Brian Martin

BRIAN MARTIN

Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature

Experience and Expertise

Areas of Expertise and Interest:

  • Nineteenth-Century French Novel
  • Twentieth-Century French Fiction and Film
  • Gender, Sexuality, and Queer Studies
  • Nordic Literature from Scandinavia to Québec
  • Military History, Literature, Sexuality (Gays in the Military)

Previous Academic Appointments:

  • 2004-2009, Assistant Professor, French and Comparative Literature, Williams College
  • 1999-2000, Lecturer, English and American Literature, École Normale Supérieure (Fontenay-aux-Roses, France)
  • 1998-2004, Teaching Fellow, French Language and English Literature, Harvard
  • 1995-1996, Teaching Assistant, Comparative Literature, UCLA

Education and Teaching

Education:

  • Ph.D. (2003) Harvard University, French Language and Literature
  • A.M. (1999) Harvard University, French Language and Literature
  • M.A. (1996) University of California Los Angeles, Comparative Literature (French, English, and Scandinavian Literatures)
  • A.B. (1993) Harvard University, French and English Literature

Study Abroad:

  • École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France (1999-2000)
  • Stockholms Universitet, Stockholm, Sweden (1993-1994)
  • Uppsala Universitet, Uppsala, Sweden (Summer 2010)

Williams Courses Taught (RLFR/COMP):

  • Introduction to French Language and Francophone Cultures
  • Intermediate Studies in French Language and Francophone Cultures
  • War and Resistance: Two Centuries of War Literature in France
  • Paris on Fire: Incendiary Voices from the City of Light
  • Sexuality and Seduction in Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century France
  • The Nineteenth-Century Novel: From Desperate Housewives to Extreme Makeovers
  • Adversity and Modernity in the the Twentieth-Century Novel
  • Contemporary Queer Cinema in France
  • Formidable French Film from France, Morocco, and Québec
  • Nordic Lights: Literary and Cultural Diversity in Modern Scandinavia

Theses Advised:

  • Thammika Prim Songkaeo, “Festive Orgies: Zola’s L’Assommoir and Le Ventre de Paris” (Williams, 2011)  (In Progress)
  • Colleen Farrell, “Epidemic Politics: Representation and Resistance in the First Decade of AIDS” (Williams, 2010)  (Second Reader)
  • Annabel Kim, “Du corps au corpus: l’écriture de l’Holocauste dans Aucun de nous ne reviendra de Charlotte Delbo                               et La Nuit d’Élie Wiesel” (Williams, 2007)
  • Joseph Hutchinson, “Fulfilling Forbidden Desire: Gide’s L’Immoraliste and Mann’s Der Tod in Venedig” (Williams, 2006)
  • Mary Ziegler, “Dangerous Imaginings in Trollope’s Can You Forgive Her and Flaubert’s Madame Bovary” (Harvard, 2004)
  • Thomas Clarke, “Contemporary French Paternity in Mathieu Kassovitz’s Métisse, La Haine, and Assassins” (Harvard, 2004)
  • Katherine Wagner, “Lifting the Veil: Beurette Politics, Literature, and Cinema in France, 1980-1999” (Harvard, 2001)

Publications and Scholarship

Book:

Napoleonic Friendship: Military Fraternity, Intimacy, and Sexuality in Nineteenth-Century France
(Hanover and Durham: University Press of New England and University of New Hampshire Press, 2010).

http://www.upne.com/1-58465-923-8.html
http://www.amazon.com (keyword “Napoleonic Friendship”)

Selected Articles, Chapters, Reviews:

  • “From Balzac to Iraq: Soldiers, Veterans, and Military Adaptation,” The Comparatist 30 (May 2006): 68-80.
  • “Going to Pieces: Paul Monette and the Fragments of the Tribe,” Journal of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Identity1.1 (January 1996): 21-35.
  • “Panthers, Palms, and Desert Passions: Balzac and Napoleon in Egypt,” Queer Exoticism, eds. David A. Powell and Tamara Powell (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010) 47-62.
  • “Corporal Affairs: French Military Fiction from Zola to Proust,” The Future of Beauty, ed. Daniel Meyer-Dinkgrafe (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2005) 103-122.
  • “Cultural Formations of Masculinity in North America,” Routledge International Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities, eds. Michael Flood et al. (New York: Routledge, 2007) 113-17.
  • “Brothers,” Routledge International Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities, eds. Michael Flood et al. (New York: Routledge, 2007) 50-51.
  • “Conscripts and Convicts,” Review of Biribi
: Les bagnes coloniaux de l’armée française, by Dominique Kalifa (Paris: Perrin, 2009),Contemporary French Civilization 34.2 (Summer 2010): 221-25.
  • “Caron’s Queer and Jewish Paris,” Review of My Father and I: The Marais and the Queerness of Community, by David Caron (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2009), South Central Review 27.3 (Spring 2011). Forthcoming.

Invited Lectures:

  • “Gays in the French Military: From Napoleon to the First World War,” Williams College, Faculty Lecture Series, March 2011. (Upcoming)
  • “A Tale of Two Napoleons: Homoeroticism and French Military Literature,” Vassar College, Department of French and Francophone Studies, September 2009.
  • “Disastrous Love: Soldiers and Sexuality in Zola’s La Débâcle,” Bucknell University, French and Francophone Studies Program, September 2009.
  • “Beyond Blond: Diversity in Modern Scandinavia,” Williams College, International Studies Colloquium, April 2009.
  • “Cavalry Couples and Military Mates: Balzac’s Napoleonic Veterans,” New York University,  French Nineteenth-Century Colloquium, April 2006.
  • “Soldiers and Sexuality: Military Masculinity in Napoleonic France,” Williams College, Women’s and Gender Studies Program, Faculty Lecture Series, March 2005.

