Dr Marion Krauthaker Coombes

Having worked in other universities in the UK and Ireland since 2004, I joined DMU in 2019. I am a Senior Lecturer in Modern Languages, Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and the Programme Leader for Modern Foreign Languages programmes (https://www.dmu.ac.uk/arts-design-humanities/undergraduate/modern-languages.aspx) and Foreign Languages Courses for Business (http://www.dmu.ac.uk/foreignlanguagesforbusiness). I am also DMU International College Academic Lead.

Originally from France, I obtained my early degree and Masters in English at the Université Blaise Pascal in Clermont-Ferrand, France (2003) and completed another Masters in French -2004) and a PhD in French (2010) at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

I held various teaching and research positions at the National University of Ireland, Galway from 2004 to 201, worked as a Lecturer in French Studies at the University of Sunderland in 2013, and as a Lecturer in French and Francophone Studies the University of Leicester from 2014 to 2019 where I was also Coordinator of Languages and Director of French Studies.

My research focuses on representations of gender and sexuality as well as mechanisms of power and marginalisation in French literature and culture, and on foreign languages teaching and learning.

I am the co-director of the  Interdisciplinary Gender and Sexuality Research Cluster (http://igsrc.dmu.ac.uk) created in 2015 and based at DMU since 2020.

Interdisciplinary Gender and Sexuality Research Cluster (Co-Director).

DMU Institute of English - Center for Textual Studies (Member)

Forthcoming 2023: "Marie-Aimée Méraville, une voix sans voie ou le destin d'une autrice rurale", ed. Valentina Gosetti and Heather Williams, French Studies Bulletin.

2023: "Jeux de genre dans les écrits de Colette", ed. by Martine Reid and Frédéric Canovas, Presses universitaires de Rouen et du Havre, Collection « Genre à lire et à penser ».

2022: "A Place of One's Own for Rural Female Writers: the Case of Marie-Aimée Méraville", Irish Journal of French Studies, Volume 22, pp.22-43.

2021: "A Review of Daouda's L'Anti-Samlomé: Représentation de la féminité bienveillante au temps de la Décadence (1850-1910) (Oxford: Peter Lang, Romanticism and After in France, 2020), Irish Journal of French Studies, Volume 21.

2019: "A Review of Hartford's Sexualiity, Iconography, and Fiction in French: Queering the Martyr (London: PAlgrave Macmillan, 2018), Irish Journal of French Studies.

2018: "A review of Approaches to Teaching Sand's Indiana" ed. by David Powell and Pratima Prasad, Modern Language Review, Vol. 113, No. 2, April 2018, 407-409.

2017: "A Reflection on Pedagogical Rationale in the Neoliberal University: The Case of Self-Access Language Centres" in Journal of Pedagogic Development, Volume 7, No 3.

2017: "A survey of self-access foreign language centres in UK higher education institutions: Format, practices and challenges in 2016", Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal, 8(3), 223-234.

2017: "Gazing at Medusa: Adaptation as phallocentric Appropriation in Blue is the Warmest Colour" European Comic Art, Volume 10, Spring/Autumn.

2016: "S'écrire pour mieux mourir. Les Souvenirs de l’hermaphrodite Herculine Barbines" in Sexes, genres, sexualités. Que disent les manuscrits? ed. Danielle Constantin, Catherine Viollet (Presses universitaires de Rouen et du Havre)

2016: "Le Journal d’un voyageur pendant la guerre de George Sand ou le parcours d’une femme-citoyen" in Résistances Intérieures: Visage du Conflit dans le Journal Personnel, eds. Sylvie Lannegrand, Véronique Montémont (Academia L'Harmattan)

2016: "La souffrance entre les lignes : Le journal de Mary Martin, mère irlandaise sous la première guerre mondiale" in Résistances Intérieures: Visage du Conflit dans le Journal Personnel, eds. Sylvie Lannegrand, Véronique Montémont (Academia L'Harmattan)

2014: “The Peepshow and the Voyeuse: Colette’s Challenge to the Male Gaze” in The Phallic Eye: Sensational Visual Pleasures in Cinema and Literature, eds. Dr Gilad Padva and Dr Nurit Buchweitz (Palgrave-MacMillan).

2013: “Aurore et George, un je entre elle et lui” in La Faute à Rousseau, No 64 (October).

2013: “A Review of An Anthology of Nineteenth-Century Women’s Poetry from France” in Nineteenth Century French Studies, Volume 41, Number 3 & 4, Spring-Summer 2013.

