Dr Sophie Watt
BA, MA, PhD
School of Languages and Cultures
Lecturer
+44 114 222 2883
Full contact details
School of Languages and Cultures
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA
- Profile
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I studied history as an undergraduate at the University of Paris VII where I also completed a Masters Degree in colonial history working on the rise of the nationalist movement in Cambodia.
After a few years of teaching in France and Scotland I completed a Masters Degree in French and Francophone literature and an interdisciplinary PhD in Modern French History and Literature at the University of Iowa. Following the completion of my doctoral thesis on ‘The Discursive Construction of Minority Identities in Modern France’ I took up a Teaching Fellowship at the University of Aberdeen before joining the department of French at the University of Sheffield.
- Qualifications
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- BA (Paris VII)
- MA (Paris VII)
- MA, PhD (University of Iowa, USA)
- Research interests
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- Colonial and neo-colonial history, literature and cinema
- Cultural history and memory
- Postcolonial theories of textuality and discourse analysis (production and writing of history)
- Trauma and Violence in Contemporary France
- Identity constructions (Jewish and colonized in particular)
- Critical Discourse analysis and Translation Studies
I am currently working on a number of projects dealing with France’s neo-colonial involvement in its former colonies and on a collaborative project, with Dr Amanda Crawley Jackson, dealing with the representation of migration in France: Calais in Focus: The Bigger Picture, the Longer Story. I am preparing a monograph entitled The French Neo-colonial Republic: Haiti, Mali and Central African Republic, the New Wars on/of Terror. I am also working on a book project with Dr Amanda Crawley Jackson.
- Publications
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Journal articles
- Ongoing Oppressions and Resistances: A review of Des allers vers, A Video Installation by Elisa Larvego.. Journal of Refugee Studies, feae060.
- Thompson, Céline and Tavernier: a historical echo chamber of The Western Imperial Ideology. New Readings, 17. View this article in WRRO
Chapters
- Mathieu Pernot and Les Migrants: Voicing the silence and Exposing French neo-colonial history and practices In Chadderton H & Kimyongür A (Ed.), Engagement in 21st Century French and Francophone Culture: Countering Crises University of Wales Press View this article in WRRO
- « Un passé qui ne passe pas »…un mystère sans cesse redécouvert In Kimyongür A & Wigelsworth A (Ed.), Rewriting Wrongs: French Crime Fiction and the Palimpsest (pp. 31-47). Cambridge Scholars Publishing View this article in WRRO
- Alexandre Arcady and the re-writing of French Colonial History in Algeria In Marsh K & Frith N (Ed.), France's Lost Empires: Fragmentation, Nostalgia, and La Fracture Coloniale (pp. 69-80). Lexington Books
- The Discursive Construction of Minority Identities in Third Republic France:
The 1937 Madagascar Plan, Exemplification of Republican Racism In Frendo H (Ed.), The European Mind: Narrative and Identity (pp. 236-240). Malta University Press
- Comparative Analysis of Three ‘Human’ Exhibitions: The Semiotic Construction of the Jewish and Colonised subjects. In Rorato L & Saunders A (Ed.), The Essence and the Margin: National Identities and Collective Momeries in Contemporary European Culture (pp. 37-50). Rodopi
- “Teaching the 2004 coup in Haiti from a French perspective: an Insight into global Neo-Imperial Culture and Practices". In Orlando VK & Accilien C (Ed.), Teaching Haiti Beyond Literature: Intersectionalities of History, Literature and Culture
- Teaching the 2004 coup in Haiti from a French perspective: an Insight into global Neo-Imperial Culture and Practices. In Orlando VK & Accilien C (Ed.), Teaching Haiti Beyond Literature: Intersectionalities of History, Literature and Culture. View this article in WRRO
Conference proceedings papers
- Elisa Larvego’s Chemin des dunes: Beyond a Critical Ethnography of Calais. Invisible Wounds, Negociating Post-Traumatic Landscapes (pp 97-103). Sheffield, 5 March 2020 - 20 June 2020.
- Ongoing Oppressions and Resistances: A review of Des allers vers, A Video Installation by Elisa Larvego.. Journal of Refugee Studies, feae060.
- Research group
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PhD thesis supervision:
- Maryam Shams, (2018 - now) ‘The Evolution of Media Practices in Conflicts: A Case Study of France in Chad (1968-2014)’
- Amanda Tavares, (2018 - now) 'Contemporary Art, Women and the Mediterranean'
- Harriet Orkney (Sheeld, 2015 - present), main supervisor, “Geopolitical Comparative Analysis of foreign interventions in Haiti, Chad and Cˆote d’Ivoire.” (French Studies and Business School)
- Thomas Jackson, co-supervision, “The French colonial mind: an insight into the pivotal role of La loi-cadre De↵erre.” (French Studies and History) (Completed 2018)
I am interested in supervising research in the following areas:
- Colonial and neo-colonial history.
- Inter-war period and Vichy France (History, Literature and cinema).
- Cultural memory
- Trauma and violence in contemporary France
- Critical discourse analysis and translation studies
- Teaching activities
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Postgraduate
• FRE6663/4 MA in French Studies: Constructions of the Body (a unit on ‘Le Juif et la France’)
• FRE6700 MA in French Studies: Advanced Translation from French
• FRE6653 /6654 French Cultural Studies I & II (a unit on Minority Identities in Modern France: ‘human exhibitions’)Undergraduate
I teach French language at all levels, and the following modules
• FRE289/90 French Cultural Studies
• FRE281/2 French Revolutionary Traditions
• FRE385/6 Constructions Identitaires dans la France du XXe siècle
• FRE 387/98 Haïti : La Tragédie Histoire, politique et littérature de l’époque coloniale à nos jours
- Professional activities and memberships
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- Subject Director for French
- Director of Pastoral Care for SLC