Chair and Professor of French
Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Research: My early research focused on the work of Samuel Beckett and post-structuralist theory, culminating in the book Repetition, Difference, and Knowledge in the work of Samuel Beckett, Jacques Derrida, and Gilles Deleuze (Peter Lang, 2008). Since 2008, my research as concentrated on cultural studies and conflict, incorporating texts, film, art, and theory. I have examined conflicts related to World Wars One and Two, the Holocaust, the Russian revolution, Maoist China, the Cambodian genocide, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the Balkan Wars, the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda, current ideological battles in the United States, and caste-related violence in Northern India. Within these conflicts, I have focused on cultural expression (propaganda studies in education, art, and popular culture, and representations of post-conflict trauma) and gender-based violence (and the International Humanitarian and Human Rights laws meant to proscribe it). In 2020, I published The Co-opting of Education by Extremist Factions (Routledge).
Current Research: I am currently conducting research on a book project, titled Sub Silentio: Gender-based Violence During Conflict, which is being funded by a Fulbright Global Scholars Research Fellowship and a Way Klingler Research Fellowship.
Education
- University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin: PhD
- University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin: MA
- Université la Sorbonne, Paris, France ; Certificat, language and literature
- University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; BA
Courses Taught
My areas of specialization are cultural studies related to conflict, gender and sexuality studies, Critical theory, and 20th and 21st centuries French and Francophone literature and I have taught courses on French language, French and Francophone literature, film, and history, and critical theory/philosophy. In addition, I have created courses on the Holocaust, the Genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda, the Cambodian Genocide, Aesthetics and Trauma, French Feminist Theory, Existentialism in Philosophy and Literature, and North African Studies on Gender and Sexuality.
- Aesthetics and Trauma (Honors Program: English)
- Beginning through Advanced French Language
- Cambodian Genocide (Honors Program: English)
- Conversation and Composition in French
- Existentialism (French)
- Francophone Civilization (French)
- Francophone Literature (FrenchFrancophone Representations of Genocide (English)
- Francophone Representations of the Holocaust (French and English)
- French Civilization through Art (French)
- Critical Theories (English)
- French and Francophone Film (English)
- French Film (French and English)
- French Feminist Theory (French)
- Graduate Reading Knowledge in French (Online: French)
- Immigrant Experience in Film (shared, co-created)
- Introduction to Inquiry (English)
- Introduction to Literature and Literary Analysis (French)
- North African Women Writers (French)
- Phonetics (Online: French)
- Rwandan Stories (French, English, and Honors Program)
- Twentieth and Twenty-first Century French Literature (French)
Specialization
- Genocide, Trauma, and Propaganda Studies
- Women in International Humanitarian Law Conflict Studies
- Women’s Studies
- 20th and 21st Century Francophone Literature
- 20th Century French Philosophy
Publications
Books:
- Sub silentio: The Silencing of Women in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law (in progress)
Translations:
- Frédéric Brun’s Perla, Sarah Gendron and Jennifer Vanderheyden, trans. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Original text was the winner of France’s prestigious Prix Goncourt, 2017.
- Simone de Beauvoir’s “Notes for a Novel,” transcriber (with Justine Sarrot and Sylvie LeBon de Beauvoir) and translator. The Beauvoir Series: Literary Writings. Margaret Simons and Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir, eds. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2013.
Book Chapters:
- “In Plain Sight: The Ethics of Proximity in the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide.” In Kanta Dahl, ed., From Banality to Genocide: Perspectives on Evil (Amsterdam: Brill, 2019).
- “Sub silentio: Sexual Assault of Women in International Humanitarian Law.” In Maartje Abbenhuis, Christopher Ernest Barber, and Annalise R. Higgins, eds., Legacies of the Hague: War, Peace and International Order? (New York: Routledge, 2017).
- “Crossing the Line: Writing and Reading Holocaust Testimonies.” In Jack Shuler and Leo Riegert, eds., Thinking and Practicing Reconciliation: Literary and Pedagogical Responses to Atrocity. (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013).
- “Exploiting the Hutu/Tutsi Divide: The Relationship Between Extremist Propaganda and Genocide in Rwanda,” In Marja Vuorinen, ed. Enemy Images in War Propaganda (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011).