Recent Conference Papers:

  • “Men and Bears: Hybridity, Masculinity, Sexuality,” 20th-21st Century French and Francophone Studies Colloquium, University of San Francisco, March 2011. (Upcoming)
  • “Who Queers? Radical Sexuality in Nineteenth-Century France,” Nineteenth-Century French Studies Colloquium (NCFS), Yale University, October 2010.
  • “Sobbing into his Soup: Napoleon, Friendship, and Loss,” Modern Language Association (MLA), Philadelphia, PA, December 2009.
  • “Army of Bachelors: Combat Buddies from the Empire to the Restoration,” Nineteenth-Century French Studies Colloquium (NCFS), Brigham Young University, October 2009.
  • “Global Balzac: Orientalism, Eroticism, and Desire,” American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), Harvard University, March 2009.
  • “Lumbering Legends: Paul Bunyan and Jos Montferrand,” Hofstra University Symposium on Queer Iconography, November 2008.
  • “Fraternité forestière: l’imaginaire littéraire du bûcheron au Québec,” American Council for Québec Studies (ACQS) Biannual Conference, Québec, Québec, November 2008.
  • “Napoleonic Friendship and Colonial Conquest,” Nineteenth-Century French Studies Colloquium (NCFS), Vanderbilt University, October 2008.
  • “Bûcheron Butch: Bear Culture, Lumber Lore, and Francophone Fantasy,” ‘Rhetoric of the Other’ Conference, University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne, March 2008.
  • “Sympathetic Sergeants and Bivouac Bedfellows,” Nineteenth-Century French Studies Colloquium (NCFS), Mobile AL, October 2007.
  • “Desert Passions and Colonial Sexploitation: Balzac and Napoleon in Egypt,” Hofstra University Symposium on Queer Exoticism, October 2007.
  • “Family Vacations and Seaside Romance: Queer Families in Contemporary French Film,” 20th-21st Century French and Francophone Studies Colloquium, Texas A&M, March 2007.
  • “Terroristes ou patriotes: guerre et résistance cinématographiques au Québec,” American  Council for Québec Studies (ACQS) Biannual Conference, Cambridge MA, October 2006.
  • “Pères de familles: origines cinématographiques de la paternité homosexuelle,” ‘Hypervisibité(s) queer au cinéma francophone,’ Université Concordia, Montréal, Québec, June 2006.
  • “From ‘Gay Paris’ to ‘Gay Famille’: Emerging Queer Families in New French Film,” American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), Princeton University, March 2006.
  • “Napoleon Wept: Military Friendship and Masculine Affection in France,” Nineteenth-Century French Studies Colloquium (NCFS), University of Texas Austin, October 2005.
  • “Balzac in Baghdad: Military Adaptation and Imperial Conquest,” American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), Pennsylvania State University, March 2005.

Fellowships and Grants:

  • French American Cultural Exchange Grants, from FACE (New York), French Embassy (Washington), and Ministry of Culture (Paris) to fund five French Film Festivals at Williams, 2006-2010.
  • Hellman Foundation Fellows Grant, for research in France, 2007-2008.
  • Whiting Foundation Fellowship, for research in France and Québec, 2007-2008.
  • Québec Studies Program Grant, from Québécois Government, for new research in Québec, 2007-2008.
  • Stanford University Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2004-2006 (declined).
  • Wesleyan University Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2004-2005 (declined).
  • Harvard Humanities Center Mellon Dissertation Fellowship, 2002-2003.
  • Krupp Foundation-Gunzburg Center for European Studies Fellowship, 2000.
  • École Normale Supérieure Fellowship, 1999-2000.
  • Harvard Edmund J. Curley Graduate Fellowship, 1999-2000.
  • Harvard Romance Languages Graduate Fellowship, 1996-1998.
  • UCLA Pauley Graduate Fellowship, 1994-1996.
  • Harvard Frederick Sheldon Fellowship, for a year of study in France, 1993 (declined).
  • Fulbright Scholarship, for a year of study in Sweden, 1993-1994.

Williams Service

French Film Festivals:

  • Secrecy and Scandal: Clandestine Lives and Passions in New French Film, 2011. (Upcoming)
  • Faith, Hope, Identity: Religious/Cultural Diversity in Contemporary French Film, 2010.
  • Critical Visions: New Film from Francophone Africa, 2009.
  • In the Best of Families: Domestic Drama in New French and Francophone Film, 2007.
  • Beyond the Femme Fatale: Leading Women in New French and Francophone Film, 2006.

Invited Lecturers:

  • Robyn Ochs, Feminism and Bisexuality, April 2010.
  • Isabel Roche, Hugo’s Les Misérables, April 2009.
  • Kate Kendel, Diversity in Denmark, February 2009.
  • Tom Conley, French Film, February 2007.
  • Allan Bérubé, Gays in the Military, April 2006.
  • Alice Jardine, Twenty-First Century Feminism, February 2006.

Contemporary France Forum:

  • “France in Revolt: The Labor Strikes that Shut Down the Nation,” November 2010.
  • “Crisis in the Caribbean: The French Antilles and the Global Economic Crisis in France,” March 2009.
  • “Sarkozy and Ségolène: Debating the French Presidential Elections,” May 2007.
  • “Paris is Burning: Recent Race Riots in France,” November 2005.

Faculty Committees:

  • Multicultural Center (MCC) Director Search Committee (Spring 2010)
  • Committee on Educational Policy (CEP) (2009 to present)
  • Women’s and Gender Studies Advisory Committee (2005 to present)
  • Dively Committee for Human Sexuality and Diversity (2004 to present. Chair, 2010 to present.)
  • Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Advisory Committee (2004-2009)