Professor Claire Gorrara
Professor of French Studies
- gorrara@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 4955
- 2.30, 66a Park Place, Cathays, Cardiff, CF10 3AS
- Media commentator
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
My research covers three main areas: narratives and memories of the Second World War in France, French visual cultures and multilingualism in Wales. In relation to the Second World War, I have worked extensively on the autobiographies, prose fiction and memoirs of French women writers and the role of popular culture in transmitting war stories. I have published articles, three monographs and four edited collections of essays in this area. I am currently researching visual cultures of war and working on two projects: photography and reconstruction following the Second World War, 1944-49, and representations of war in comics and graphic novels. With regard to multilingualism in Wales, I am the academic lead for projects that work in partnership with schools to raise uptake and attainment in modern languages. This work is generating action research that investigates how to support better multilingualism in schools in Wales.
Biography
Education
1994: DPhil (French Studies): Oxford University
1991: Masters in European Literature (Distinction): Oxford University
1989: Joint Honours degree in French and English (First Class): Leeds University
Career
1994- present: Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader, Professor of French Studies: Cardiff University, School of Modern Languages.
Honours and awards
2018 (April): Visiting Research Fellow, KU Leuven
2017: Academic Lead for the MFL Student Mentoring Project, winner of the Chartered Institute of Linguists Threlford Cup http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/997055-threlford-cup
2017 (April): Visiting Research Fellow, KU Leuven
2015: Cardiff University, Celebrating Excellence Awards: Outstanding Contribution to Leadership
2012: Elected Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales
2011: Elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
2011: Visiting Fellow, Centre for the Study of Cultural Memory, Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, School of Advanced Studies, University of London
Funding
2019-2020: Department for Education, UK: £430,000: Digital Languages Mentoring, further roll out
2018-19: Department for Education, UK: £94,000: Pilot Digital Languages Mentoring project
2019-20: Welsh Government: £180,000: Raising the Profile of Modern Foreign Languages: A Mentoring Initiative Phase IV
2019: AHRC: £1,500: 'Rethinking the Languages Pipeline in the Era of Brexit, Language Acts and World-Making, Open World Research Initiative
2018-2020: HEFCW: Physics and Mentoring in Wales: £8,565: project consultant and advisor
2018-19: Welsh Government: £139,000: Raising the Profile of Modern Foreign Languages: A Mentoring Initiative Phase III
2018: AHRC: £1,500: 'Language Learning Opens Doors to Other Worlds: Memory Acts through Digital Technologies'. Language Acts and World-Making, Open World Research Initiative
2018: Institute of Modern Languages Research: £2,090 (with T. Allbeson): Photography and the Languages of Reconstruction, 1944-49
2018: AHRC: £2,900: 'Evaluating the effectiveness of e-mentoring and a digital languages platform for FLL in Wales', Multilingualism: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Societies (MEITS) Open World Research Initiative
2018: Welsh Government: £40,000: Turbo-Tutoring: Supporting Attainment in AS Level French: Phase II
2017-18: Welsh Government: £228,548: Raising the Profile of Modern Foreign Languages: A Mentoring Initiative Phase II
2017: Welsh Government: £40,000: Turbo-Tutoring: Supporting Attainment in AS Level Modern Foreign Languages: Phase 1
2015-16:Welsh Government: £117,305: Raising the Profile of Modern Foreign Languages: A Mentoring Initiative Phase I
2015: Welsh Government: £56,184: Raising the Profile of Modern Foreign Languages: A Mentoring Initiative Phase I
2008: Cardiff Humanities Research Institute (CHRI): £1,680: Cardiff Distinguished Visiting Fellow scheme: to fund the visit of Dr Maurizio Ascari (Bologna University) as part of the Crime Narratives in Context Research Network activities
2007: Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France: £350.00 Conference support: ‘The Lost Decade: the 1950s in European History, Society, Economy and Culture’, Cardiff University, 11-13 July 2007
2007: British Academy small grant fund: £2,292. Research support for the project: ‘Reconstructing France: Popular Culture, Crime Fictions and National Identity, 1946-58’
