James Boucher
Assistant Professor of French
Department of World Languages and Cultures
Rutgers University-Camden
james.boucher@rutgers.edu
Curriculum Vitae
2023
EDUCATION
2016 PhD in French, Graduate Program in French and Francophone World Studies, Department of French and Italian, University of Iowa
“Representations of the Amerindian in French Literature and the Postimperialist Literature of Quebec”
2010 M.A. in French, Graduate Program in French and Francophone World Studies, Department of French and Italian, University of Iowa
2008 B.A. in French with Honors and High Distinction, Department of French and Italian, University of Iowa
2008 B.A. in Linguistics with a Focus on Teaching English as a Second Language with High Distinction, Department of Linguistics, University of Iowa
GRANTS, FELLOWSHIPS, AWARDS, HONORS
FELLOWSHIPS
2017 Civic Engagement Faculty Fellow, $1,000
2012-13 Paul Benhamou Fellowship, $1,000
2011-15 Dean’s Graduate Fellowship (renewed at PhD level), Graduate College, $26,000
2008-10 Dean’s Graduate Fellowship, Graduate College, $24,500
AWARDS
2018 Online Course Development (created the first online course offered in the French Program), $1, 000
2007-8 Mary Susan Morse Iosue Memorial Scholarship, $1,500
PUBLICATIONS
ARTICLES
“Radical Animism and the Geontological: An Ecocritical Reading of Patrick Chamoiseau’s Le vieil homme esclave et le molosse”, Alternative Francophone, Special Issue: “Nature, environnement et écologie: pour une approche écocritique de la littérature francophone”. (2019)
“Neoliberal Biopolitics in Michel Noël’s Nipishish: Market Logic and Indigenous Resistance,” American Indian Culture and Research Journal, (2019)
“The Infernal Automobile: Car Culture in the Fiction of J.M.G. Le Clézio,” International Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies, Vol. 1, Issue 3, October-December 2014
BOOK CHAPTERS
“Writing the Land, Effacing the Indigenous: Nature and the Native in Cartier and Champlain”, chapter in Crossing Borders: Delineations of Space in Medieval and Early Modern Literature, Edited by Dr. David Pecan, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, (In press)
BOOK REVIEWS
Coop-Phane, Le procès du cochon, The French Review. Vol. 93, No. 3 (In press, expected May 2020)
Onfray, Michel. Nager avec les piranhas: carnet guyanais. The French Review. Vol. 92, No. 3. (In press, expected May 2019)
Jenni, Alexis. La conquête des îles de la Terre Ferme. The French Review. Vol. 92. No. 2. (In press, expected March 2019)
Moï, Anna. Le venin du papillon. The French Review. Vol. 92, No. 1, October 2018.
EDITORSHIPS
Guest editor, coauthor of “Introduction” with Dr. Cynthia Laborde. Alternative Francophone. Special Issue: “Nature, environnement et écologie: pour une approche écocritique de la littérature francophone”. (2019)
Article Reviewer, Romance Quarterly
Article Reviewer, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment
WORKS IN PROGRESS
BOOKS
The Mythic Indian: The Native in French and Quebecois Cultural Imaginaries (Under Review: Routledge Research in Transnational Indigenous Perspectives)
ARTICLES
“Desert Geographies and Identities: Going Native in the Fiction of J.M.G. Le Clézio and Michel Tournier”
“Rewriting History: Contemporary French Fiction’s Focus on the Amerindian”
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
REFEREED TALKS
2023 “Rewriting Conquest: Representations of the Amerindian in Contemporary French Fiction”, 76th Annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, Kentucky, April-20-22, 2023 (accepted)
2023 “Desert Spaces and Faces: The Myth of Going Native in LeClézio and Tournier”, 20th and 21st Century French and Francophone Studies International Colloquium, Tuscon, Arizona, April 13-15, 2023 (accepted)
2020 “The Mythology of Going Native: The Amerindian in the Oeuvre of Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio”, 73rd Annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, Kentucky, April 16-18, 2020 (Canceled Covid-19)
2020 “Colonial and Postcolonial Geographies: Identity and Environment in Mehdi Charef’s À bras-le-cœur”, 20th and 21st Century French and Francophone Studies International Colloquium, Lincoln, Nebraska, March 26-28, 2020 (Canceled Covid-19)
2020 “Visions of the West: Nature and Native in Blasco-Martinez and Albert Bonneau’s Catamount Series”, 41st Annual Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 19-22, 2020
2019 “The Animist, the Indigenous, and the Geonotological: An Ecocritical Reading of Patrick Chamoiseau’s Slave Old Man”, Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment Biennial Conference, University of California-Davis, Davis, California, June 26-9, 2019
2019 “The Trace of the Indigenous: Amerindian Representations in the Fiction of Patrick Chamoiseau”, 39th Cincinnati Conference on Romance Languages and Literatures, Cincinnati, Ohio, April 5-6, 2019
2019 “Entering Sacred Spaces: Going Native in the French Western Novel”, 40th Annual Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 20-23, 2019
2018 “Animal and Human(imal) Connections in La Baleine dans tous ses états by François Garde”, 91st Annual American Association of Teachers of French Conference, La Pointe-du-Bout, Martinique, France, July 18-20, 2018
2018 “Frontier Mythologies: Nationalism and Imperialism in the French Western Novel”, 39th Annual Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 9, 2018
2017 “Ecocritical Representations of Indigeneity in Yves Thériault’s N’Tsuk and Ashini”, Muddied Waters Conference, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 26, 2017
2017 “Anthropocentric and Biocentric Ecologies in Jean-Christophe Rufin’s Rouge Brésil”, Ecology/ies Conference, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, February 25, 2017