2011: L’Identité de genre dans les oeuvres de George Sand et Colette (L’Harmattan).

2010: « George Sand et Colette: lecture croisée du hors temps et du hors lieu in "George Sand: Intertextualité et Polyphonie", edited by Harkness, Nigel and Wright, Jacinta (Peter Lang)

2009: “Corporeal Performance and Visible Gender Positions in Colette” in Francophone Women between Visibility and Invisibility, edited by McFadden, Cybelle and Teixidor, Sandrine (Peter Lang)

My research focuses on two separate fields:

- French Literature and culture: representations of gender, sexuality and queer identities (especially dynamics between norms/power and subaltern subjectivities) and marginalised or forgotten female rural writings.

- Foreign languages teaching and learning: autonomous learning, educational policies, and equality and diversity in the curriculum.

I welcome applications from PhD candidates looking to undertake doctoral projects on the above fields. 

 

French language.

French culture.

Foreign languages teaching, learning and pedagogies.

 

French pre-independent user and independent user (B1)

French pre-independent user plus and independent user  plus (B2)

Trends and Issues in the communicative language classroom (MA)

Teaching receptive and productive skills (MA)

Masters dissertation supervision

PhD dissertation supervision

 

 

Member of the Confucius Institute Management Board.

Trustee of La Petite Ecole de Leicester.

 

Member of the University Council of Modern Languages

Member of the Association des Etudes Francaises d'Irlande

Member of the Association for French Studies

Member of the Association des Amis de Marie-Aimée Méraville

 

Reclaiming Secondary Zone Female Voices Towards A Remapping Of Literary France: I am currently working on a British Academy and Leverhulme Trust funded project aiming at rediscovering forgotten French rural female literary voices and examining these through the lenses of transregionalism, ecocriticism and secondary zone literature.

Forthcoming 2023: Association des Etudes Françaises d'Irlande Annual Conference (Dublin): "Eviter Paris, visibiliser le rural : Jeux et stratégies écocritiques dans les (contre-)narrations de Marie-Aimée Méraville".

Forthcoming 2023: La Mémoire des marchands de toile: représentation et imaginaire (Egliseuneuve d'Entraigues, France): "Les marchands de toile dans les écrits de Méraville".

Forthcoming 2023: Sciety for French Studies Annual Conference (Newcastle University): "Secondary zone (counter-)narratives: embodied femininities in Marie-Aimée Méraville’s writings as a remapping of rurality".

2023: DMU Faculty of Arts and Humanities Reserach Showcase: "Rural Female (counter-)narratives as an ecocritical remapping of Frenchness".

2022: Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France Annual Conference (online): "Decolonising French literature through the Rediscovery of Neglected Rural Female Writers: The silenced voice of Marie-Aimée Méraville".

2022: Society for French Studies Annula Conference (Belfast): "The Rural Margin by the Rural Margin: Méraville’s Female Characters".

2022: Bypassing Paris?: An Online Multi-Platform Discussion Forum (online): "Reflections on marginalised rural female writings and the French studies field".

2021: South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA), Atlanta, Georgia: "Provincializing the French Literary Canon through second zone writings".

2021: Women in French Australia - Seminar Series 2021: "Writing from the confines of the Massif Central: Marie-Aimée Méraville, the forgtten voice of the Cantal."

2021: DMU Heritage Research Day, Leicester: "Recovering a part of France’s Literary Heritage through the Study of Lost Provincial Female Voices".

2021: Women in French UK-Ireland Biennial Conference, Maynooth University, Ireland: "Provincialiser et Féminiser le canon littéraire: Méraville, une voix de femme oubliée."

2019: Gendered Species: Colette, Gender and Sexual Identities Conference, Arizona State University: "Vous, une femme, vous voudrez bien…: Gender Games in Colette's Writings."

