Education
Degrees
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Ph.D. in French, November 2012
M.A. in French, September 2008
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
B.A. in Comparative Literature with Highest Distinction, May 2004
Second Major in French
Certificates
Duke University Continuing Studies, Durham, NC
Certificate in Technical Writing, March 2020
5-month program on project management, information architecture, audience analysis, and structured authoring
University of Michigan and Google, Coursera online classes
Certificates in Python (5 classes) and Web Development (2 classes), February 2020
Certificate in Git and GitHub, February 2020
Work Experience
Independent Contractor
RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC, July 2020 to Present
• Edited 4 USAID/GoLD reports in French, 2 USAID/StopPalu+ reports in English, and 1 USAID/DFID report in English
• Revised 5 USAID Success Stories written in French
• Performed 5 accuracy checks for French translations of GATS protocol training modules
• Edited 1 USAID grant concept paper (English and French versions)
CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY, July 2020 to Present
• Edited and translated scholarly writing from French, including a 200-page book
Cengage, Boston, MA, March to Present
• Reviewed and finalized corrections to 2 French textbooks
Academic Appointments
Connecticut College, New London, CT
French Department
Visiting Assistant Professor, July 2015 to June 2019
Columbia University, New York, NY
Department of French and Romance Philology
Visiting Assistant Professor, January 2015 to June 2015
Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Department of Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics
Visiting Assistant Professor, August 2013 to December 2014
Rider University, Lawrenceville, NJ
Department for Foreign Languages & Literatures
Adjunct Assistant Professor, January to May 2013
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Department of French and Italian
Graduate Assistant Instructor, January 2007 to January 2011
Honors and Awards
Whiting Fellow, 2011-2012
Chateaubriand Fellow, 2009-2010
Pensionnaire étranger at the École normale supérieure, Paris, 2009-2010
Princeton French and Italian Armstrong Foulet Award, 2006-2009; 2010-2011
Phi Beta Kappa, Inducted 2004
Maas Memorial Prize in French, Winner 2004
Publications
“Rhymed Circumstances in Aragon’s Musée Grévin”. Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures. Fall 2017. 71:3. 115-127
“The Messianic redemption of French symbolist aesthetic theory”. Forum for Modern Language Studies. October 2016. Volume 52, N°4. 414-432
“Paul Valéry and poetic literacy”. Contemporary French & Francophone Studies 2016. Special Issue: “Faire le point: quand la littérature fait savoir”. 20:3, 478-485
“Mallarmé’s Socratic Monologues”. Romanic Review. May-November 2014. N° 105.3
“Sexual freedom and anarchist individualism in French symbolism’s ivory tower”. French Cultural Studies 2015. Vol. 26(1), pp. 17-31
“Blood and rhythmic analogies in Valéry’s Charmes”. French Forum. Volume 34, N°1, Winter 2009. pp. 19-32
Review of Un lyrisme de la finitude : Musset et la poésie, by Gisèle Séginger. Nineteenth-Century French Studies. Spring–Summer 2017. 45.3-4
Review of The Social Architecture of French Cinema, 1929-1939, by Margaret C. Flinn. Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures. Winter 2016. 70:4. 224-226
Conference Papers
“Symbolist-era assessments of stylistic ‘obscurity’ in French”. Nineteenth-Century French Studies conference. University of Virginia. November 9 – 11, 2017
“Peasantry and abstract thought in George Sand’s Mauprat”. Nineteenth Century French Studies conference. Brown University. October 27 – 29, 2016
“Aragon’s Musée Grévin and Goethe, résistant?” Passages, seuils, portes. International Colloquium 20th and 21st Century French and Francophone Studies. Saint Louis University. March 17 – 19, 2016
“Promising poets and past conditional mythmaking”. 56th Annual Conference. The Society for French Studies. University of Cardiff. June 29 – July 1, 2015
“Valéry and predictions of written poetry’s ‘death’”. Faire le point : Quand la littérature fait savoir. International Colloquium 20th and 21st Century French and Francophone Studies. Louisiana State University. February 26 – March 1, 2015
“Vielé-Griffin, Whitman, and Poe’s light without heat”. Thresholds and Horizons. Nineteenth Century French Studies conference. University of Richmond. October 24-26, 2013
“French symbolists and metaphors of monasticism”. The Monk, the Priest, the Nun. The Center for Italian Studies. University of Pennsylvania. March 22-23, 2013
“Starvation as persecution in accounts of Villiers’s and Verlaine’s sufferings”. Feast and Famine. Nineteenth Century French Studies conference. North Carolina State University. October 11-14, 2012
“Symbolist and national heroes in the early Third Republic”. The Idea of France. Interdisciplinary and international conference. University of Pittsburgh. November 10-12, 2011
Teaching Workshops
“Class of ’57 Teaching Seminar for Incoming Faculty.” Connecticut College. August 2015 – May 2016
“Culture and Gastronomy”. Institute of French Cultural Studies. Dartmouth College. June 17 to July 16, 2013
Completed “Teaching Transcript” program at Princeton’s McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning. December 2010
“Academic Leadership Conference: The Many Dimensions of Success”. Princeton University. January 17, 2009
Teaching Experience
Connecticut College, New London, CT
- French 102 Elementary French II, Spring 2019
Second-semester introductory course on French grammar and French-speaking cultures - French 347/447 Gastronomy and Culture, Spring 2019
Seminar on food from late Old Regime to present day; emphasizes history and language - French 413 Le Temps des prophètes, Spring 2019
Seminar on 19th-c. French literary expressions of progressive and antimodern ideologies - French 101 Elementary French I, Fall 2018
