Hooten
鈥淎nimals and 糖心Vlog Realism鈥 directed by Professor Maurice Samuels

2014

Annabel Kim
鈥淎gainst Difference: The Universality That Binds Nathalie Sarraute, Monique Wittig, and Anne Garr茅ta鈥 directed by Professor Alice Kaplan   

Kristin Graves
鈥淢补辫辫颈苍驳 La Belle Cr茅ole鈥 directed by Professors Christopher Miller and Hazel Carby

Julia Elsky
鈥溙切腣log and Foreign: 脡migr茅 Writers in Occupied France鈥 directed by Professor Alice Kaplan   

Raisa Rexer
鈥淭he Art of Exposure: Literature and the Photographic Nude in Nineteenth-Century France鈥 directed by Professor Maurice Samuels   

Sasha Santee
鈥淲ork(s)-in-Progress: Balzac鈥檚 Imperfect Authorial Stand-Ins and the Crafting of the Com茅die humaine鈥 directed by Professor Maurice Samuels   

2013

Tara Golba
鈥淚nvestigators and Troublemakers: Subversive and Subverted Epistemologies in Post/colonial Francophone Literature鈥 directed by Professor Christopher Miller   

Mary Anne Lewis
鈥淭he Maghreb Goes Abroad: The 鈥榃orlding鈥 of Postcolonial Francophone North African Literature and Film in a Global Market鈥 directed by Professors Edwige Tamalet and Christopher Miller 

Maryn Santos
鈥淥n Pens and Needles: Writing for Demoiselles (1830-1914)鈥 directed by Professor Maurice Samuels   

Chapman Wing
鈥淭he Future Looks Backward: Projection and the Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century France鈥 directed by Professor Maurice Samuels   

2012

Jonathan Cayer
鈥淗eroic Uncertainties: Representations of the Hero in the 糖心Vlog Epic of the Later Middle Ages鈥 directed by Professor Howard Bloch   

Jessica DeVos
鈥淎utobiography, Authorship, and Artifice: Reconsidering Renaissance Women Poets鈥 directed by Professors Edwin Duval and David Quint 

Awendela Grantham
鈥淢essianism in 糖心Vlog Caribbean Literature: C茅saire, Roumain, Glissant, and Schwarz-Bart鈥 directed by Professor Christopher Miller   

2011

Erin Tremblay Ponnou-Delaffon: 鈥淭he Echoes of Silence: Silence as an Ethical and Textual Problem in Contemporary 糖心Vlog Literature鈥 directed by Professor Ora Avni   

Anne Linton: 鈥淧rescribed Fictions: Literary and Medical Representations of Hermaphrodism in Nineteenth-Century France鈥 directed by Professor Maurice Samuels   

2010

Susannah Carson
鈥淟es Dangers du Roman:  The Evolution of the Dangerous Novel in Early Modern France, 1667-1736鈥 directed by Professors Harold Bloom and Peter Brooks 

Claire McMurray
鈥淏eyond Paris: Contemporary 糖心Vlog Film and the Countryside鈥 directed by Professors Thomas Kavanagh and Dudley Andrew

2009

Irina Iakounina
鈥淭he Dilemma of the Individual in Spiritual Poetry of the 糖心Vlog Renaissance: The Example of Marguerite de Navarre and Cl茅ment Marot鈥 directed by Professor Edwin Duval   

Rachael Sterner
鈥淪aints Jeanne de Chantal and Louise de Marillac Writing Faith and Independence Outside the Cloister鈥 directed by Professor Julia Prest   

Shira Weidenbaum
鈥淧atterns of Persuasion: Religious Literary Dialogue in Renaissance France鈥 directed by Professors Edwin Duval and Julia Prest

2008

Roxanna Curto
鈥淚nter-tech(s) Colonialism and the Question of technology in the Twentieth-Century 糖心Vlog and Francophone Literature鈥 directed by Professor Christopher Miller   

