Professor of French and affiliated professor in Italian Studies
Déborah Blocker (ENS Ulm, Lettres 1990; DEA in Political Science — Sciences Po Paris, 1993; Doctorat in French Literature and Culture, University of Paris III, 2001; HDR in Comparative Literature, University of Paris IV, 2017) is Professor of French and affiliated faculty in Italian Studies.
She has been an engaged member of the Groupe de recherches interdisciplinaires sur l’histoire du littéraire (or Grihl: http://grihl.ehess.fr...
Associate Professor of French & Comparative Literature, Associate Dean, Arts & Humanities
Karl Britto is jointly appointed in the Departments of French and Comparative Literature. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award, the Berkeley campus's highest honor for teaching, and is currently serving as Associate Dean of Arts & Humanities. (Ph.D., Yale University)
Office Hours
My spring 2026 office hours will be held Wednesdays 3-5, and by appointment. Please sign up for a block of time here. The sign-up sheet will be...
Tuesdays & Thursdays 11-12 and by appointment (4214 Dwinelle)
Bio:
Rick Kern is Professor of French and an Affiliated Member of the Department of Linguistics. He teaches courses in French linguistics, applied linguistics and foreign language pedagogy and is involved in the training and mentoring of graduate student instructors in French. He directs the interdisciplinary undergraduate minor program in Applied Language Studies. He has also been...
Sidney and Margaret Ancker Chair in the Humanities; Distinguished Professor
French and Comparative Literature
In his recent work, Michael Lucey has developed a methodology combining insights from a Bourdieu-inspired sociology of culture and from the field of linguistic anthropology with the aim of studying a variety of ways in which works of literature function socially, and also studying ways in which certain works of literature can be understood to serve in their own right as analytical instruments for different aspects of the social world. His current work is focused mostly on novels.
A nearly-completed book on “Thinking About Sexuality with Novels...
Associate Professor and Affiliated Faculty Center for Jewish Studies, Graduate Faculty Advisor
Office Hours:
Tuesday 1-2 in person; and Friday 2-3 on zoom; by appointment
Selected Publications
"Transformations of the Social Bond on the Revolutionary Stage: Equality, Language, Affect," Le pouvoir en procès. Opinion publique et légitimité politique des Lumières au Premier Empire (Classiques Garnier, 2024.)
“Comedy in the Age of Reason,” in The History of Modern French Literature, ed. Christopher Prendergast, (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
“Society and Nature in Revolutionary Rights Debates,” in The Routledge Companion...
Professor of French and Affiliated Member of Linguistics and Italian Studies, Department Chair
Mairi McLaughlin is Professor in the Department of French and an Affiliated Member of the Departments of Linguistics and Italian Studies at UC Berkeley. She specializes in French/Romance Linguistics and in Translation Studies. She has published extensively on language contact in French and Romance, on the language of the media, and on journalistic and literary translation. She has a particular interest in the language of the media, especially the role that it plays in language variation and change, the use that is made of reported speech, and the linguistic and textual effects of news...
I am a scholar of medieval French and Occitan literature and culture, and my research focuses on the role of manuscript materiality in shaping the way readers engaged with stories and ideas. I am interested in bringing modern theoretical concepts into dialogue with medieval texts and books, which I firmly believe share more than we might first expect with contemporary culture and media. For an outline of my interests, you can read recent interviews with me ...