First-semester grammar course emphasizing communication and independent learning - French 110 Lower Intermediate French, Fall 2018
Accelerated grammar, bringing students from diverse beginning levels up to intermediate - FRH 343 Evolution and Revolution, Fall 2018
Survey of the 12th to 18th centuries with emphasis on education and social order - French 102 Elementary French II, Spring 2018
Second-semester introductory course on French grammar and French-speaking cultures - French 110 Lower Intermediate French, Spring 2018
Accelerated grammar, bringing students from diverse beginning levels up to intermediate - French 445 Franco-American Connections, Spring 2018
Seminar on cultural exchanges and the shared histories of France and the USA - French 101 Elementary French I, Fall 2017
First-semester grammar course emphasizing communication and independent learning - French 110 Lower Intermediate French, Fall 2017
Accelerated grammar, bringing students from diverse beginning levels up to intermediate - French 442 Artistic lives in Belle Époque Paris, Fall 2017
Seminar on early and late works of major writers and artists at the turn of the century - French 102 Elementary French II, Spring 2017
Second-semester introductory course on French grammar and French-speaking cultures - French 110 Lower Intermediate French, Spring 2017
Accelerated grammar, bringing students from diverse beginning levels up to intermediate - French 460 Writers, Painters, Models, Spring 2017
Seminar on literary representations of painters and models in 19th-century France - French 101 Elementary French I, Fall 2016
First semester grammar course emphasizing communication and independent learning - French 201 Intermediate French I, Fall 2016
Grammar and beginning conversation; readings on representations of French schools - French 347/447 Gastronomy and Culture, Fall 2016
Seminar on food from late Old Regime to present day; emphasizes history and language - French 102 Elementary French II, Spring 2016
Second semester introductory course on French grammar and French-speaking cultures - French 301 Pensez français, Spring 2016
Advanced composition and conversation course based around student-selected content - French 413 Le Temps des prophètes, Spring 2016
Seminar on 19th-c. French literary expressions of progressive and antimodern ideologies - French 101 Elementary French I, Fall 2015
First semester grammar course emphasizing communication and independent learning - French 201 Intermediate French I, Fall 2015
Grammar and beginning conversation; readings on representations of French schools - French 301 Pensez français, Fall 2015
Grammar and beginning conversation; readings on representations of French schools
Columbia University, New York, NY
- French W3624 Artistic lives in Belle Époque Paris, Spring 2015
Seminar on early and late works of major writers and artists at the turn of the century - French G8524 Youth of poets, age of the city, Spring 2015
Graduate survey of 19th-century French poetry from Romanticism to Symbolism
Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
- FRE 305 Evolution and Revolution, Fall 2014
Survey from the 12th to 18th centuries, with emphasis on education and social order - FRE 400/600 Writers, Painters, Models, Fall 2014
Seminar on literary representations of painters and models in 19th-century France - FRE 400/600 Belle Époque Generation, Fall 2014
Seminar on the “generation” of authors born around 1870; their shared cultural context - FRE 302 French Phonetics and Conversation, Spring 2014
Training in pronunciation; discussion of current events - FRE 400/600 Gastronomy and Culture, Spring 2014
Seminar on the role of food in 19th-and 20th-century French culture - FRE 400/600 From Baudelaire to Bob Dylan, Spring 2014
Seminar on French-language poetry and the fascination of poets’ biographies - FRE 315 French Civilization, Fall 2013
Introduction to French culture and history; emphasis on national identity - FRE 400/600 Classics of French Cinema, Fall 2013
Survey of French film and currents in film history and theory - FRE 400/600 French Literature(s) Today, Fall 2013
Seminar on 20th and 21st-century literature
Rider University, Lawrenceville, NJ
- FRE 201 French IV, Spring 2013
Fourth semester French and Francophone grammar and culture - FRE 320 French Phonetics and Conversation, Spring 2013
Course emphasizing pronunciation and conversational skill
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
- FRE 207 Studies in French Language & Style, Fall 2010
Fourth or fifth semester grammar review and survey of French literature - FRE 107 Intermediate/Advanced French, Fall 2008
Third semester French grammar, culture, and literature - FRE 101 Beginner’s French I, Fall 2007
First semester French grammar and culture - FRE 102 Beginner’s French II, Spring 2007
Second semester French grammar and culture
Albemarle County Public Schools, Charlottesville, VA
Substitute Teacher and Tutor, September 2005 to May 2006
- Worked with students at the elementary through high school levels
- Tutored in high school French grammar
AmeriCorps – Washington Reading Corps, Mount Vernon, WA
Volunteer Instructor, August 2004 to July 2005
- Tutored English language learners at the elementary school level
- Co-organized and participated in community service projects
Languages
- French, near-native
- German, good written and spoken
- Spanish, good reading knowledge
- Latin, fair reading knowledge
- Ancient Greek, fair reading knowledge
University Service
Second reader for French MA dossiers in Syracuse’s Department of Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, Fall 2013 to Fall 2014
Chair of the Graduate Liaison Committee of the Department of French and Italian, Fall 2010 to Spring 2011
Departmental Representative of the Department of French and Italian for the Princeton Graduate Student Government, Fall 2008 to Fall 2009
Benjamin Williams 