Research Interests at a Glance:

Dr. Gladys M. Francis’ research involves French and Francophone Studies; Theory and cultural Studies, Africana Studies; Postcolonial Studies; Visual and Media Studies; Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She explores issues of identify formation, (rural/urban) resilience, race and ethnicity, gender-based violence, individual and collective trauma and social cohesion – in France, the French Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Francis counts various invited lectures and interviews across the globe to present her scholarship. She also has a record of presentations at numerous prominent national and international conferences dating back to 2000.

Forthcoming Publications:

Her forthcoming books include:

• Fabienne Kanor in Transgression: Documenting, Performing, Writing, and Filming the Insufferable, an edited book on the works of award-wining author and filmmaker Fabienne Kanor
• Islands and Identities, an edited book on comparative perspectives regarding issues of trauma and memory in the French Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Her forthcoming articles include:

• “Remapping Disability through Contested Urban Landscapes and Embodied Performances” (Cambridge University Press, 2020).
• “Performing while Black: Disrupting Gender and Sexuality from Trinidad to Norway” Caribbean Review of Gender Studies ( Augustine: The University of the West Indies, (2020).
• “The Contested Spaces of African Vernacular: Corpomemorial-Tracing Pedagogies and Embodied Activisms.” (Leicester UK: Serendipity Artists Movement Ltd, 2019)

She also counts forthcoming book reviews with The UK Connect Magazine (2019) and The New West Indian Guide of the University of Nebraska Press (spring 2020).

 

Published Books and Articles:

Dr. Francis recently published two books:

• Odious Caribbean Women (Lexington Books, 2017), a monograph that investigates representations of violence and the abhorrent in the works of Caribbean women writers and visual artists (ISBN: 978-1-4985-4350-7)

• Love, Sex, Gender and Trauma in the French Caribbean (L’Harmattan Paris, 2016), an edited book with contributions from Simone Schwartz-Bart, Fabienne Kanor, and Jocelyne Béroard, among others (ISBN: 978-2-343-07395-8):

She counts over 25 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on her research interests; most recently:

• “Quand l’invisible s’affiche: Entretien avec Fabienne Kanor. Inscrire et réitérer des identités ouvertes, mouvantes et complexes” Francosphères. Liverpool : Liverpool University Press 1 (2019): 85- 100.
• “Case départ: Slavery in Martinique through the Lens of Comedy.” Celluloid Chains: Slavery in the Americas through Film. Eds. Block and Duke, Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, (Summer 2018, June 15, 2018):198-221.
• “Fabienne Kanor « l’Ante-llaise par excellence »: sexualité, corporalité, diaspora et créolité.” The French Forum (The University of Pennsylvania Press 41.3 (2017): 273-288)
• “Résister au compromis, crever la douleur, dire le silence: entretien avec Jocelyne Béroard.” (L’Harmattan, 2016)
• “Introduction. Dis-positions Créoles: Corpographies du désir, du trauma et de la résistance aux Antilles.” (L’Harmattan, 2016)
• “Entretien avec Simone Schwarz-Bart: ‘Vivre à la Tout-Monde’” (L’Harmattan, 2016)
• “Exotisme, dialogisme et chaos en milieu antillais”(Cambridge Scholars Press, 2016)
• “Creolization on the Move in Francophone Caribbean Literature” (The University of Oxford, 2015)

Chairs, Grants and fellowships:

Dr. Francis is the recipient of numerous research grants (summing to over $200,000.00). Some of her awards and fellowships include: A summer research residency in Senegal (2019); the 2019 College of Arts & Sciences Outstanding Faculty Diversity Award; The LBA Summer Residency in Guadeloupe (2018); $36,870 Trilogie Project Fund (2013/2014); The Digital Champions Fellowship (2013); two Endowed Weber Chairs in the Humanities (2011 and 2012); the Juliette S. Benhamou Francophone Studies Fellowship (2008), the Outstanding Teaching Award in 2007 and 2008 as well as the Excellence Teaching Award in 2005 from Purdue University; the Outstanding Work Award for her success in directing and coordinating the first collegiate exhibit of Caribbean performing arts at the University of the Antilles in 2001.

Other Projects:

Dr. Francis is the Director of the inaugural Africana Studies Center (ASC) in the College of Arts and Sciences at Georgia State University. ASC is dedicated to the critical study of the historical, literary, theoretical, and artistic dimensions of the many cultures of Africa and its Diaspora. As the Director of the South Atlantic Center of the Institute of the Americas, Dr. Francis also facilitates academic and artistic collaborations throughout the southeastern region of the United States (i.e. the first SACIdA International Conference on the Caribbean. She maintains broad, international teaching experience in the field. She has directed and coordinated several Research field trips, exchange programs, and long term study abroad programs in Africa, Europe, South America, and the French Caribbean around topics of migratory artifacts, Francophone and African literary and cultural productions, education, experiential learning and NGOs, literacy, environmental and community activism. She engages her students in international research projects and collaborations with institutes based in Sub-Saharan Africa, the French Caribbean, South America, and France. She is also the proud mentor of undergraduate and graduate students she has helped getting published.