Professor Claire Gorrara
Dean for Research and Innovation for the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, 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
I work on narratives and memories of the Second World War in France and Britain. I am interested in how visual forms of representation, such as photography and comics, shape the ways in which French and British writers, photographers and artists transmit war stories. I have published three monographs and four edited collections of essays on French memory cultures of the Second World War.
Alongside my research on the Second World War, I work on projects that support language learning in Wales and the UK. I am the Academic Lead for projects that partner with secondary schools, policy networks, educational consultancies and digital agencies to raise the uptake of modern languages in Wales. This has led to commercialisation opportunities to develop training material and services. My work on modern languages has led to policy and advocacy work with the Welsh and UK Governments, the British Academy, the British Council, the University Council of Modern Languages and partner organisations in Spain.
Biography
I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Leeds. I completed a Masters in European Literature in 1991 and a DPhil on French women's writing and the Second World War in 1994, both at Oxford University
After teaching in France, I was appointed a Lecturer in French at Cardiff University where I was made a Professor of French in 2008.
I was the founding Head of the School of Modern Languages at Cardiff University in 2014.
I was the first Dean of Research Environment and Culture at Cardiff (2019-2021).
I am currently Dean of Research and Innovation for the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (2021-24)
Honours and awards
2021: Academic Lead of the MFL Mentoring project, shortlisted for the Times Higher Education Award for Widening Participation or School Outreach project of the year
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
2022-2023: Welsh Government: £298,000: Raising the Profile of Modern Foreign Languages: A Mentoring Initiative: Phase VII
2022: ESRC IAA (PI and institutional lead): Local Acceleration Fund (LAF): £49,984
2021-23: ESRC IAA (PI and institutional lead): Commercialising Research out of Social Sciences (CRoSS): £100,000
2021-2022: Welsh Government £230,000: Raising the Profile of Modern Foreign Languages: A Mentoring Initiative: Phase VI
2020-2023: UKRI: Future Leadership Fellows Network Training: £280,000: Cardiff Co-Investigator (Project led by the University of Edinburgh: £2.8M)
2020-21: Welsh Government £230,000: Raising the Profile of Modern Foreign Languages: A Mentoring Initiative Phase V: A Digital Programme
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
2020-22: Chair, Education Working Group for SHAPE campaign (Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts for the People and the Economy)
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
2021-2024: Dean of Research and Innovation, College of Arts, Humanities and Spcial Sciences, Cardiff University
2019-2021 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. Most recently:
2021: 'Black Boxes, Exercise Books and Glue: Archiving the Wartime Past in Nora Krug's Heimat', An interdisciplinary symposium celebrating the work of Colin Davis, Royal Holloway, July 2021
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, February 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
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
2018-22: 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
2022
- Gorrara, C. 2022. Women's experiences of the second world war: exile, occupation and everyday life [book review]. Cultural and Social History 19/5, pp. 628-629. (10.1080/14780038.2022.2148611)
- Allbeson, T. and Gorrara, C. 2022. Visual histories of postwar reconstruction: special issue introduction. Journal of War and Culture Studies 15(2), pp. 125-132. (10.1080/17526272.2022.2065121)
- Allbeson, T. and Gorrara, C. 2022. Domestic archives of empire: photographing Burma and reconstructing British imperialism for the postwar moment. Journal of War and Culture Studies 15(2), pp. 233-259. (10.1080/17526272.2022.2065120)
2021
- Gorrara, C. 2021. What is a language activist? Advocacy and education. In: de Medeiros, A. and Kelly, D. eds. Language Debates: Theory and Reality in Language Learning, Teaching and Research. Hodder and Stoughton, Hachette UK
2020
- Beaney, R. et al. 2020. (Re)creating modern languages: conversations about the curriculum in UK higher education. Project Report. [Online]. Creative Multilingualism. Available at: https://www.creativeml.ox.ac.uk/blog/exploring-multilingualism/recreating-modern-languages-toolkit
- Gorrara, C., Jenkins, L., Jepson, E. and MacHin, T. 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., Jenkins, L., Jepson, E. and Llewelyn Machin, T. 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. 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 17 October 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. ed. 2009. French crime fiction. European Crime Fictions. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
- 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. 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 2022-3 are:
Undergraduate
First Year: team taught: National and Global Perspectives on France
Second Year: team taught: Cultures in Context
Final Year French Dissertations: bilingualism and language policy in Wales
Postgraduate Research
I have co-supervised 9 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 French Comics: Translation, Adaptation and Localisation' (passed May 2020)
- 'Translating French Memories of the Holocaust' (passed July 2020)
I am currently co-supervising 6 PhDs, funded by the Wales ESRC Doctoral Training Centre, in partnership with the British Council Wales and the Welsh Government, the AHRC South West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership, and the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Awards and the Imperial War Museum.
