Sally M. Kessler (she/her), PhD Candidate
Joined the program in Fall 2019.
My research seeks to investigate what Mel Y. Chen terms the “near-zero scale” moments of rest, pleasure and reflectiveness in Third Republic French literature. With reference to Virginia Woolf, these are the “to the lighthouse” moments in literature that might otherwise feature war, poverty, and social inequities. At this “near-zero scale,” I am motivated to read the borderline between people and objects -- which appears at this scale -- as a social justice issue (Johnson 2010): given the context of the French Empire at this time, groups of people were conflated or near-conflated with things, based on disability, race or gender. Attending to the small moments in literature allows the material and affective relationships between people and things to become visible.
My research and pedagogy are informed by our need for disability and racial justice. Given my privileges (white, cis, temporarily able-bodied, etc.), I seek to educate myself and help work towards an ever-more inclusive field. Specifically, I fell into the 19th c. due to my mom's fascination with the 1860s--I grew up with the history books and novels all around the house. I also fell in love with French, because my dad had all of his French books lying around. All of these books seemed like a mystery to be decoded.
“Joseph Anténor Firmin: Racial Equality, Solidarity, and the Sovereign Body Politic,” Journal of Critical Race Inquiry. (11:1), 2024, pp. 37-56. 10.24908/jcri.v11i1.17292
Pending Book Review, Max McGuiness’s Hustlers in the Ivory Tower: Press and Modernism from Mallarmé to Proust (2024), The French Review. (98:3), 2025, pp. 159-160.
“Resilience and Magic: A Critical Disability Studies Reading of Patrick Chamoiseau’s L’Esclave vieil homme et le molosse, French Studies Bulletin,” (43:163), Autumn 2022, Pages 26–31, https://doi.org/10.1093/frebul/ktac012
Book Review, Henri-Jacques Stiker’s La condition handicapée, L’Esprit créateur, Winter 2021
“Fostering Care and Connection: Designing for Accessible Reading,” Pooling Open Access Resource: Designing for Justice and Access Conference, Diversity, Decolonization and the French Curriculum Conference, November 8-9, 2024, z.umn.edu/AccessibleReadingWebsite.
“Joseph Anténor Firmin and Theory of Absolute Racial Equality,” 23rd Annual Craft Critique Culture Graduate Conference: Black Legacies, University of Iowa, April 4-6, 2024
“Animate Capacities: Suspended Time and Productivity in Nina de Villard's Poetry,” NeMLA, online, March 9, 2024
Co-speaker with Kendall Theroux, lightning round panel, “Embodied Archives in Global Systems,” Interrogating the Archive. An International Conference, University of Minnesota, March 31, 2023
“Yoga pour bipolaires : Trauma, Meditation and the Memoir," “Reading and Writing (Dis)ability in Contemporary French and Francophone Literature (Roundtable),” NeMLA, March 26, 2023
Moderator, “Queercrip Kinships: Archives, Doulas, and Restorying,” Julia Chang, Marie McDonough, Jennifer Row, Tracy Rutler, Sami Schalk. NWSA “Killing Rage: Resistance on the Other Side of Freedom,” November 10, 2022
“Folk Healing and Magic: Tactility in La Petite Fadette,” moderator Sam Schifano, Im/possibilities Humanities In Chaos, April 9, 2022
“Agora/phillia: Performing Community and Self-Defense,” ADEFFI Journée de doctorants, September 4, 2021
“Opportunities During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Society French Studies, Postgraduate Conference “Vitality and Resilience,” May 28, 2021
“Animate Capacities and Unworking Representations of Material Culture in French Realism,” Hella Mears Fellowship, Summer 2024
Summer Research Fellowships in French in the Department of French and Italian at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Summers 2020-2023
Institute for French Cultural Studies, Dartmouth College, June 14-21, 2021
The lead on the Subcommittee “Defining Equity” for my College of Liberal Arts Equity Lens Policy Committee work (Since Nov. 2024)
Graduate instructor in the French and Italian Department at the University of Minnesota (2019- )
“Disability as Method: Cripping the Archive,” Newberry CRS dissertation seminar AY24-25 participant.
“Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender, and Sexuality Program” Summer 2024 Writing Retreat, UMN
Scholarship CARLA Institute, “EmojiEd: Integrating Authentic Social Media in Language Teaching,” July 9-11, 2024
Co-Facilitator “Critical Race and Disability” RIDGS and CDSC Reading Group, Spring 2024
Graduate representative, College of Liberal Arts Equity Lens Policy Committee, UMN, Fall 2023-present
Vice-President, Association of Graduate Students, French and Italian Department, UMN, Spring 2024
President, Association of Graduate Students, French and Italian Department, UMN, Fall 2022-Fall 2023
Grant reviewer, Council of Graduate Students Grant Review Committee, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2023
Research assistant for the UMN Critical Disability Studies Collective, April 2021-present
Scholarship CARLA Institute, "Using Target Language Texts to Support Students' Literacies Development," July 10-15, 2023
Scholarship CARLA Institute, “Teaching Language through the Lens of Social Justice,” July 18-22, 2022
Teaching with Access and Inclusion Certificate, College for Education and Human Development, Fall 2022
Scholarship recipient, Interdisciplinary Collaborative Workshop, “Refusing Disposability: Racial and Disability Justice Toward Another World,” UMN-Twin Cities, Summer 2022
Scholarship CARLA Institute, “Meaningful Portfolio Implementation: Using Goal Setting, Reflection, and Thinking Routines to Enhance Student Proficiency,” June 29-July 30, 2020
Master of Art's Teaching-certified in French Grades 9-12, University of Iowa, May 15, 2015
Teaching Assistant Program in France, Plaisir elementary schools, AY2004-2005
