Alexis Finet

Alexis Finet is the Assistant Professor of the Practice in the Instruction of French, and French Language Program Director at Vanderbilt University. A native of France, he has taught languages and music over the last two decades, from younger audiences to seniors, nationally and internationally: in France, Colombia, Japan, South Mississippi, North Florida, and more recently, in Nashville, since he has joined the Vanderbilt French & Italian department in the Fall of 2022.

His research interests are threefold: Congolese Studies, with an emphasis on music and songs of the Congolese diaspora across Europe and the United States; Second Language Acquisition, with a particular interest in the use of music and the implementation of innovative teaching methodologies such as the gamification of instruction for skill-awareness and idiosyncratic growth; and last, translation studies of Amazon realities, but also and more generally applied to the understanding of Caribbean and South American cultures through a transatlantic lens, which closes the loop by tying into his research in Congolese Studies.

As a musician, he performs on the flute regularly, from Caribbean and South American music and songs to Celtic music, including Classical in which he was initially trained in the Conservatoire d’Orléans (France). He currently sits as an editorial member of the Colombian journal Presencias, Saberes, y Expresiones published by the Universidad de Pamplona (Colombia), and he regularly works on translations from and to Spanish, English, and French.