Pauline Maison-Dessemme (she/her), PhD Candidate
Joined the department as an exchange student in Fall 2019, started MA program in Fall
2020, passed Doctoral preliminary examination in Summer 2024.
Minoring in Feminist and Critical Sexuality Studies at the Department of Gender,
Women and Sexuality Studies.
Following a Master's degree in Anglophone Studies at the Université Paris 7
Denis Diderot, I chose to branch out into Francophone Studies to develop an
interdisciplinary approach to my work. My research interests cover French and
English-language literature and media, with a particular focus on transnational
feminist movements. I study their practical application in the most contemporary
forms of cinema and comics, notably through their mutations in contact with the
internet and social media.
My PhD dissertation examines the evolution of French feminist praxis
methodologies from the 1970s to the present day through bande dessinée in its
various forms (periodicals, albums, blogs and activist Instagram pages). I focus
specifically on how the growing visibility of feminist discourse in French media
brought significant shifts in the bande dessinée industry. I approach this study
through the lens of epistemological justice and the notion of ugliness (laideur) as
a tool for political resistance, and through it intend to revisit the notion of
intersectionality in a context specific to French feminism.
I am also developing several pedagogical projects using bande dessinée as a
tool for learning French, such as Aya de Yopougon (Marguerite Abouet &
Clément Oubrerie, 2005), Histoire de France au féminin (Sandrine Mirza &
Blanche Sabbah, 2023) and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France’s “La fabrique
à BD” program.
Upcoming: "Antigone la vulnérable : identité de genre, héroïsme ordinaire et actes de pouvoir dans « Antigone » de Sophie Deraspe (2019)" - chapter in anthology "Everyday Heroes" (title TBD), Presses de l’Université de Montréal.
Co-authored review of The Routledge Handbook Of Critical Kashmir Studies (New York: Routledge, 2022), edited By Mona Bhan, Haley Duschinski & Deepti Misri.
Adams, A., et al. “A Collective Engagement With Critical Kashmir Studies.” AGITATE! Unsettling Knowledges, Sept. 2023. Link.
"French Feminists and Reproductive Rights: the Intermediality of Activism in France" at the “Wombs of Conception: Reproduction Work and Meditations on Life” roundtable organized by the Departments of French
and Italian, History, and History of Medicine and the Wagensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine – April 6, 2022.
"Féminité et sacrifice : Antigone et la vulnérabilité héroïque dans Antigone de Sophie Deraspes, 2019" presented at "Everyday Heroes and Heroines: Micro and Macro-Resistances in Post- 2001 Feature Films" conference at Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada - October 2022.
""You carry all of our strengths."- A study of motherhood and generational trauma in First Nation women’s moving images." presented at the "Motherhoods on Screen - Global Perspectives" conference at Maynooth University, Ireland - September 2022.
"Motherhood and female autonomy in Westeros: progressive figures or post- feminist backlash?” presented at "Remapping Communities - University of Minnesota World Languages and Literatures Graduate Conference" – March 2021 – member of organizing committee.
Rathert Fellowship – Summer 2024
Dissertation Proposal Development Program, Summer 2023
Reader/Grader – Spring 2025 - Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities - Course: Introduction to Literature with Courtney Gildersleeve
Teaching Assistant – Spring 2024 - Department of French and Italian, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities - Course: Gateways to French Studies with Professor Ioana Vartolomei Pribiag
Graduate instructor in the French and Italian Department at the University of Minnesota (2019 - 2024), Courses taught: French 1001, 1002, 1022, 1003, 1004.
Member of the piloting team for the new curriculum with En Avant! for French 1002 and 1003.
Nominated by the French department for Excellence in Teaching Award (MAGS) – 2022.
College of Liberal Arts Course Review Committee Graduate Representative – AY2024-2025
Departmental DEI Committee Graduate Representative – AY 2023-2024
Graduate Cohort Representative – AY 2022-2023; AY 2023-2024; AY 2024-2025
Council of Graduate Students – FRIT representative – AY 2021-2022
From Paris 7 – Denis Diderot to University of Minnesota - 2019-2020
