Presentation
I am the leader of the research groups Traveling Texts: Translation and Transnational Reception and Cultural Memory Studies.
My research and teaching interests are in French and Francophone literature, history and philosophy from the 18th to the 21th Century.
Research
I have held numerous scholarly talks and I have written 15 peer-reviewed articles/book chapters, 2 peer-reviewed monographs, 3 articles in Dictionnaire Jean Genet (Honoré Champion), 4 articles in Dictionnaire Claude Simon (Honoré Champion), and 8 other non-peer-reviewed scholarly articles. I am the co-editor of two interdisciplinary volumes within gender studies and cultural memory studies respectively.
In my PhD-dissertation, I studied moral, sexual and textual perversions in the early novels of Jean Genet. My current research focuses generally on the interactions between literature and psychology/sociology/philosophy/history, with a particular focus on six themes:
- Cultural Memory Studies in general and the author Patrick Modiano in particular;
- Translation studies in general and censorship in translation in particular;
- Emancipation discourses in general and the French revolution in particular;
- Provocation in general and the authors Jean Genet and Michel Houellebecq in particular;
- Quebecois literature and history in general and the author Réjean Ducharme in particular;
- Perceptions and discourses of the Nordic region and the Nordic model in French culture and politics.
Supervision
I am currently the main supervisor of two PhD candidates:
- Cecilie Weiss-Andersen
- Mats Haraldsen
I am supervising five ongoing Master theses: on The Paris Commune; on animal protection in Norway and France; on the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF); on the staging of Samuel Becketts theatre; and on Réjean Ducharme's first three novels.
I have supervised the following completed MA theses:
- Helle Sætren, Les Harkis au camp de Rivesaltes. Le réveil d’une mémoire, 2021.
- Anne Karin Hofseth, L’UPC en France. Un chapitre de la lutte upéciste pour l’indépendance au Cameroun, 2020.
- Kristine Guttorm Ballari, Les Innus au Québec et les Samis en Norvège: étude comparative, 2020.
- Caroline Slattum Frey, Løfte ved livets morgen. En kommentert oversettelse av utdrag fra Romain Garys La Promesse de l’aube, 2020.
- Heidi Malchere Pettersen, Les juifs et les israélites. L’identité juive en France de l’entre-deux-guerres à travers l’exemple d’Irène Némirovsky, 2020.
- Charlotte Louise Vaillot Knudsen, Sculpter les Cent mille milliards de poèmes. Pour un clavier polyphonique et vertigineux du marbrier-traducteur, 2019.
- Ingrid Ottersland Hagen, Les Aurores montréales de Monique Proulx et Titre de transport d’Alice Michaud-Lapointe. Étude sur la représentation de l’identité montréalaise dans deux recueils de nouvelles québécois, 2019.
- Lizzie Røsstad Dahm, Nattens vendepunkt. Kommentert oversettelse av første del av Accident nocturne av Patrick Modiano, 2018.
- Guillaume Devalckeneer, Le Corps et le Sacré dans Tombeau pour cinq cent mille soldats de Pierre Guyotat, 2018.
- Sindre Andenæs, L'Histoire exemplaire dans les Mémoires d’outre-tombe, 2018.
- Brit Hodne, Les Efforts d’intégration dans un cadre catholique - étude de terrain dans le diocèse de Montpellier, 2017.
- Kristin Skeimo Berge & Sara Helena Bråthen, Critique de la politique et de la religion dans les Lettres persanes et les Lettres philosophiques, 2016.
- Bodil Prestegaard, L'Indochine française dans l'oeuvre de Marguerite Duras : une lecture postcoloniale, 2011.
- Heidi Karlsen, Lecture et transgression de l’identité : Adieu de Balzac - un texte immaîtrisable?, 2010.
I was co-supervisor on the following completed MA theses:
- Kaja Humberset, Réussir au-delà des différences culturelles et linguistiques. Le cas d’un partenariat franco-norvégien, 2021.