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).
I am interested in visual cultures of war and the ways in which popular forms of representation shape how viewers and readers understand legacies of war. I am currently working on:
- Photographic representations of the end of the Second World War. This work has been published in a co-edited special issue of the Journal of War and Culture Studies (2022).
- Graphic novels and representations of war in anglophone and francophone cultures. This work is focusing on graphic novels that interrogate intergenerational transmission of war memory into the 21st century. chapters are forthcoming in volumes with Legenda Press and De Gruyters.
Knowledge Exchange, Consultancy and Public Engagement
I am the academic lead for the MFL Mentoring project, a pan-Wales project that uses 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, Trinity Saint David and Swansea in collaboration with the Welsh educational consortia. https://www.mflmentoring.co.uk/home
The project trains undergraduate modern linguists to act as mentors to pupils in Year 8 and 9 to choose languages at GCSE. The project promotes the broader benefits of intercultural communication and supports aspirations towards university study for more disadvantaged groups. It was extended to the East Yorkshire and West Midlands regions of England in 2018-20 as 'Language Horizons'.
The success of the project was recognised by being shortlisted for the Times Higher Education Awards in 2021 in the category of Widening Participation or School Outreach project of the year.
My work on languages and mentoring has generated
- public engagement pieces for The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/how-mentoring-can-improve-modern-languages-uptake-in-schools-65380;
- blog posts as part of language advocacy and activism within academia: https://talkinghumanities.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2021/12/07/we-have-to-deploy-modern-languages-in-confronting-our-challenges/
- opinion pieces and consultancy for language projects for the British Council Wales: https://wales.britishcouncil.org/en/blog/languages-multilingualism
- consultancy work with the British Academy on SHAPE (Social Sciences, Arts and the Humanities for People and the Economy) in schools in the 4 UK jurisdictions
I regularly speak and present at briefings and policy events devoted to teaching/learning modern languages in Wales, the UK and globally.
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).
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 in Wales and globally
- Memory, culture and war in France
- Comics and graphic novels
- Visual cultures of war
Past projects
- Lisa Davies, 'Myths and Oppression of Gendered and Racialised Subjects in the Prose Fiction of Rosario Castellanos' (awarded May 2003)
- Kathryn Jones, 'Representations of Travel and Memory in 1960s and 1970s French- and German-Language Literature' (awarded April 2004), AHRC-funded studentship
- 'Comparative Perspective on the Poetic Course of Arthur Rimbaud, William Blake and Sohrab Sepehri' (awarded 2006)
- Ian Mossman, 'Constructions of the Algerian War Appelés in French Cultural Memory' (awarded April 2012) AHRC-funded studentship
- Bruna Chezzi, 'Cultural Representations of Italians in Wales (1920s-2010s)' (awarded April 2012)
- 'Sapphic spectres: Interwar German women’s fiction’ (MPhil, awarded April 2014)
- Matteo Fabbretti, 'A Study of Scanlation and Japanese Manga' (awarded March 2015)
- Ayshka Sene, 'The Orphan Story of British Women in Occupied France: History, Memory, Legacy' (awarded October 2018) AHRC-funded studentship
- Nicolas Martinez, 'The Western in French Comics: Translation, Adaptation and Localisation' (awarded May 2020)
- Stephanie Munyard, 'Translating French Memories of the Holocaust' (awarded July 2020)
