Contact
Biography
I am a lecturer in French and Francophone Studies at The University of Nottingham. My research focuses on nineteenth-century literature and correspondence, with a special interest in Balzac.
I completed my doctoral thesis on Balzac's letters to Madame Hanska in 2013 at King's College London, and have taken part in many conferences on French literature, letter-writing, and the nineteenth century. I held the MHRA Scholarship award at Nottingham in 2014-15.
My first monograph is entitled Balzac's Love Letters: Correspondence and the Literary Imagination, and was funded by the Modern Humanities Research Association.
I have worked continuously at The University of Nottingham since 2014. Before coming here, I also taught at King's College London and at Versailles-Saint Quentin. I completed my undergraduate degree at Oxford and hold a PGCE from Cambridge.
I am currently Deputy MLC Admissions Tutor and am also one of my Department's Awarding Gap Leads.
Expertise Summary
Contribution to School's Research Strategy:
While holding a Teaching-only contract, I remain active in my field of research, with a monograph that offers the first in-depth study of Balzac's correspondence, successful capture of the MHRA Scholarship grant, and invitations to contribute to key publications. My research-driven teaching and my role as internal reviewer and executive committee member of the NFS are a significant and continued contribution to the School's research profile. I have also supervised PGT and PGR students. My work as an artist and filmmaker has led to exciting collaborations with academic publishers and partner institutions and expands the Department's creative practice and KE profile.
*
Teaching and Learning innovation:
As the Department's specialist in nineteenth-century literature, I teach research-led modules based on cutting-edge scholarship (including my own). I enhance my students' learning experience by using genuine artefacts and modern formats that meet students' needs and expectations. I have sourced funding to hire guest lecturers and have redesigned the MLAC1079 module, providing a stronger focus on study skills, employability, accessibility and inclusivity, and created resources for tutors to assure implementation of these changes in ways that account for diverse learning needs.
*
Coaching:
I am currently a coach-in-training, due to complete my coaching qualification with the OCM (in conjunction with the Leadership and Management Academy at UoN) in summer 2025. I am currently the only person in the School offering this expertise and have contributed to coaching colleagues across the University. I am currently creating a coaching intervention for Year 1 students in order to support them with attendance and engagement.
*
Teaching Summary
Teaching:
MLAC1079, Introduction to French and Francophone Studies
o Since joining the core Year 1 module MLAC1079 in 2014-2015, I became Workshop Convenor of this module the following year. I redesigned seminar and lecture content and took the lead in redesigning the Study Skills lectures (which aim to give Year 1 students a strong foundation in essay-writing and research skills).
o Since gaining my permanent post in 2018, I have significantly developed the Francophone Literature component of this module in particular, restructuring seminar content and assessments in order to a) make the material accessible to our new cohort of post-beginners, and b) contribute to the School's drive towards 'de-colonizing the curriculum' by focusing on how to present these texts to our diverse student body in such a way as to maximize student engagement.
o My current role on this module includes the preparation and delivery of all seminars and Study Skills lectures and seminar teaching.
o I also update teaching materials for MLAC1079 and create teaching resources to help new staff on this module teach any topics not within their own specialism (including Linguistics, French film, Visual Cultures, Francophone Caribbean literature).
MLAC1085, Introduction to French Literature: Representations of Paris
o Since joining MLAC1085 in 2014-2015, I have taken the role of module convenor in 2018-2019. In 2018-2019, this module was chosen as a core module for post-beginners. I redesigned the module to include a stronger focus on essay skills, to help reassure post-beginner students in particular and help them bridge any gap they might perceive between their ability to complete the exam and that of their post-A level peers. For the last two years, the module has included an extra (optional) seminar session on literary analysis.
o My current role on this module includes the preparation and delivery of 50% of seminars and lectures.
MLAC1082, Introduction to French Literature: Landmarks in Narrative
o I contribute to this team-taught module by introducing students to nineteenth-century French literature (Flaubert); my role covers lecture and seminar delivery, marking, and office hours.
o I encourage students on this module to apply the critical analysis skills they learn here to their other assessments, and I point them towards Year 2 and Year 3 modules where they can continue to build on these skills. A number of students from this module have gone on to study literature on MLAC2074 (Nineteenth Century French Narrative) and MLAC3089 (Dissertation).
