Dr Sophie Watt
BA, MA, PhD
School of Languages, Arts and Societies
Lecturer
+44 114 222 2883
Full contact details
School of Languages, Arts and Societies
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 Frances 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
- . Journal of Refugee Studies, 38(2), 470-474.
- . New Readings, 17(2), 105-123.
- France and the War on Terror: Mali 2013. The Journal of the Middle East and Africa.
Book chapters
- Teaching the 2004 coup in Haiti from a French perspective: Insights into France's neocolonial culture and practices In Accilien C & Orlando VK (Ed.), Teaching Haiti: Strategies for Creating New Narratives (pp. 137-165). Florida University Press
- Voicing the Silence: Exposing French Neo-Colonial History and Practices in Mathieu Pernots Les Migrants In Chadderton H & Kimyong羹r A (Ed.), Engagement in 21st Century French and Francophone Culture University of Wales Press
- 竄 Un pass矇 qui ne passe pas 罈守n myst癡re sans cesse red矇couvert In Kimyong羹r A & Wigelsworth A (Ed.), Rewriting Wrongs French Crime Fiction and the Palimpsest (pp. 31-47). Cambridge Scholars Pub
- 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
Conference proceedings
- Elisa Larvegos Chemin des dunes : beyond a critical ethnography of Calais. Invisible Wounds, Negociating Post-Traumatic Landscapes (pp 97-103). Sheffield, 5 March 2020 - 5 March 2020.
- 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 Cote dIvoire. (French Studies and Business School)
- Thomas Jackson, co-supervision, The French colonial mind: an insight into the pivotal role of La loi-cadre De畫rre. (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 si癡cle
FRE 387/98 Ha簿ti : La Trag矇die Histoire, politique et litt矇rature de l矇poque coloniale nos jours
- Professional activities and memberships
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- Subject Director for French
- Director of Pastoral Care for SLC