Background information

I have held major administrative roles including Head of French, Chair of the Resources Committee and adviser on the Teaching Quality Assesment exercises.  I currently have the following duties:

• Socrates representative for BA students
• Socrates representative for incoming French students
• Assistantships coordinator (second semester)
• Second year translation coordinator
• Library representative
• French representative on Resources Committee
• University Accreditations sub-Committee
• University Programme Approval Panel
• EGIPP- member of steering committee

Career profile

Having graduated in 1988 with a First Class Honours in French Language and Literature at Glasgow University, I joined the Foreign and Commonwealth as a graduate entrant.  In this capacity, I worked in Africa Research Department and was assistant desk officer in Southern African Department.  I also worked as a negotiator and rapporteur on the Economic and Financial Committee at the United Nations in New York.

I left the Foreign Office and worked in Barclays Bank as a special entrant on the Management Development Programme. I was trained primarily in risk assessment and was responsible for evaluating large corporate loans.

In 1992, I joined Cardiff University as a lecturer in French and am now a senior lecturer.  In this role, I have held a number of positions of responsibility, including Head of French, year abroad coordinator, and Chair of the Library, IT and Equipment Committee.  I am also the School representaive on the University Accreditations Sub-Committee and the teaching quality Progress Appraisal Panel.

Awards and prizes

In 2002, I secured approximately £13,000 for the School in research funding while undertaking a research management role in the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate.  In this capacity, I oversaw a £1 million research budget which focused on crime prevention, security and economic development issues.

In 2003, I was awarded awill be on sabbatical leave funded entirely by a grant of nearly £17,000 from the Leverhulme Trust.  I will be undertaking research into French NGOs.

Memberships / External Activities

• Visiting fellow at l’Institut d’Etudes Politiques (‘Sciences-Po’) in Bordeaux
• Leverhulme Fellowship 2003-04
• External Examiner for French section, Kingston University
• Active member of Boston & Portsmouth University Francophone Africa Groups
• Regularly invited to meetings of  BISA IR, Global Development Working Group and Algeria Working Group
• Regular liaison with Research & Analysis Department of Foreign Office and Development Assistance Committee (OECD)
• Founding member of the Cardiff University European Governance, Identity and Public Policy (EGIPP) Research group (Cardiff University)
• Chair of numerous conference sessions for Association of Modern and Contemporary France

Recent presentations

‘Europe: A Civilian Power in Africa’, paper commissioned for a roundtable organised in Cardiff by European Commission and involving prestigious academics as well as the EU Trade Commissioner, Mr Peter Mandelson, October 2006.

‘Building Democracy in Cameroon: A Revolutionary French approach’, keynote speaker, Edinburgh University, April 2005.

‘British Policy towards Africa: Beyond Benign Neglect’, paper prepared for Bordeaux IEP, Centre d’Etudes d’Afrique Noire, January 2005.

‘Francophone and Commonwealth Summits Compared’, paper commissioned for CRIDAF, Paris, September 2003.

‘French and British African Policy: Comparing Recent Trends’, paper given to Bordeaux IEP, Centre d’Etudes d’Afrique Noire, January 2003.

‘UK African Policy in the Post Cold War Era: Realpolitik versus Moralpolitik’, paper given to high-level conference (Africa and the Great Powers), Copenhagen, April 2002.

‘Modernisation without Banalisation: towards a new era in French Development Assistance to Africa?’, paper given to conference of Association of Modern and Contemporary France, The Reinvention of France, September 1999.

Editorship of journals

'France and Africa in the Age of Globalisation', special issue of Modern and Contemporary France, edited jointly with Rachael Langford, vol. 13, no. 1, ISSN 0963 9489, February 2005.

Report, briefings and working papers

Punching Below their Weight? Anglo-French Cooperation in a Changing Africa, Executive Report, co-authored with Tony Chafer, for Foreign Office and French Foreign Ministry, currently posted on Chatham House website

Written briefing for FCO Strategy Unit (2009)- accompanied by two-hour verbal briefing

Written briefing for FCO Minister for Africa, Henry Bellingham (2010) (plus 45 minute verbal briefing)

Briefing for the Institut Français des relations Internationales, La coopération entre la France et le Royaume-Uni en Afrique : Des capacités sous-utilisées (Nob 2010)

Teaching profile

I have developed the following courses: EU 1331 France and Africa; EU 1311 Business French (which prepares students for the new Paris Chamber of Commerce examination), EU 1400 second year translation course (revamped with translation workshops and computer-assisted learning programmes). 

I have also prepared a lecture course on French and British African policies for Bordeaux IEP (Jan-Feb 2003); developed a series of lectures on British foreign policy for Bordeaux (Jan-Feb 2005) and offered a France and Africa option on the MA in European Studies (both the IR and the European Studies’ pathways).

I have, moreover, helped to oversee the development of the LLM: a Masters degree in Law and French (Marie-Laure Jones as coordinator); Modern France EU1111: lecture and seminar course for Cardiff-Bordeaux students; and both CAN-8 and Blackboard (electronic teaching resources).  I have put all of my courses (as well as all year abroad documentation) on Blackboard.