- Marit Hatleskog, Kjøkkenlitteratur – En kommentert oversettelse av La Cuisine de Marguerite, oppskrifter og tekster av Marguerite Duras, 2021.
Teaching
Bachelor
- EURO1000 – Europe and the EU: historical introduction (my contribution: on France and the EU) (multiple times, in collaboration with colleagues at the department)
- EXFAC03-EURA – Examen facultatum for European and American Studies: Language, Literature, Area Studies (multiple times, in collaboration with colleagues at the department)
- FRA1301 – French literature (prose) (multiple times, alone and in collaboration with colleagues at the department)
- FRA1302 – French literature 2 (poetry and theatre)
- FRA1501 – French history from the Revolution to present time (multiple times, alone and in collaboration with colleagues at the department)
- FRA1502 – French culture 2 (French history from the Renaissance to la Belle Époque)
- FRA2509 – La société française (multiple times)
Bachelor and Master
- FRA2304/FRA4315 – Histoire et littérature francophone: Le Québec
- FRA2410/FRA4410 – French literature : Theme («Gender discourses in contemporary French literature»)
- FRA2410/FRA4410 – French literature : Theme («Mémoires de conflits : fiction et témoignages»)
- FRA2412/FRA4412 – French literature : Theme («Du roman existentiel au roman de l'absurde: Céline, Vian, Beckett»)
- FRA2420/FRA4313 – French literature : Author («Patrick Modiano»)
- FRA2422/FRA2442/ FRA4332 – French literature : Author («Jean Genet»)
- FRA2472/FRA4372 – French literature : Genre («Autobiographie»)
- FRA2501/FRA4519 – The French Revolution
- FRA2517/FRA4526 – Mouvements sociaux en France («La France périphérique») (in collaboration with Kjerstin Aukrust)
Master
- FRA4002 – French 20th Century Thinkers (multiple times, alone and in collaboration with colleagues at the department)
- FRA4003 – Writing a Master's thesis in French - methodology and theory (multiple times, in collaboration with colleagues at the department)
- FRA4400 – French authors, Reading Course (multiple times)
- FRA4520 – French Area Studies, Reading Course (multiple times)
- FRA4500 – Research methods in French Area Studies
PhD
- PhD thesis seminar in literature for PhD candidates at ILOS, ILN and IKOS (multiple times)
Public dissemination
I have held numerous popular talks, I have elaborated a radio program on the French Revolution, and I am one of the three co-hosts of the podcast Frankrike forklart (France explained).
I have written several feature articles on French history, culture and society in diverse Norwegian media (Morgenbladet, Klassekampen, Transit Magasin, forskning.no) and 29 encyclopedia articles on French and Francophone literature for the Norwegian online encyclopedia Store norske leksikon.
Finally, I have participated in public dissemination of French culture, politics and history through translations into Norwegian. I have translated numerous articles for the Norwegian edition of Le Monde diplomatique, as well as two French books: Emmanuel- Joseph Sieyès, Qu’est-ce que le Tiers état? (1789, Hva er Tredjestanden?, Oslo, Aschehoug, Thorleif Dahls Kulturbibliotek, 2015) and Jacques Rancière, Le Spectateur émancipé (2008, Den emansiperte tilskuer, Oslo, Pax, Artes, 2012).
Institutional responsibilities
- 2021: Head of the PhD program and member of the department management group at ILOS, UiO
- 2020- : President, National academic council for romance languages and literatures
- 2016-19: Vice-president, National academic council for romance languages and literatures
- 2016-18: Head of section, French section, ILOS, UiO
- 2013: Deputy board member, ILOS, UiO
- 2010: Head of section, French section, ILOS, UiO
Higher education and employment history
- 2015-: Associate Professor of French Literature and Area Studies, University of Oslo
- 2010-2013: Postdoctoral research fellow, University of Oslo
- 2008-2010: Senior Lecturer in French Literature, University of Oslo
- 2008: Ph.d. in French Literature, University of Oslo
- 2005: DEA Lettres Modernes, Université Nancy 2, France
- 2002: Cand.philol. (MA) in French, University of Oslo