Congratulations to French Ph.D. students Alex Mendes and Alexandrine Mailhé on their job placements!

Congratulations to French Ph.D. students Alex Mendes and Alexandrine Mailhé on their job placements at Emory University and Colby College!

Congratulations to French Ph.D. students Alex Mendes (left) and Alexandrine Mailhé (right) on their job placements!

Alex Mendes has accepted a tenure-track position in the Department of French & Italian at Emory University! It is especially exciting that Alex has secured a position at a nationally and internationally recognized, NRC top 10 department. Alex will soon be completing his dissertation on language policy and secondary education on Corsica.

Alex had this to say about his new opportunity and his experience at UC Davis:

“I am delighted to join Emory’s dynamic French and Italian faculty, and for the opportunity to continue to research and teach on questions of language as I begin my academic career. My studies at UC Davis have afforded me sound training in French studies broadly as well as training in second language acquisition, in the form of a Graduate Academic Certificate. Given the interdisciplinary collaboration between departments at Davis, I’ve been able to participate in courses and campus activities in French, Italian, Linguistics, Education, Native American Studies, Anthropology, and Music to bolster my language/linguistics focus. The faculty’s keen awareness of my interests has allowed me this freedom to explore intellectually and contributed to my well-rounded training. This interdisciplinary slant has overflowed into my teaching at Davis, as I’ve been able to teach French language courses as well as TA in the Humanities program. I’m grateful to my professors and fellow graduate student colleagues—particularly the members of my dissertation committee, Professors Julia Simon, Vai Ramanathan, and Alexandra Jaffe (CSULB)—for their support throughout my time at Davis. I have been able to succeed in my doctoral studies thanks to the care and personal attention I’ve received from our department community.”

Alexandrine Mailhé has accepted a one-year teaching fellow position in the Department of French & Italian at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. This was a highly competitive job, and we could not be prouder of Alexandrine’s achievement. She will soon be completing her dissertation, “Les Citoyennes, les ‘Beurettes,’ et les Musulmanes de la République: Women’s Literary Engagements with French Universalism”

Alexandrine's comments on her UC Davis experience:

"My experience at UC Davis has been extremely rewarding and formative. I am most grateful for the generous support and challenging guidance of the faculty of the department of French and Italian who have given me the support and resources to evolve as an instructor and scholar. Throughout my studies, I have had the opportunity to teach a variety of lower and upper division French language and composition courses. I have received invaluable training in curriculum design and pedagogy. I was also encouraged early on to give an interdisciplinary edge to my research by participating in the Designated Emphasis in Feminist Theory and Research.
I strongly encourage incoming graduate students to take advantage of the numerous research funding and professional development opportunities UC Davis offers, especially through the Davis Humanities Institute and Graduate Studies.
I am excited to bring the experience I have gained at UC Davis and my research on women’s literary engagements with French Universalism to the Department of French and Italian at Colby College."