Rachel Nisselson

Rachel Nisselson, Ph.D. Vanderbilt University, 2000

 

 

 

 

In addition to earning a a Ph.D. in French (Vanderbilt University, 2010), I  have completed a minor in Spanish, a certificate in Latin American Studies through the Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies, as well as a certificate in teaching through the Center for Teaching. In the summer of 2006 I completed two graduate-level courses at the Universidad de Costa Rica in San José.

My current book project, “Remembering the Future: Francophone Perspectives on Israel-Palestine,” investigates the works of Francophone authors who treat the Israel-Palestine conflict, including Slimane Benaissa, Chochana Boukhobza, Hubert Haddad, Edmond Amran El Maleh, Elias Sanbar, and Leila Sebbar. I examine how these authors engage with memory in order to challenge binary distinctions that are often taken for granted: Israel v. Palestine, Jew v. Muslim, Jew v. Arab, etc. Furthermore, I investigate how these literary texts deconstruct the monolithic narratives of the past often espoused by Israelis and Palestinians by creating textual spaces in which divergent narratives co-exist and historical enemies engage in conversation and exchange. At the same time, these works pose the difficult question of how one can move toward creating a lasting peace with one’s sworn enemy–a move that necessitates a certain amount of forgetting–while still honoring the past.

I’ve also completed research in second-language acquisition on varying topics, such as multilingual students in the foreign language classroom and the idea generation phase during the L2 writing process. In another current project, I am studying students’ self-perceived identities and their effect on experiences in service-learning programs abroad.

Scholarship

Dissertation fellow at the Robert Penn Center for the Humanities (2009-2010).

Editorial assistant for the 2009 AAUSC volume, “Principles and Practices of the Standards in College Foreign Language Education,” under the direction of Prof. Virginia Scott (Nov. 2009).

Graduate research assistant at the W.T. Bandy Center for Baudelaire and Modern French Studies (2006-2007); created a finding aid for a donation made to the Center by professor Felix Leakey.

Member of the Applied Linguistics Association(ALA); treasurer and web master (2007-2008).

Participant in the Memory and Trauma Working Group (2008-Present) and the Postcolonial Studies Reading Group (Present) funded by the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities.

Contributer to the Les Fleurs du Mal: Selections from the W.T. Bandy Center exhibition in the Central Library (open from March 21st, 2006- April 21st 2006).

Pedagogy

Facilitator of VU-Ceptor Training (2009).

Teaching Affiliate at the Center for Teaching (2007-2009).

Participant in the  “Teaching Difficult Texts” seminar run by the Center for Ethics (Summer 2008).

Participant in “The Pedagogy of the Difficult” seminar run by the Center for Ethics (Summer 2007).

Service

Language Lab Assistant (2007-2009).

Webmaster for various Blackboard sites for French Department (French 101, 102, 103).

Panel moderator for Vanderbilt’s Graduate Student Research Day (2007).

Member of the Graduate Student Council; Community Service Committe (2005-2006).

Member of the Buttrick Students’ Organization (2005-2006).

Co-facilitator of Co-errance, a monthly graduate student meeting in the Department of French and Italian (2005-2006).

Co-facilitator of the table francaise (2005-2006).



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