2002: Cassell Foundation funding: £700 and Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France funding: £200 Conference support: ‘Cultural Intersections: Noir Fiction and Film in France and Italy’ conference at the Institute of Romance Studies, London
2001-2: Leverhulme Research Fellowship: £15,646
Professional memberships
2018-2021: Chair, University Council of Modern Languages: https://university-council-modern-languages.org/
2017-18: President of the Association of University Professors and Heads of French: http://www.auphf.ac.uk/
2016-18: Executive Committee member of the Society for French Studies
2015-2017: Executive Committee member of the Association of University Professors and Heads of French
2014-2019: Academic Director of Routes into Language Cymru, pan-Wales advocacy group for modern languages: http://routesintolanguagescymru.co.uk/
2011-2014: University Council of Modern Languages representative for Wales
2007-2014: Peer Review College member of the AHRC
Academic positions
2019-2022 University Dean of Research Environment and Culture, Cardiff University
2014-16: Founding Head of the School of Modern Languages, Cardiff University
2012-14: Acting Head, then Head of the School of European Languages, Translation and Politics, Cardiff University
2008-2012: Director of Research, School of European Languages, Translation and Politics, Cardiff University
Speaking engagements
I have given over 60 conference and research papers to date, including 20 invited addresses. Since 2012:
2020: 'Children, Childhood and Story Telling: Representing the Transmission of Holocaust Memories in 21st Century French Comics and Picture Books', Stranmillis University College, Belfast, January 2020
2018-19: 'Languages Advocacy and Activism: The View from Wales', University of East Anglia, December 2018, University of Bristol, Feburary 2019, University of Hull, March 2019
2018: 'Cherchez la femme: Lee Miller, Vogue and Fashioning the Liberation of France', Monash University, Australia, May 2018
2018: 'Public Engagement, Digital Scholarship and Language Learning: How Digital Platforms are Supporting Language Learning in Wales', KU Leuven, Belgium, April 2018
2017: 'Who do you think you are and where do you come from: national and transnational approaches to languages and cultures', Seren Network, Above and Beyond conference, Newtown, Powys, December 2017
2017: Modern Languages Policy and Practice in Wales in an Era of Brexit: Mentoring as an Effective Intervention', Aberystwyth University, September 2017
2017: 'Connective Histories: Generational Memories of the Holocaust in the French Comic Book', invited keynote address, University of Ghent, Belgium
2017: 'Black October: Comics, Memory and Cultural Representations of the Algerian War', University of Edinburgh
2016: 'Ruined Bodies: Photographing Collaboration and the Shaven Headed Woman’, Swansea University
2015: ‘What the Liberator Saw: Bert Hardy, Photography and the Liberation of Normandy’, Bristol University
2015: 'Histories, Memories and Fictions: Didier Daeninckx and Representations of October 1961 in French Popular Culture’, Baton Rouge USA, Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, invited panel paper
2013: ‘Figuring Memory as Palimpsest: Rereading Cultural Memories of Jewish Persecution in French Crime Fiction about the Second World War’, Durham University, invited keynote address
2012: 'Le Passé recomposé: mémoire et postmemory dans Des gens très bien d’Alexandre Jardin’, Université Paris 3, France, invited panel paper
2012: ‘Mobilising Memory: Understanding the Second World War in French Crime Fiction for Younger Readers’, Manchester Metropolitan University, invited paper
Committees and reviewing
2020-23: Council Member, Learned Society of Wales
2018-2021: Scrutiny Panel Member, Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Learned Society of Wales
2018-20: External Advisor, School of Languages and Applied Linguistics, Open University
2018: Expert Adviser to the National Assembly for Wales within the framework agreement for the provision of research and briefing services in relation to Brexit. Area of expertise: multilingualism, internationalisation and language policies
Publications
2020
- Gorrara, C.et al. 2020. Persbectifau amlieithog: paratoi ar gyfer dysgu ieithoedd yn y cwricwlwm newydd i Gymru. Curriculum Journal 31(2), pp. e70-e84. (10.1002/curj.46)
- Gorrara, C.et al. 2020. Multilingual perspectives: preparing for language learning in the new curriculum for Wales. Curriculum Journal 31(2), pp. 244-257. (10.1002/curj.11)
- Gorrara, C. 2020. Recrafting the past: Graphic novels, the Third Generation and twenty-first century representations of the Holocaust. In: Lassner, P. and Aarons, V. eds. Palgrave Handbook of Holocaust Literature and Culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 575-592.