2019: XXIe colloque annuel de l'ADEFFI, Queens University Belfast: 'Le genre dans les écrits de Marie-Aimée Méraville, une auteure oubliée'

2018: Plenary lecture at the University of Sunderland: 'Language Learning at the Age of the Corporal Reform of UK Higher Education'

2017: Discovering Teaching Excellence Conference (Leicester): 'Pedagogical Needs and the Neoliberal Agenda: the case of Self-Access Language Centres at the Age of the Corporate Reform of UK Higher Education'

2017: Talk at the Moore Institute of Research, National University of Ireland, Galway (May): 'Modern Languages and the Making of ‘Citizens of the World’: Recapturing the Values of a Discipline at Odds with Current Political and Educational Contexts’

2017: 6eme Colloque International sur la Didactique des Langues Secondes (Montreal): 'Reading Self-Access Language Centres in Light of the Current Higher Education Context: Values, Challenges and Opportunities'

2015: Rethinking self-access language learning in Light of the values and mission of the discipline (Leicester): Modern Languages Research Seminar Series

2015: Scopohilia. Genre et politique du regard (Lausanne) : "Etouffer le Rire de la Méduse, détourner son regard"

2015: European Comics and Adaptation (Leicester) : “Gazing at Medusa: Adaptation as phallocentric dynamics in Blue is the Warmest Colour”

2014: Séminaire Mensuel ITEM-CNRS (École Normale Supérieure de Paris): "Le Journal d’une mère irlandaise pendant les Pâques sanglantes"

2014: Ulysses Seminar (Ireland): "Analyse génétique du journal de Mary Martin"

2013: ADEFFI Annual Conference (Ireland): "Transgressions corporelles et textuelles dans les 'Souvenirs' d’Herculine Barbin"

2013: 37the International Congress of Francophones Studies (Mauritius): “Dynamiques Queers in: fluidité textuelle et sexuelle chez Colette”

2013: Journée d’Etude Annuelle du CNRS (Paris): "Analyse génétique du Journal d’un voyageur de George Sand"

2013: Ulysses Seminar (Ireland): Les journaux de George Sand: politique et sexualité.

2012: Séminaire Mensuel ITEM-CNRS (École Normale Supérieure de Paris): "Souvenirs d’hermaphrodite"

2012: Colloque Penser le Corps (Université de Gafsa, Tunisie): Prémisses Littéraires de Coporalité Féminine transgressive

2012: Conférence Littéraire Annuelle (Bibliothèque de Riom, France): Le féminin dans la litérature française du long XIXeme siècle

2012: School Languages, Literatures and Cultures Research Day (National University of Ireland): "Gender in Contexts and Texts"

2012: Gender in Ireland Conference (National University of Ireland): "Love the Sinner, Hate the Saint in Edna O’Brien’s 2011 Short Stories"

2011: Self, Selves and Sexualities International Conference (Dublin City University, Ireland): "Odysseys towards Fulfilling Gender Identities in Edna O’Brien’s Fiction”

2011:  Tango: Creation, Identification and Circulation International Conference (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales de Paris): "Féminin versus masculin dans le tango Argentin"

2009: Modern Language Board Conference (National University of Ireland): “The Reunion of two Lovers: One Story, Four Critical Interpretations of Colette’s Chéri.”

2008: George Sand International Conference: Polyphony and Intertextuality (University College Dublin, Ireland): « Paradis perdu, paradis retrouvé chez George Sand et Colette"

2007: Women in French Conference (Durham, United-States): "Sand, un artisan de la plume: travailler la contrainte et produire la libération".

2006: The Burn Conference (Scotland): "La Mascarade comme dynamique d’autoréalisation"

 

I am an external examiner in French at the:

- National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

- Shannon College of Hotel Management, Ireland

- University of Coventry, UK

- Lazarski University, Poland

I am a pedagogic consultant for the charity La Petite Ecole de Leicester. 

I am a peer reviewer for various educational journals dedicated to research in foreign languages.

Jennifer Wilkinson, "(Dis)-functional Skills? An examination of the impact of further education reforms on Functional Skills English".

Tarek Mahmoud, "Black Boxing the use of technology in English Language Classes in Islamic Schools through a Cultural-Historical Activity Theory Lens".

British Academy and Leverhulme Trust Small grants (2021): "Reclaiming ‘Secondary Zone’ Female Voices towards a Remapping of Literary France".

Robert Payne, "Representations of Lesbian Mothering in Contemporary French Culture" (2018).

Karol Valderrama Burgos, "Female Representations in Colombian Cinema" (2019)

Aunyapat Chaiyapinyowat, "Conceptualisation of the Willingness to Communicate in a Foreign Language (L2) of Thai University Students". (2020)

Li Wang, "The Use of Reading Strategies and Influencing Factors in Doing Reading Comprehension in English: A Case Study".  (2021)

Lizhen Wei, "Chinese EMI teachers' self-efficacy in their self-regulated English Learning" (2022)