Intercom

Dr. Mat Fournier (he/him) is Assistant Professor of French in the World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Department at Ithaca College. His research focuses on modernist European literature, with a particular interest in the articulation between trans studies and political theory. His research has been published in Journal of Postcolonial Writing; Simone de Beauvoir Studies; L'Esprit Créateur; Transgender Studies Quarterly, and in edited volumes such as Deleuze on Children and Transecology: Transgender Perspectives on the Environment.

Currently, he is working on Dysphoric Assemblage: Writing Gender in the Interwar Years, a book which looks at French modernist literature to explore the emergence of modern gender. The project argues that the gender binary is inherently dysphoric.

Before pursuing an academic career in the US, he worked as a freelance author and journalist in France for National Geographic France (Paris) and Milan Presse (Toulouse). In French, he has published Quand la Nature inspire la science [When Nature Inspires Science], a book probing ethnobiology.

Employing the master class model, these engaging participatory salons feature conversations between early and mid-career WGST-affiliated faculty members about their research and their journeys to becoming scholars with faculty at Ithaca College or in their disciplines nationally and internationally. Each semester will feature salons on different research topics featuring different faculty. 

The purpose of the salons is to showcase our feminist, anti-racist, decolonialist faculty on the Ithaca College campus, with a focus on their scholarship.  We are inviting faculty and students to enter into the discipline of Women's and Gender Studies by listening to the faculty discussing their work and current debates and controversies in their disciplines. We also invite those beyond the institution to join the salons.

The 75-minute salons will employ a master class model of guided conversation and then engagement with questions from attendees. They will wrap up with takeaways from participants both live and in the chat. All participants and attendees are invited to an informal 15-minute after party on Zoom immediately following.

During the pandemic, “F2F” has emerged as an acronym for face-to-face or embodied instruction or meetings.  Our salons will expand “F2F” to unfold other meanings and possibilities, such as Feminist to Feminist, Field to Field, Festival to Festival, Friend to Friend. 

For further information, contact Dr. Patricia Zimmermann, Director, Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival, patty@ithaca.edu