2019
- Gorrara, C., Jenkins, L. and Mosley, N. 2019. Modern languages and mentoring: Lessons from digital learning in Wales. Multilingualism: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Societies (MEITS). Available at: http://www.meits.org/policy-papers/paper/modern-languages-and-mentoring-lessons-from-digital-learning-in-wales
- Blake, S. and Gorrara, C. 2019. Evaluating student mentoring as an intervention to support modern foreign language learning in secondary schools in Wales. Cylchgrawn Addysg Cymru / Wales Journal of Education 21(1), pp. 24-45. (10.16922/wje.21.1.3)
- Gorrara, C. 2019. Legacies of war: Remembering prisoner of war experiences in French comics about the Second World War. In: Horton, I., Mickwitz, N. and Hague, I. eds. Contexts of Violence in Comics. London and New York: Routledge
2018
- Gorrara, C. 2018. Fashion and the femmes tondues: Lee Miller, Vogue and representing liberation France. French Cultural Studies 29(4), pp. 330-344. (10.1177/0957155818791889)
- Gorrara, C. 2018. Not seeing Auschwitz: Memory, generation and representations of the Holocaust in twenty-first century French comics. In: Stancyzk, E. ed. Comic Books, Graphic Novels and the Holocaust: Beyond Maus. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, pp. 111-126.
- Gorrara, C. 2018. Black October: comics, memory and cultural representations of October 17, 1961. French Politics, Culture and Society 36(1), pp. 128-147. (10.3167/fpcs.2018.360106)
- Gorrara, C. 2018. Not seeing Auschwitz: memory, generation and representations of the Holocaust in twenty-first century French comics. Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 17(1), pp. 111-126. (10.1080/14725886.2017.1382107)
- Gorrara, C. 2018. Speaking from Wales: building a modern languages community in an era of Brexit. In: Kelly, M. ed. Languages after Brexit How the UK Speaks to the World. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 149-158., (10.1007/978-3-319-65169-9_13)
2016
- Gorrara, C. 2016. What the liberator saw: British war photography, Picture Post and the Normandy Campaign. Journal of War and Culture Studies 9(4), pp. 303-318. (10.1080/17526272.2016.1159003)
2014
- Gorrara, C. J. 2014. Figuring memory as palimpsest: Rereading cultural memories of Jewish persecution in French crime fiction about the Second World War. In: Kimyongur, A. and Wigelsworth, A. eds. Rewriting Wrongs: French Crime Fiction and the Palimpsest. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 15-30.
2013
- Gorrara, C. J. 2013. Le passé recomposé: memoire et postmemory dans 'Des gens très bien' d'Alexandre Jardin. In: Dambre, M. ed. Mémoires occupeés: fictions françaises et seconde guerre mondiale. Paris: Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle, pp. 63-70.
2012
- Diamond, H. and Gorrara, C. J. 2012. Reframing war: histories and memories of the Second World War in the photography of Julia Pirotte. Modern and Contemporary France 20(4), pp. 453-471. (10.1080/09639489.2012.720434)
- Gorrara, C. J. 2012. French crime fiction and the Second World War: past crimes, present memories. Cultural History of Modern War. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
2011
- Gorrara, C. J., Feldner, H. M. and Passmore, K. 2011. Introduction. In: Feldner, H. M., Gorrara, C. J. and Passmore, K. eds. The Lost Decade? The 1950s in European History, Politics, Society and Culture. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 1-9.