Alexandra Gueydan
鈥淚magiNation (post) Nationale de l鈥橝lg茅rie: Politique Et Pratique Identitaires de la Litt茅rature Francophone Alg茅rienne鈥 directed by Professors Farid Laroussi and Christopher Miller 

Katherine Lydon
鈥淔rom Grail Procession to Cortege Infernal: Processions in Classical Poetry and Renaissance and Nineteenth-Century 糖心Vlog Literature as Poetic Vision and Structure of Critical Thought鈥 directed by Professor Denis Hollier   

Jeffrey Leichman
鈥淎cting Up: Performing Social Mobility in 18th Century Theatre鈥 directed by Professor Thomas Kavanagh   

Laure Marcellesi
鈥淔rom Noble Savage to Colonial Subject: Tahiti in Eighteenth-century 糖心Vlog Literature鈥 directed by Professors Christopher Miller and Thomas Kavanagh

Brian Reilly
鈥淭he Hidden Optics of Medieval 糖心Vlog Literature鈥 directed by Professor Howard Bloch   

2007

Jeffrey Boyd
鈥淩evolutionary Queerness: Balzac, Baudelaire, Proust鈥 directed by Professor Peter Brooks   

Scott Hiley
鈥淯sury and the Economies of Literature in Medieval France鈥 directed by Professor Howard Bloch   

John Lytle
鈥淔antastic Literature and Historical Discourse in the 糖心Vlog Romantic Period鈥 directed by Professor Ora Avni   

Larysa Smirnova
鈥淩oland Barthes in search of an epic modernity: Barthes鈥檚 evaluation of intellectual legacy of Bertolt Brecht and the question of modernity鈥 directed by Professor Peter Brooks   

Jessica Nyamugusha
鈥淔ictions of Servitude: Early Modern 糖心Vlog Literary Representations of Europeans Enslaved in North Africa鈥 directed by Professors Christopher Miller and Thomas Kavanagh

Agnieszka Tworek
鈥淭heatricality and Prison鈥 directed by Professors Donia Mounsef and Ora Avni

2006

Michael Call
鈥淭he Poet, the Playwright, and the Pirate:  Moli猫re and Seventeenth-Century Autorship鈥 directed by Professor Julia Prest   

Brooke Donaldson
鈥滾es Mortz Qu鈥檈n Moy Tu Renovelles鈥: Eros and Thanatos in Maurice Sc猫ve鈥檚 D茅lie鈥 directed by Professors Edwin Duval and Jean-Jacques Poucel

Alexandre Limoges
鈥淟鈥橧mmonde d茅cadent鈥 directed by Professor Ora Avni   

John Poynter
鈥淓roticism in Twentieth Century Francophone Caribbean Literatures鈥 directed by Professors Christopher Miller and Vera Kutzinski

2005

Ronan Chalmin
鈥淐orruption and the Chemistry of the Enlightenment   [Lumi茅res et Corruption]鈥 directed by Professor Thomas Kavanagh   

Jill Davies
鈥淩evoicing the Self: Character Description in Sarraute, Cohen, and Perec鈥 directed by Professor Ora Avni   

2004

Richard Keatley
鈥淓njoying the World: Curiosity and the Voyage d鈥橧talie (1568-1606)鈥 directed by Professor Edwin Duval   

Caroline Hatton
鈥淣arrative Lai and Verse Romance: Generations and Intergeneric Play鈥 directed by Professor Howard Bloch   

Bettina Lerner
鈥淎n Image of Peuple: Politics, Poetics and Authority in Nineteenth-Century France鈥 directed by Professor Ora Avni   

Joseph Mai
鈥淟ost Order: Repercussions of Secularization on Literary and Film Rhetoric鈥 directed by Professor Ora Avni   

2003

Rebecca Ruquist鈥淧aris, Race and Universalism in the Black Atlantic:  L茅opold Sedar Senghor, Simone de Beauvoir, Boris Vian and Richard Wright.鈥 directed by Professor Christopher Miller   

