Department of French

Assistant Professor Durmelat holds a doctorate in French and Francophone Literature from the University of Michigan (1995). She came to Georgetown in fall 1997, after two-year of teaching experience at Louisiana State University as assistant professor. At Georgetown, Professor Durmelat has developed and taught courses on Immigration in France, Francophone Caribbean Literatures and Cultures, and on Transmediterranean Crossings between France and North Africa.

Professor Durmelat's scholarly interests include Immigration and Diaspora Studies, Post-colonial and Cultural Studies as well as Film. She specializes in the study of minority and urban cultures in France and is the author of several articles on Maghrebi-French texts published in Francophonie plurielle, and in a collection of essays on L’écriture décentré dans le roman contemporain en France (L'Harmattan, 1996). Two of her articles were recently published: "From Realistic Narratives to Social Fantasy: of Nighclubs and Supermarkets in Some contemporary Narratives on Maghrebi-French," in The Cincinnati Romance Review (Vol. XVI), and, "Petite histoire du mot beur ou comment prendre la parole quand on vous la prête," was published in the June 1998 issue of the British journal French Cultural Studies. She is currently revising and expanding her dissertation on Maghrebi-French cultural productions for publication as a book-length study provisonally entitled
"Disrupted Reproductions: the Cultural Dimensions of Immigration in Contemporary France."