- Feldner, H. M., Gorrara, C. J. and Passmore, K. eds. 2011. The Lost Decade? The 1950s in European History, Politics, Society and Culture. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholar Press.
- Gorrara, C. J. 2011. Conflicted masculinities: figures of resistance in French crime fiction. In: Hall, K. and Jones, K. N. eds. Constructions of Conflict: Transmitting Memories of the Past in European Historiography, Culture and Media. Cultural History and Literary Imagination Vol. 15. New York: Peter Lang, pp. 93-110.
2010
- Gorrara, C. J. 2010. Forgotten crimes?: Representing Jewish experience of the Second World War in French crime fiction. South Central Review 27(1-2), pp. 3-20. (10.1353/scr.0.0078)
2009
- Gorrara, C. J. 2009. Introduction. In: Gorrara, C. J. ed. French Crime Fiction. European Crime Fictions Cardiff: University of Wales Press, pp. 1-13.
- Gorrara, C. J. ed. 2009. French Crime Fiction. European Crime Fictions. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
- Gorrara, C. J. 2009. Post-war French crime fiction: the advent of the Roman Noir. In: Gorrara, C. J. ed. French Crime Fiction. European Crime Fictions Cardiff: University of Wales Press, pp. 54-70.
- Gorrara, C. J. 2009. Dramatic and traumatic: French crime fiction and the reconstruction of France. In: Hardwick, L. ed. New Approaches to Crime in French Literature, Culture and Film. Modern French Identities Vol. 85. New York: Peter Lang, pp. 121-136.
- Gorrara, C. J. 2009. Through the looking glass: defeats of detection in Sebastien Japrisot's L'Été meurtrier. In: Hurcombe, M. and Kemp, S. eds. The Art of Crime. Faux Titre Vol. 329. Amsterdam: Rodopi, pp. 151-164.
2008
- Gorrara, C. J. and Topping, M. E. 2008. Photography and the cultural encounter in François Maspero's and Nicolas Bouvier's Chronique japonaise. Journal of Romance Studies 8(1), pp. 61-75. (10.3828/jrs.8.1.61)
- Gorrara, C. and Feldner, H. 2008. Introduction: ‘Europe in the 1950s: The “Lost” Decade?’. New Readings 9, pp. i-i. (10.18573/newreadings.59)
- Feldner, H. and Gorrara, C. J. eds. 2008. Europe in the 1950s: The 'lost' decade [special issue of New Readings, vol. 9]. Cardiff: Cardiff School of Modern Languages.
2007
- Gorrara, C. J. 2007. Revolt and recuperation: masculinities and the Roman noir in immediate post-war France. In: Forth, C. and Taithe, B. eds. French Masculinities: History, Culture and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 157-171.
2005
- Gorrara, C. J. 2005. Reflections on Crime and Punishment: Memories of the Holocaust in Recent French Crime Fiction. Yale French Studies 108, pp. 131-145.
2004
- Diamond, H. and Gorrara, C. J. 2004. Occupation memories: French history and the Aubrac affair in the 1990s. In: Kidd, W. and Murdoch, B. O. eds. Memory and Memorials: The Commemorative Century. Ashgate, pp. 233-244.