Joseph Acquisto: 鈥(Mis)Reading Music: Rewriting 糖心Vlog Symbolist Poetry.鈥 directed by Professors Edwin Duval and Naomi Schor and Jean-Jacques Poucel

James Austin: 鈥淭he Politics of Pastiche from Proust to 糖心Vlog Film鈥 directed by Professor Ora Avni   

Karina Krilla: 鈥淪pectacle and Performance: Heroines in the Eighteenth-Century 糖心Vlog Novel鈥 directed by Professor Charles Porter   

2002

Jeremy Sabol
鈥淔ables of Knowledge: Descartes and Seventeenth-Century Epistemological Fiction鈥 directed by Professor Fran莽oise Jaou毛n   

Leon Sachs
鈥淟a Belle Equivoque: Science, Literature and Education Reform in France, 1880-1914鈥 directed by Professor Ora Avni   

2001

Lynne Bornstein
鈥淭he Poetics of Revolution and Alchemy: Transgression and Transmutation in Rimbaud, C茅saire and Glissant鈥 directed by Professor Christopher Miller   

Patricia Gallagher
鈥淓ncounters with the Other: Alterity, Aesthetics, and Politics in the Works of Albert Camus鈥 directed by Professor Christopher Miller   

Elden Hayes
鈥淧opular Alchemy: Farce and its Function in Rabelais鈥 directed by Professor Edwin Duval   

Richard Meadows
鈥淔rom Foreign Wars to Civil Wars to Gender Wars: The Franco-Prussian War, World War II, the Algerian War & The Factual and Fictional Scapegoating of Women鈥 directed by Professors Ora Avni and Susan Blood 

Jennifer Phillips
鈥淐olorist Writing: Color as Pictorial and Literary Principle鈥 directed by Professors Peter Brooks and Susan Blood 

Edward Tilson
鈥淢ontaigne et la Modernit茅: Du Liber Creaturarum 脿 la Cr茅ation de l鈥檈ssai鈥 directed by Professor Edwin Duval   

2000

Susan Brubaker-Cole
鈥淒ecentering Imperial Culture: Colonial Influences on 糖心Vlog National Culture in the Literary Works of Cousturier, Soupault, Leblond and A.H B芒鈥 directed by Professor Christopher Miller   

Francis Guevremont
鈥淟es Mat茅riaux de l鈥檕euvre. Marcel Proust et Andr茅 Breton aux  limites de l鈥檃utobiographie鈥 directed by Professor Denis Hollier   

Patricia Armstrong
鈥淭he Textual Strategies of Pierre Bayle (1647-1706)鈥 directed by Professor Fran莽oise Jaou毛n   

Vicki Toumayan
鈥淭h茅ophile Gautier and Spanish Art: Figuring Duality in Espana, Voyage in Espagne, and Critical Writings鈥 directed by Professor Peter Brooks   

1999

Grace Chang
鈥淏order Crossings: Essays on Gender, Spectatorship and Performance in 糖心Vlog and Francophone Film and Novel鈥 directed by Professor Christopher Miller   

Andrea Goulet
鈥淥ptiques:  The Modern 糖心Vlog Novel and Epistemologies of Vision鈥 directed by Professor Ora Avni   

Sophie Queuniet
鈥淟es enjeux de l鈥檌ntelligence dans l鈥櫯搖vre de Marcel Proust鈥 directed by Professor Ora Avni   

Unity Dienes
鈥淩ight Readings in the Renaissance: Marot, Marguerite de Navarre, Rabelais, and Bonaventure des P茅riers鈥 directed by Professor Edwin Duval    

Daryl Lee
鈥淭he City in Ruins: Literary Topographies of Twentieth-Century Paris鈥 directed by Professor Denis Hollier   

Susanna Lee
鈥淭he Hand of God as a  Narratological Instrument in Nineteenth-Century Fiction鈥 directed by Professor Peter Brooks   

