Research output per year
Research output per year
Research activity per year
I received my Licence, Maîtrise and DEA in American Studies from the University of Rouen and went on to study at the University of Connecticut where I obtained a MA in French Studies. I then completed a PhD thesis in French Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham. Entitled "Essai de lecture démocratique des représentations culturelles et politiques des grands ensembles français", my thesis was awarded a "Mention" by the Inathèque de France. I have taught at the universities of Chicago, Connecticut, Western Australia, Birmingham and Manchester. I joined the University of Roehampton as a Lecturer in 2012 and was appointed Senior Lecturer in 2016. My interest in the portrayals of the banlieues includes a strong focus on journalistic representations of the city margins as well as the self portrayals of the inhabitants of the cités - particularly written and visual artefacts.
PhD, MA, FHEA
My current research concentrates on urban marginality and the issue of the representations of the banlieues in contemporary French culture. Urban sub-cultures have almost been exclusively studied through the prism of dramatic and sensational commercial representations, whereas a more communal conception of culture, made by ordinary people from the banlieues, has often been ignored or left aside. My research offers, through new methods and materials, an innovative approach to representations of urban marginality in France. Using La Courneuve's notorious estate of the Quatre Mille as a case study, I reflect on the capacity of banlieue residents to resist mainstream representations and demonstrate how and why their cultural artefacts provide alternative representations of the cités, allowing the renegotiating of identities in postindustrial, postcolonial France.
My most recent work has been concerned with representations of women's lived experience in contemporary French theatre and an article on this theme, 'In the Limelight: French Women from the Banlieues on Stage in Ahmed Madani’s F(l)ammes (2017' was published in French Cultural Studies in August 2018.
Another strand of my research concentrates on the depictions of urban marginality and translation of vernacular languages in 21st century France and America, as reflected in the subtitling of a number of crime series (Spiral, The Wire) which played a significant part in circulating images of a new 'ghetto' culture worldwide.
I have published many articles and book chapters on the journalistic and artistic portrayals of the banlieues, depictions of race and ethnicity in contemporary France and cultural productions by residents of the cités. I am currently working on my first monograph provisionally entitled Scenes of the City: Cultural Representations of the French Banlieue. For this purpose, I have created a unique online archive of the cultural representations of La Courneuve's Quatre Mille estate between 1962 and 2012 https://lacourneuveblog.wordpress.com/2016/12/03/archive-de-la-cite-des-quatre-mille-de-la-courneuve/.
Banlieues Network
Centre for Research in Translation and Transcultural Studies
Centre for Research in Film and Audio Visual Cultures
I am currently convening the BA Media, culture and identity programme. A Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, I teach and convene the modules Media and society and The art of the story. I am also involved in the final year dissertation supervision. I act as an AGT for Media, culture and identity students.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review