2003
- Gorrara, C. J. 2003. Cultural Intersections: the American Hard-Boiled Detective Novel and Early French Roman Noir. The Modern Language Review 98(3), pp. 590-601. (10.2307/3738287)
- Gorrara, C. J. 2003. The Roman noir in post-war French culture. Oxford Studies in Modern European Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Diamond, H. and Gorrara, C. 2003. Facing the past: French wartime memories at the millennium. In: Milner, S. and Parsons, N. eds. Reinventing France: State and society in the twenty-first century. French politics, society and culture UK: Palgrave Macmillian, pp. 173-185., (10.1057/9781403948182)
2000
- Gorrara, C. and Motta, V. 2000. Introduction: ‘Identity, Gender, Politics’. New Readings 6, pp. 1-4. (10.18573/newreadings.42)
1998
- Meyer, F. and Gorrara, C. 1998. Introduction. New Readings 4, pp. 1-5. (10.18573/newreadings.23)
1997
- Burdett, C. and Gorrara, C. 1997. Introduction. New Readings 3, pp. 1-5. (10.18573/newreadings.16)
1996
- Gorrara, C. and Burdett, C. 1996. Introduction. New Readings 2, pp. 1-6. (10.18573/newreadings.9)
1995
- Gorrara, C. and Burdett, C. 1995. Introduction. New Readings 1, pp. 1-4. (10.18573/newreadings.4)
0
- Gorrara, C. J. . Conclusion and annotated bibliography. In: Gorrara, C. J. ed. French Crime Fiction. European Crime Fictions Cardiff: University of Wales Press, pp. 125-134.
Teaching
My teaching responsibilities for 2019-20 are:
Undergraduate
First Year (ML6187): team taught: National and Global Perspectives on France
Final Year French Dissertations: modern languages in schools in Wales
Postgraduate Research
I have co-supervised 8 PhDs to completion and 1 MPhil on the following topics:
- 'Myths and Oppression of Gendered and Racialised Subjects in the Prose Fiction of Rosario Castellanos' (passed May 2003)
- 'Representations of Travel and Memory in 1960s and 1970s French- and German-Language Literature' (passed April 2004), AHRC-funded studentship
- 'Comparative Perspective on the Poetic Course of Arthur Rimbaud, William Blake and Sohrab Sepehri' (passed 2006)
- 'Constructions of the Algerian War Appelés in French Cultural Memory' (passed April 2012) AHRC-funded studentship
- 'Cultural Representations of Italians in Wales (1920s-2010s)' (passed April 2012)
- 'Sapphic spectres: Interwar German women’s fiction’ (MPhil, passed April 2014)
- 'A Study of Scanlation and Japanese Manga' (passed March 2015)
- 'The Orphan Story of British Women in Occupied France: History, Memory, Legacy' (passed October 2018)
- 'The Western in bande dessinee: Translation, Adaptation and Localisation' (passed May 2020)
- 'Translating French Memories of the Holocaust' (passed July 2020)
I am currently co-supervising 2 PhDs on languages outreach, multilingualism and Wales. These projects are funded by the Wales ESRC Doctoral Training Centre, in partnership with the British Council Wales and the Welsh Government.
External Examiner for PhDs
University of Kent (2010 and 2016), University of Leeds (2010), Birkbeck, University of London (2011), Université de la Bretagne Occidentale (2011), University of Auckland (2014), University of Durham (2018).
Research Profile
I am currently working on two projects:
Photography and Global Reconstruction following the Second World War, 1944-49: This project has explored photographic representations of the liberation of France to date. My work has examined the circulation of photographs of the liberation of France produced by the official British Army Film and Photography Unit. This research analysed the cultural narratives of occupied France that such photographs represented for a British reading public when published in popular magazines in the summer of 1944. My work in this area has been published in the Journal of War and Culture Studies (2016). A second strand of this project explored photographic representations of women in France in 1944-5. This led to an article on the work of Lee Miller as war correspondant for US and UK Vogue published in 2018 in French Cultural Studies. A third strand of this project led to an international conference on languages, photography and narratives of reconstruction, 1944-49, held in Cardiff in April 2019. This extended the reach of this project and its international partnerships and will lead to a journal special issue.