Nzunguta Siamundele
鈥淒iscours politique et 茅criture litt茅raire: V.Y.Mudimbe, Williams Sassine et Sony Labou Tansi鈥 directed by Professor Christopher Miller   

Allison Tait
鈥淭he Gallery of Mirrors:  Constructions and Reflections of Sentimental and Political Tyranny in Seventeenth-Century France鈥 directed by Professor Fran莽oise Jaou毛n   

1998

Noah Guynn
Allegory and Transgressive Desire: The Inscription and Erasure of Non-Normative Desires in Allegorical Discourses of the Middle Ages鈥 directed by Professor Lynne Huffer   

Caroline Weber
鈥淭he Limits of 鈥淪aying Everything鈥: Terrorist Suppressions and Unspeakable Difference in Rousseau, Sade, Robespierre, Saint-Just, and Desmoulins鈥 directed by Professors Peter Brooks and Denis Hollier

Karl Britto
鈥淒isorientation: Interculturality and Identity in Vietnamese francophone Literature鈥 directed by Professor Christopher Miller   

Eliza Nichols
鈥淩einventing the Griot/Writing the Self:  Massa Makan Diabate, Francophone Fiction and the Mande Oral Tradition鈥 directed by Professor Christopher Miller   

Richard Watts
鈥淭he Politics of Prefaces:  Patronage, Self-Promotion, and the Colonial Metropolitan Relationship in Prefaces to Francophone Literary Texts, 1919-1962鈥 directed by Professor Christopher Miller   

1997

Jean-Vincent Blanchard
鈥淥ptique et rh茅torique en France et en Italie XVIIe si猫cle鈥 directed by Professor Fran莽oise Jaou毛n   

Christine Cano
鈥淚nterpreting The Recherche; Creative Process and Revision in Proust鈥 directed by Professor Peter Brooks   

Peter Hallward:
Writing in the Singular Immediate: Gilles Deleuze, Edouard Glissant, Nathalie Sarraute, Charles Johnson, Mohammed Dib, Severo Sarduy鈥 directed by Professors Christopher Miller and Vera Kutzinski

Le Thuy Hoang
Les Mille et une nuits  脿 travers l鈥檌nfini des espaces et des temps: Le conteur Galland, le conte et son public鈥 directed by Professor Catherine Cusset    

Marie-Pierre Pasquini
鈥淢adame de S茅vign茅, Michel Tournier et la tentation cannibale:  les figures parentales de l鈥檌ncorporation filiale鈥 directed by Professors Denis Hollier and Lynne Huffer

1996

P. Natasha Leof
鈥淪omewhere Between the Impossible and the Forbidden: Surrealist Eroticism Reconsidered鈥 directed by Professor Denis Hollier   

Yasmina Mobarek
鈥淟a v茅rit茅 et ses mises en sc猫ne 茅pistolaires; De l鈥檃rt de persuader 脿 l鈥檃rt de s茅duire: Rousseau et Diderot鈥 directed by Professor Peter Brooks   

Catherine Dana
鈥淓crire de m茅moire, 茅crire pour m茅moire:  Rem茅moration et comm茅moration de la shoah dans 鈥淟a Peste鈥 d鈥橝lbert Camus et 鈥渨 ou le souvenir d鈥檈nfance鈥 de Georges Perec鈥 directed by Professor Denis Hollier   

Benjamin Elwood
鈥淪ecret Histories: Narratives of Conspiracy in Balzac and Zola鈥 directed by Professors Denis Hollier and Lynne Huffer

Karin Harman
鈥淭he Nineteenth-Century Epistolary Novel:  Parodies鈥 and Travesties of a Genre鈥 directed by Professor Charles Porter   

Amy Reid
鈥淓ntre Elles:  Relating Women in Four Naturalist Novels鈥 directed by Professor Denis Hollier   

Dominic Thomas
鈥淣ew Writings for New Times: Nationalism in Congolese Literature鈥 directed by Professor Christopher Miller