MLA Panels

For all WIF-sponsored panels at MLA conferences:  

Panel chairs, whose panels have been accepted and included in a regional conference or the MLA convention, are required to be WIF members with active status upon panel acceptance and through the duration of that conference. 

Individuals do not need to be WIF members to submit a paper proposal or to present an accepted paper on a WIF-sponsored panel at the MLA or at MLA regional conferences.

WIF will offer free membership for one year to any panel presenters who are new to WIF. 

WASHINGTON DC 2022

Voices of Empowerment: French and Francophone Perspectives –– Co-organized by E. Nicole Meyer & CJ Gomolka

• Dual World Views in Leila Slimani’s Twin Texts Sexe et mensonges: la vie sexuelle au Maroc and Paroles d’honneur. Kate Nelson, University of Texas at Austin, katenelson@utexas.edu

• Speaking Up, Speaking Out: Postcolonial Prostitutes in Contemporary Moroccan Fiction. Edwige Crucifix, Bryn Mawr College, ecrucifix@brynmawr.edu

• #interdictionde(se)nommer: Twitter France, Empowering Identities, and the Queer Politics of Discursive Disenfranchisement. CJ Gomolka, DePauw University, cjgomolka@depauw.edu
• Sans papiers?: The Racialization of Gender Subversion in Adel Tincolin’s On n’a que deux vies and Nicola Mai’s Samira. Blase Provitola, Trinity College (Hartford, CT), blase.provitola@trincoll.edu

SEATTLE 2020

The Human Body and Gendered Technology in the French and Francophone Traditions

• Mediatized Female Bodies in the Work of Virginie Despentes. Natalie Edwards, University of Adelaide 

• Batailles Numériques in Durpaire and Boudjellal’s La Présidente Series. Christopher Hogarth, University of South Australia

• Techno-orientalisme et femmes bioniques: La représentation des héroïnes asiatiques dans la bande-dessinée franco-belge de science-fiction. Henri-Simon Blanc-Hoang, Defense Language Institute

• On A Arrêté Cyanure? Villains, Gynoids, and Bandes Dessinées. Viviana Pezzullo, Florida Atlantic University

CHICAGO 2019

Radical Transactions: Teaching Women in French and the Twenty-First Century Classroom –– Co-organized by E. Nicole Meyer & Joyce Johnston

• Strategies for Teaching Women Writing in French. Dominique Licops
• Rethinking Gender and Femininity Through Claire Bretechér’s Comic Strips. Viviana Pezzullo
• Teaching Women’s Autobiography Across the French Curriculum. Natalie Edwards  & Christopher Hogarth 
• Reading Across the Boundaries: French and Israeli Autobiography. E. Nicole Meyer

NEW YORK 2018

Stéréotypes en tous genres: Insécurités sociétales et précarités identitaires

• Racial and Sexual Stereotypes in Contemporary Women’s Writing in France. Nadia Louar, University of Wisconsin, Madison
  
• A Twisted Use of Autobiography: Nina Bouraoui’s La voyeuse interdite (‘Forbidden Vision’). Annick A. Durand, Zayed University
  
• Stéréotypes, malaise social et précarités identitaires dans Apocalypse bébé de Virginie Despentes. Michèle Schaal, Iowa State University
  
• The Memory of Stereotypes in Malika Mokeddem’s Writing. Beatrice Ivey, U of Leeds
  

PHILADELPHIA 2017

Writing the Self in the age of the selfie in French and Francophone Literatures –– Organized by E. Nicole Meyer, Augusta University

Speakers:

• Catherine Webster, (University of Central Oklahoma)
• Laurence Mall (University of Illinois)
• E. Nicole Meyer (Augusta University)

Teaching Women in French: Exploring the Boundaries –– Organized by Cecilia Beach and Joyce Johnston

• Worldwide Women Writers and the Web: Diversity and Digital Pedagogy (http://francophonemetronomes.com). Alison Rice, University of Notre Dame. Abstract
• Teaching in the Interstices: Investigating Gendered Violence in Women’s Literature of French Expression. Julia Frengs, Quest University Canada. Abstract
• 'C’est une femme qui parle': How to teach feminists in conversation with Sadean philosophy. Valentina Denzel, Michigan State University. Abstract
• Teaching French Feminist Theory Beyond Gender in Novels of Monique Wittig and Assia Djebar. Kimberly Coates, SUNY Stony Brook. Abstract

VANCOUVER 2015

Female-Authored Life Writing and Scandal –– Organized by Natalie Edwards, University of Adelaide (Panel description)