Graphic Novels and Memories of War: This project examines graphic novels and representations of war in anglophone and francophone cultures. An article on the Algerian War and French comic books was published in the journal French Politics, Culture and Society (35/1, 2018). A second article examining the work of French comic book artists and family memories of the Holocaust appeared in a special issue of the Journal of Modern Jewish Studies devoted to comics and the Holocaust (Spring 2018). A further commissioned chapter explored the French comic book and the resurgence of intergenerational memories of French prisoners of war during the Second World War and appeared in an edited volume with Routledge (2020). I am currently writing a monograph study of graphic novels and representations of war to be published by Lexington Press.
Research Impact
I am the academic lead for a pan-Wales project that mobilises mentoring to improve the attitudes of Welsh pupils towards modern languages and increase take up at GCSE. This project is funded by the Welsh Government and has been developed in partnership with the Universities of Aberystwyth, Bangor and Swansea in collaboration with the 4 educational Welsh consortia.
The project trains undergraduate modern linguists to act as mentors to pupils in Year 8 and 9. It has been in place in over 90 of Wales' 203 secondary schools to date. It is having a significant impact on the numbers of students choosing languages at GCSE, as well as attitudes towards languages, more then doubling the national average for Welsh pupils electing to study languages at GCSE. The project promotes the broader benefits of intercultural communication and supports aspirations towards university study for more disadvantaged groups. It has been extended to the East Yorkshire region of England as a pilot project.
I have written on this subject for The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/how-mentoring-can-improve-modern-languages-uptake-in-schools-65380 and have published a chapter on Wales, Brexit and modern languages in Languages After Brexit: How the UK Speaks to the World, edited M. Kelly (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2017), pp.149-158. An article analysing the impact of the project on mentors and mentees was published in the Wales Journal of Education (March 2019) and a co-written article on multilingualism in the new Welsh curriculum appeared in the Curriculum Journal in April 2020.
Wider Contribution to the Academic Community
Co-series editor of two series with University of Wales Press: French and Francophone Studies with H. Diamond (Cardiff University) and International Crime Fiction with G. Pieri (Royal Holloway, University of London) and S. Godsland (Amsterdam University).
Advisory Panel Member, Institute of Modern Languages Research 'imlr books' series.
Referee for the following journals: French Studies, Romance Studies, Modern and Contemporary France, Modern Language Review, Journal of Law and Society, Feminist Review, Témoigner, History, Lublin Journal of Modern Languages, Forum for Modern Language Studies, Australian Journal of French Studies, The Translator, Contemporary French Civilization, Journal of War and Culture Studies. Genealogy, Modern Language Notes
Reader and reviewer for the following publishers: Oxford University Press, Routledge, University of Wales Press, University of Manchester Press, Berghahn Books, Palgrave/Macmillan, Liverpool University Press.
Supervision
- Language policy, multilingualism and Wales
- Memory, culture and war in France
- Comics and graphic novels
- Visual cultures of war
Past projects
- 'Myths and Oppression of Gendered and Racialised Subjects in the Prose Fiction of Rosario Castellanos' (passed May 2003)
- 'Representations of Travel and Memory in 1960s and 1970s French- and German-Language Literature' (passed April 2004), AHRC-funded studentship
- 'Comparative Perspective on the Poetic Course of Arthur Rimbaud, William Blake and Sohrab Sepehri' (passed 2006)
- 'Constructions of the Algerian War Appelés in French Cultural Memory' (passed April 2012) AHRC-funded studentship
- 'Cultural Representations of Italians in Wales (1920s-2010s)' (passed April 2012)
- 'Sapphic spectres: Interwar German women’s fiction’ (MPhil, passed April 2014)
- 'A Study of Scanlation and Japanese Manga' (passed March 2015)
- 'The Orphan Story of British Women in Occupied France: History, Memory, Legacy' (passed October 2018) AHRC-funded studentship
- 'The Western in bande dessinee: Translation, Adaptation and Localisation' (passed May 2020)
- 'Translating French Memories of the Holocaust' (passed July 2020)