MLAC2082, French 2
o Having previously taught across all undergraduate language modules, I now teach 2 seminar groups of 2 hours each for French 2, a core Level 2 20-credit language and grammar module.
MLAC2074, Nineteenth Century French Narrative
I designed and convene this Year 2 module, based on my original research. I designed the seminar content to include a strong emphasis on coursework writing skills. Students benefit from 2-hour seminars as well as 1-hour lectures, and are encouraged to devise their own assessment questions. The final two weeks of the module are given over to individual exam preparation meetings and in-class writing sessions.
Seminars include student-led discussion activities, using student questions to prompt reflection, and short writing exercises.
Undergraduate dissertation supervision
o I began acting as dissertation supervisor in the Department in 2019-2020. I supervised one dissertation on the figure of the female urban walker in nineteenth-century French literature, with a very positive outcome (result obtained: First). The student was commended for her original insights on George Sand.
Postgraduate dissertation supervision
o Together with Dr Polly McMichael (Russian and Slavonic Studies) I co-supervised and marked an MA dissertation on literary suicides in French and Russian literature. (Result obtained: pass)
Other Teaching: 2019/2020.
· Language Centre French evening class - level 3
I taught French to members of the public and University students (2h delivery and 2h preparation per week; 14 students)
· Language Centre French Evening class for Business School MBA/ MSc students (2h delivery and 2h preparation per week; 20 students)
I taught Beginners' level French to students at the Business School.
Teaching Philosophy:
I invest significant time into building rapport with students, so they feel comfortable asking questions without feeling foolish. I build in informal chats at the start of the class in order to give students the chance to feel comfortable with each other. Student comments which describe me as 'relaxed and approachable' and 'very kind' relate to the supportive and informal classroom environment which I work hard to create. My most recent peer observer commented on my successful relationship-building strategies.
I anticipate where students are likely to have difficulties by challenging myself to see the material through their eyes, using empathetic imagination. I also use my experience and observation of previous cohorts. In class, I flag areas which are likely to confuse students, and ask them to think about how they might explain certain concepts to one another. I find that this leads to students feeling emboldened to ask questions.
Research Summary
My pedagogical research currently focuses on attainment gaps, and how these might be addresses with interventions such as coaching. I am currently one of the Attainment Gap Leads in my School. I am… read more
Recent Publications
2021. Camera-derie: Creating Community in the Online Classroom
2021. 'Creating Community in the Online Classroom' Cecilia Goria. The iTeach Online Podcast. 01/01/1900 00:00:00
2020. A guided walk through Florence Nightingale’s Derbyshire Ewa Szypula. Lakeside Arts. 01/01/1900 00:00:00
2020. Florence Nightingale Comes Home Exhibition: Virtual Tour The University of Nottingham. Ewa Szypula. Lakeside Arts. 01/01/1900 00:00:00
Creative practice/ KE
My work as an artist and filmmaker has led to exciting collaborations with academic publishers and partner institutions and expands the Department's creative practice and KE profile.
Collaborations:
· Ingenuity Gateway network - member; invited to participate in LEADD:NG, 'Creative Opportunities in XR' (2021-2023).
· Big House programme - ongoing relationship; I have contributed online articles and visual material promoting the programme.
· Lakeside Arts Centre - with colleagues in History, I made a film for the Lakeside exhibition on Florence Nightingale anniversary, screened online and included in the exhibition.
· NCCD - invited to teach life drawing classes (2017).
· Nottingham Castle - with Gabriele Neher from the School of Humanities (Department of Art History), I worked with Nottingham Castle on developing foreign language tours of the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition (2016).
I have written for publications including Funny Women and The Conversation, and my appearances in the media have included interviews with BBC Radio, Notts TV, and The iPaper.
I draw on my creative practice as an artist in my teaching and coaching activities.