• Scandalous Memory: Terrorism Testimonial from the Algerian War. Amy L. Hubbell, University of Queensland
• Questioning Accountability in Contemporary Writing: Marcela Iacub’s Investigative Journalism and Its Backlash. Eftihia Mihelakis, Université de Montréal; Ania Wroblewski, Université du Québec à Montréal
• Risques et récompenses: Camille Laurens, Chantal Chawaf. Karin Schwerdtner, University of Western Ontario

CHICAGO 2014

French and Francophone Feminism(s) –– Organized by Heidi Bostic, Baylor University

• International Feminisms in a French Frame: Global Francophone Women Writers. Alison Rice, University of Notre Dame
• Current Metafeminist Practices in France and Québec. Marie J. Carrière, University of Alberta
• Beards and Breasts: The Performative Protest Politics of La Barbe and Femen. Michèle Schaal, Iowa State University
• ‘New Radicals’: Postfeminism, Queer, and French Women Writers of the 2000s. Mercédès Baillargeon, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Voyages de femmes, entrepris et rapportés: Représentations littéraires et/ou artistiques
 –– Organized by Christine M. Probes, University of South Florida

Speakers:

• Linda Alcott, University of Colorado, Denver
  
• Arline E. Cravens, Washington University in St. Louis
  
• Hélène Diaz Brown, Principia College
  
• Molly Krueger Enz, South Dakota State University
  
• Perry J. Gethner, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater
  
• Mariève Maréchal, Uniersity of Ottawa
  
• Catherine R. Montfort, Santa Clara University
  

BOSTON 2013

Périodes charnières dans les vies de femmes –– Organized by Florence Ramond Jurney, Gettysburg College

• Ne pas être mère: Le choix bien réfléchi de Linda Lê. Valérie Dusaillant-Fernandes, University of Waterloo
• Reluctant Benefactor: The Betrayal of Heritage in Catherine Mavrikakis’s Ça va aller. Robert Sapp, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
  
• Growing Old and Realizing Life in Marie-Claire Blais’s Soifs Cycle. Karen McPherson, University of Oregon
  

Joint WiF/Simone de Beauvoir Society session: The Influence of Simone de Beauvoir’s Writings on Following Generations of French Women Writers –– Organized by Barbara Klaw, Northern Kentucky University

• The Influence of Simone de Beauvoir’s Writings on Claire Cayron: A Preliminary Journey through Their Correspondence. Alice Caffarel-Cayron, University of Sydney
  
• Becoming the Female Subject: Metamorphosis of the ‘Cochonne’ in Darrieussecq’s Truismes. Michaela Hulstyn, Stanford University
  
• Jovette Marchessault, héritière moderne de Simone de Beauvoir et/ou utopiste? Sylvie Pascale Dewey, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
  
• Simone de Beauvoir et l’écriture des femmes engagées au XXIème siècle. Nathalie A. Debrauwere-Miller, Vanderbilt University
  

Special Session: French Women Writers in the Wake of the New Novel: Literary Heirs of Sarraute and Duras –– Organized by Stephanie A. Schechner, Widener University

• Bad Mother(land)s in Marguerite Duras’s and Paule Constant’s Fiction. Jennifer Willging, Ohio State University, Columbus
  
• Outside and Journal du dehors: Marguerite Duras and Annie Ernaux. Cathy Jellenik, Hendrix College
  
• Fluid Prose: Mireille Best Writing in the Wake of Nathalie Sarraute. Stephanie A. Schechner, Widener University
  

SEATTLE 2012

La force des femmes: Sources of Strength for Women in French-Language Literature and Film –– Organized by Alison Rice, University of Notre Dame

• L’amitié entre femmes comme source de force dans la fiction des romancières des lumières. Isabelle Tremblay, Collège Militaire Royal du Canada
  
• The Force of Music in George Sand: A Path to Empowerment. Arline E. Cravens, Saint Louis University
  
• ‘Elles étaient cinq’; or, How Female Friendship Survives Trauma. Miléna Santoro, Georgetown University.
  
• Anna Gavalda’s Fragile Women: The Empowerment of Self-Sacrifice. Vera Klekovkina, Scripps College.

Writing Lives, Living Lives in French: Camille Delaville, Nathalie Sarraute, and Marjane Satrapi –– Organized by E. Nicole Meyer (University of Wisconsin-Green Bay)

TORONTO 1997

Women Writing Men/Men Writing Women: French Literary Letters –– Organized by E. Nicole Meyer (University of Wisconsin-Green Bay)

SAN DIEGO 1994 

Voicing the Past in Women’s Texts of the Present –– Co-organized by E. Nicole Meyer  (University of Wisconsin-Green Bay)

TORONTO 1993 

Writing Women's Lives in French –– Organized by E. Nicole Meyer (University of Wisconsin-Green Bay)