Pauline Maison-Dessemme (she/her), PhD Student
Joined the department as an exchange student in Fall 2019, started MA program in Fall 2020.
My research interests span francophone and anglophone literature and media, with a particular interest in the aesthetics of francophone feminist movements since the 1970’s. Feminist praxis and its manifestation in various media such as cinema, graphic novels/ bande-dessinée and social media, as well as their increasing intersections, constitutes the “red thread” of my research. More specifically, I am looking into the relationship between aesthetics and praxis, to explore the overarching stakes of the digitalization of activism, and how this process of renewal of feminism may affect notions of embodiment and self-determination in activist spaces.
I am doing a minor in Feminist and Critical Sexuality Studies at the Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies at the University of Minnesota. I am also a member of the international branch of the France-based feminist collective "Nous Toutes", who advocates against gender-based sexist and sexual violence.
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), University of Ottawa Press
Panelist at "Wombs of Conception - Reproduction Work and Meditations on Life" roundtable, at Wangensteen Historical Library at the University of Minnesota, April 2023, Paper title: “French Feminists and Reproductive Rights: the Intermediality of Activism in France"
Panelist at "Everyday Heroes and Heroines: Micro and Macro-Resistances in Post- 2001 Feature Films" conference at Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada, October 2022, Paper title: "Féminité et sacrifice : Antigone et la vulnérabilité héroïque" dans Antigone de Sophie Deraspes, 2019."
Panelist at "Motherhoods on Screen - Global Perspectives" at Maynooth University, Ireland, September 2022, Paper title: ""You carry all of our strengths." - A study of motherhood and generational trauma in First Nation women’s moving images."
Panelist and member of organizing committee of "Remapping Communities - University of Minnesota World Languages and Literatures Graduate Conference", online, March 2021, Paper title: "Motherhood and female autonomy in Westeros: progressive figures or post- feminist backlash?”
Dissertation Proposal Development Program, Summer 2023
Graduate instructor in the French and Italian Department at the University of Minnesota and Contributing to the curriculum development for courses 1002, 1003 and 1004
COGS representative for AY 2021/2022
Graduate representative for the French cohort during AY 2022/2023
From Paris 7 – Denis Diderot to University of Minnesota - 2019-2020