Current Research
My pedagogical research currently focuses on attainment gaps, and how these might be addresses with interventions such as coaching. I am currently one of the Attainment Gap Leads in my School. I am also presenting a paper at the 2025 Teaching and Learning Conference (UoN) on 'Coaching Skills for the Classroom and Beyond.'
My current scholarly research focuses on Flaubert and Slimani, with a publication pending in the upcoming volume Redefining Womanhood: Agency, Voice, and Identity in Francophone Women's Cultural Production, ed. V. Desnain, A. Pugh, and C. Verdier (Peter Lang, forthcoming). My chapter is entitled 'Leïla Slimani's Chanson Douce, or Madame Bovary on Instagram'.
Past Research
Publications related to teaching:
Article: 'Camera-derie: Creating Community in the Online Classroom'.
Published 2021.
Podcast: 'Creating Community in the Online Classroom', for The iTeach Online Podcast, ed. by Cecilia Goria.
Published 2021.
Comments: I was invited to contribute this article and podcast on encouraging student engagement in the online classroom, to be published as part of the School's collection of effective practice resources on online learning.
Publications related to scholarship, outreach and knowledge exchange:
Film: 'A guided walk through Florence Nightingale's Derbyshire', dir. Ewa Szypula.
Published 2020 (URL: http://www.florencenightingale.org/florence-nightingale-in-derbyshire/nightingales-connections-to-derbyshire.aspx).
Film: 'Florence Nightingale Comes Home Exhibition: Virtual Tour', dir. Ewa Szypula.
Published 2020 (URL: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/exhibitions/online/florence-nightingale/index.aspx).
Comments: I was invited to direct a short film for the 'Florence Nightingale Comes Home' Lakeside Arts exhibition, replacing a guided walk and lectures cancelled due to Covid. The film was included as part of the collection in the physical exhibition.
Conversation article: 'When the fabricated lives of French authors are just as gripping as the books they write'. Published 2020 (URL: https://theconversation.com/when-the-fabricated-lives-of-french-authors-are-just-as-gripping-as-the-books-they-write-139427).
Conversation article: 'Quand les auteurs français s'inventent une vie aussi captivante que leurs livres'. Published 2020 (URL: https://theconversation.com/quand-les-auteurs-francais-sinventent-une-vie-aussi-captivante-que-leurs-livres-140016).
UoN Research Exchange blog: 'What can the Graduate Showcase do for you?' Published 2016 (URL: https://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/researchexchange/2016/02/15/what-can-the-graduate-research-showcase-do-for-you/)
Publications related to scholarship:
Research monograph: Balzac's Love Letters: Correspondence and the Literary Imagination (Oxford: Legenda). Published 2016.
Comments: My monograph on Balzac's letters is the first study to approach Balzac's correspondence as a text in itself and draw new parallels between this and his fiction.
Book chapter: 'Balzac's Correspondence'. In: ANDREW WATTS and OWEN HEATHCOTE, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Balzac (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 40-51
Published 2017.
Book chapter: 'An Aesthetics of Indirection in Novels and Letters: Balzac's Communication with Évelina Hanska'. In: ROGER SELL, ADAM BORCH AND INNA LINDGREN, ed., The Ethics of Literary Communication: Genuineness, Directness, Indirectness (Amsterdam: John Benjamins), pp. 229-46
Published 2013.
Other publication credits:
As a regularly commissioned artist, I have contributed original cover artwork and/or illustrations to the following academic publications:
Cover: Maria Tomlinson, From Menstruation to the Menopause: The Female Fertility Cycle in Contemporary Women's Writing in French (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press)
Published 2021.
Cover: Donne: Poeti di Francia e oltre, dal Romanticismo a oggi, VALENTINA GOSETTI et al, eds. (Borgomanero: Giuliano Ladolfi Editore)
Published 2017.
Cover: Balzac's Love Letters: Correspondence and the Literary Imagination (Oxford: Legenda).
Published 2016.
Future Research
Future research projects include a pedagogical book aimed at helping graduate students successfully complete their PhD studies.
Image description: presenting my research at The Graduate Showcase