Overview
Claire Menard is a Lecturer in French whose scholarship and teaching focus on French and Francophone cinema and literature, postcolonial studies, and diasporic cultural production. Her research brings West African film traditions into critical dialogue with contemporary diasporic cinemas, with particular attention to questions of memory, trauma, gender, migration, and subject formation. She works extensively on filmmakers such as Ousmane Sembène, Djibril Diop Mambéty, Med Hondo, Mati Diop, Alice Diop, and Ramata Toulaye Sy, and places film in conversation with Francophone literary works by writers including Fatou Diome, Léonora Miano, Marie Ndiaye, Alain Mabanckou, and Abdourahman Waberi. Across media, her work examines spectral memory, African spiritualities, and the emergence of a contemporary female gaze within ecofeminist and postcolonial frameworks.
In addition to her research, Menard is deeply engaged in language pedagogy and second language acquisition. She has extensive experience teaching and coordinating multi level French programs and is particularly invested in innovative, student centered approaches to language learning. In collaboration with colleagues and teaching centers, she develops immersive virtual reality learning environments designed to enhance linguistic proficiency, cultural competence, and student engagement at all levels. Her teaching philosophy emphasizes intellectual rigor, inclusivity, and mentorship, approaching language learning as a critical cultural practice both inside and beyond the classroom.