2015 “Biopolitics in Michel Noël’s Nipishish: Policy, Power, and Resistance,” Settler Colonial Biopolitics and Indigenous Lifeways Panel, 7th Annual Native American and Indigenous Studies Association Conference, Washington D.C., June 4-6, 2015
2015 “Writing the Land, Effacing the Indigenous: Nature and the Native in Cartier and Champlain,” The Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies 2015 Multidisciplinary Graduate Student Conference, The Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois, January 22-24, 2015
2012 “Postcolonial Space: The Trauma of the Cityscape in A bras-le-coeur by Mehdi Charef,” 65th Annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, April 19-21, 2012
INVITED TALKS
2012 “Beggar Kings: Mimicry and Migration in Haiti,” 13th Annual Crossing Borders Convocation: Transcultural Communication and Migrations in the Indian Ocean Rim and the Caribbean, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, March 23-4, 2012
2012 “Napoleon and Toussaint Louverture: Mirror Images of Power,” 4th Annual European Studies Conference: Napoleon and the World: Literature, Politics and the Arts, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, November 30, 2012
2011 “The Infernal Automobile: Car Culture in the Fiction of J.M.G. Le Clézio,” 3rd Annual European Studies Conference: Green Politics II, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, December 2-3, 2011
COLLOQUIA/PANEL ORGANIZATION
2018 “Teaching in the Target Language Lecture”, Laura McClintock, Rutgers University-Camden, Camden, New Jersey
2018 “Race in the Caribbean”, Dr. Vanessa Borilot of Elizabethtown College, Rutgers University-Camden, Camden, New Jersey
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY-CAMDEN, CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY
Elementary French I Online, 50:420:101 (created)
Intermediate French I, 50:420:131
Intermediate French II, 50:420:132
Aspects of Francophone Cultures, 50:420:212 (designed)
Globalization: Past and Present, 50:420:250 (created)
French Supplemental Discussion, 50:420:252 (created, supplemental hour taught in target language, course model initiative designed to increase recruitment)
Nature and Environmentalism in France, 50:420:260 (created)
Introduction to Francophone Literature, 50:420:310 (designed)
Nature and Ecology in French Fiction, 50:420:391 (created)
The Enlightenment Other, 50:420:392 (created)
Introduction to Global Studies 50:480:101
Migrations in the Francophone World, 50:420:392 (created)
French Civilization, 50:420:360 (created)
African and Caribbean Literature, 50:420:243 (created)
Modern French Readings 1, 50:420:201 (created)
Cinema of the Francophone World, 50: 525:153 (created, Honors College)
PARADISE VALLEY COMMUNITY COLLEGE, PHOENIX, ARIZONA
Elementary French I
Elementary French II
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA, IOWA CITY, IOWA
Elementary French I
Elementary French II
Intermediate French I
Intermediate French II
Introduction to Reading and Writing in Literature in French (Development of analytical, organizational skills for the interpretation of literature; readings in prose, poetry, drama, criticism; emphasis on reading and essay writing)
UNIVERSITÉ DE POITIERS, POITIERS, FRANCE
English Conversation
Translation
Short Fiction in English (created)
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
UNIVERSITY
2022 Ad Hoc Committee on University Senate Committee Chair Elections
2022 Chair, Faculty Senate Shared Governance Ad Hoc Committee
2022 University Senate, Camden at-large Representative
2022 Interim Faculty Senate Vice-President
Spring 2021 Graduation Marshal
2020-2021 Faculty Senate Secretary
2020 Faculty Senate Bylaws Ad Hoc Committee
2021 Faculty Senate Planning and Budget Bylwas Ad Hoc Committee
2016-present Faculty Senate Representative
Spring 2018 Interim French Program Director
Spring 2018 Graduation Marshal
Spring 2019 Graduation Marshal
DEPARTMENT
2020-present Advising and Internal/External Relations Committee
2020 Department Bylaws Ad Hoc Committee
2019 Promotional Visit to Pennsauken High School, Pennsauken, New Jersey, April 12, 2019
2016-9 Promotion and Publicity of French Program Courses and Events (Design, creation, and distribution of promotional materials for French courses, French program initiatives, and special events)
2016-9 Advisor French Club (Weekly attendance at French Club meetings, regular attendance at Advisor meetings, organization and promotion of special events)
2018-9 At-Large AAUP Union Representative, Rutgers-Camden Chapter
2017-9 Curriculum Redesign
2017-8 Accelerated French Major/Minor Program (Created program designed to credit students with high level of linguistic competency based on French Online Placement Test scores, increasing enrollment and recruitment of majors/minors)
2017-8 Organized and Chaperoned French Club Event: J’aime French Bakery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (November 10, 2017 and December 7, 2018)
2017-8 French Program Website Redesign
2017-8 French Help Desk (weekly grammar and conversation session with students across the entire campus community)
2018 French Cinema Night: Une vie de chat, November 7, 2018
2018 French Cinema Night: Ernest et Célestine, November 15, 2018
2018 French Cinema Night: Le Tableau, December 5, 2018
2017 Organized and Chaperoned French Club Event: Gad Elmaleh at Helium Comedy Club in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (October 5, 2017)
COMMUNITY
2017-9 Community Partnerships with Sister Institutions in South Jersey (Contacted and recruited official Rutgers-Camden community partners in civic engagement with educational institutions at all levels across South Jersey)
2017 Civic Engagement Faculty Fellow
2016-8 Rutgers Day Department Representative (8 events)
2017-8 Rutgers Recruitment Event Panel Speaker (5 appearances on Faculty Panel)
LANGUAGES
English: native
French: near-native
Italian: advanced