Department of French

Carol R. Dover is Georgetown University's French medievalist and Director of the Medieval Studies Program. She came to GU in 1991 with a doctorate in Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard University (1990), where she was Lecturer on French History and Literature. With extensive international experience in teaching French as a foreign language and training teachers of French, at GU she teaches advanced modern French language and medieval French courses. She teaches a linguistics course, "History of the French Language: From Latin to Modern French," a survey course on medieval French literature, and "The Beastly Middle Ages: Weird and Wonderful Creatures in Medieval French Literature," which deals with famed Bestiary texts (books of beasts)and their remarkable illustrations in medieval manuscripts. For French and for Medieval Studies she teaches the popular Humanities & Writing course, "Knights of Old & Harry Potter."

Professor Dover's research focuses on French medieval romance, especially the thirteenth-century French prose romances. Publications include numerous articles on the vast thirteenth-century French Prose "Lancelot," a special issue of the "Arthuriana" journal devoted to latest research on the Prose "Lancelot" (2001), and a forthcoming book, "Lancelot: Book of the Heart." Her current project ("Pictures that Speak a Thousand Words") examines the text-image interface in illustrated manuscripts of the French prose "Lancelot."

Awards include a Fellowship at the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College (1995-96), a GU Junior Faculty Semester Award and an American Philosophical Society grant (1994-95), and GU competitive .

In addition to participation in national and international conferences, Professor Dover has served on the Advisory Committee of the International Courtly Literature Society (North American Branch), as Secretary, Vice-President, and President of the Modern Language Association's Arthurian Literature Discussion Group,as the Romance Literatures representative to the International Arthurian Society (North American Branch),and as a bibliographer for the International Courtly Literature Society (North American Branch). Her GU service includes: the French department's first Director of Undergraduate Studies (2001-02), Acting French Department Chair (2002-03), the College's first Chief Investigating Officer (1997-99), and various university-level committees, most recently as a member of the Equity, Diversity, and Affirmative Action Committee.