Faculty

Dr. Suzanne LaLonde, assistant professor of French, holds a Ph.D. in French Language and Literature from the University of Maryland ’01 and studied at the Université de Strasbourg, France and the Universität München, Germany as part of her graduate career. She works broadly on the intersections of literature, philosophy, and psychology.

Her central research interests include feminine psychology, existentialism, and the 20^th century French novel. She has also done research in broader fields of the humanities, feminism, and Latin American philosophy and has written refereed articles about these subjects, as well as delivered talks at the Modern Language Association’s meeting on Simone de Beauvoir and at the World’s Humanist Conference in Paris on feminine psychology. At this year’s MLA, she will speak on the intersection between Darwinism, Intimate Literature and Self-Portraiture of the 19^th century.

Her teaching revolves around two areas: language and culture. She uses a “total physical response” approach to engage students in role-playing and to insure that vocabulary and grammar are drilled in meaningful ways. The excellent Multimedia Laboratory at UTB also affords students the opportunity to tap into the riches of French art, music, architecture, and literature, which are introduced through the web.

Outside of the classroom, students have the opportunity to practice their language skills in the French Club and to participate in the UTB sponsored study abroad program in France, which will take place in July ‘07. As lead faculty advisor of the Paris program, Dr. LaLonde will teach Intermediate French and a class entitled: “Fundamentals of Creative and Critical Thinking in Art,” which will take place in part at the museums of Paris. Finally, as a recent addition to the graduate faculty, she will teach two classes to graduate students of Spanish—“Critical Theory” and “Foreign Language Pedagogy: Theory and Practice.”