Articles:
- “Beyond Borders: Formalizing Trauma in Marie-France Collard and Phillippe Taszman’s Rwanda 94: Through Us, Humanity…” Stephanie Houston Grey, ed. Journal for the Northwest Communication Association, Special Issue on Trauma, Vol. 40, No.1, (Winter, 2013)
- “It’s the Real Thing: Christian Boltanski and the Limits of Realism in Holocaust Art,” Contemporary French & Francophone Studies: Sites. Vol. 13, No. 4, 2009.
- “A Cogito for the Dissolved Self: Writing, Presence and the Subject in the Work of Samuel Beckett and Gilles Deleuze.” Journal of Modern Literature. Vol.28, No.1, (August, 2005).
- “Death of a Dynasty: Presence in Drama and Theory: Samuel Beckett and Jacques Derrida.” Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism. Vol.18, No.2, (Spring, 2004).
Second Language Pedagogy:
- 2003-4 Paroles, 3rd edition. Magnan, Martin-Berg, Berg, Ozzello. New York: Wiley, 1999 (co-author of CD rom and test bank)
- Banhidi, Janet and Colleen Coffey, E-Tandem Virtual Immersion Guide, 2009.
Honors and Awards
- 2021 Nominee, Nora Finnigan Werra Faculty Acheivment Award
- 2021 Nominee, Excellent in Advising/Mentoring (fifth nomination)
- 2020-2021 Fulbright Global Scholars Research Fellowship: UK/Ireland/India. $60,000.00
- 2020-2023 Way-Klingler Research Fellowship for Humanities/Social Sciences. $60,000.00
- 2019 Regular Research Grant (Sponsored by Center for Transnational Studies). $5,500.00
- 2018 Nominee, Excellence in Teaching Award, Arts & Sciences
- 2017 Course Development Grant, $3,500
- 2013, 2014, 2016 Finalist for Excellence in Advising Award
- 2015 Summer Faculty Fellowship, $5,500.00
- 2015 Women’s and Gender Studies Research Grant, $1500.00
- 2015 Regular Research Grant, $6,000.00
- 2015 Center for Transnational Justice, $5,000.00
- 2013 Center for Peacemaking Research Grant, $2500.00
- 2013 Summer Faculty Fellowship, $5,500.00
- 2013 Regular Research Grant, $6,000.00
- 2012 Women’s and Gender Studies Collaborative Research Grant, $5000.00
- 2012 Full Year Sabbatical Fellowship, Marquette University
- 2012 Mellon Grant for Development of Student Fellowship in Foreign Languages (shared)
- 2012 Mellon Grant, course on the Immigrant Experience (shared)
- 2010 Mellon Grant, Virtual Immersion Program $87,107.00
- 2010 Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum: Invitation to Archive my work on the Holocaust.
- 2009 FACE Grant (French-American Cultural Exchange of the French Embassy) $1,800.00
- 2008 FACE Grant (French-American Cultural Exchange of the French Embassy) $1,800.00
- 2008 Faculty Development Grant, $1,500.00
- 2007 Summer Faculty Fellowship Research grant, $5,500.00
- 2007 Regular Research Grant for 2007-2008. $3,928.00
- 2006 Faculty Development Grant. Research grant for summer 2006. $5,000.00
- 2005 Summer Faculty Fellowship. Research grant for summer 2005. $5,500.00
- 2005 Regular Research Grant: Research Assistant and research travel grant, $2,425.00
- 2004 Finalist, NEH Summer Stipend.
- 2004 Gettel Faculty Research Grant, $1000.00
- 2003 Finalist, Excellence in Teaching, Bradley University
- 2000 Texas Interactive Media award. Paroles (French Language Textbook), interactive CD Rom (contr.author)
- 1999 Cinema in Industry award (Gold Medal). For best use of interactive media in higher education. Parole
- 1999 Invision Award (Honorable mention), New Media Magazine. Parole
- 1997 Excellence in Teaching Fellowship, UW-Madison, $1000.00
Dr. Sarah GendronMarquette University
