PhD, University of Pennsylvania (2012). Dr. Lucy Swanson worked at Haverford College and Lafayette College before coming to the University of Arizona as Assistant Professor of French and Caribbean Studies. Her research examines how historical narratives and political discourse are reflected in recent francophone literary and visual culture, particularly that of Haiti and the French Antilles. Dr. Swanson’s articles have appeared in Cincinnati Romance Review, International Journal of Francophone Studies, and SITES: Contemporary French and Francophone Studies. Her current book project, Zombie Islands: Reviving the Living Dead in Contemporary French Caribbean Fiction, explores how contemporary writers and artists reinvent the iconic folkloric figure. 

Recent Publications

Articles and Chapters 

“Magical Thinking in Chamoiseau’s Chemin-d’école: From Quimbois to the Mission civilisatrice,” Small Axe 63 (vol. 24, no. 3), November 2020: pp. 16–30.

‘“La Sorcellerie du savoir-faire technologique’: Sorcery and Knowledge in Kourouma’s Monnè, outrages et défis (1990).” Contemporary French & Francophone Studies: SITES 20.4-5, 2016: pp. 632-639.

“De retour d’entre les morts (encore). [Back from the Dead (Again): Zombies and the Spatial Imaginary in Contemporary Haitian Fiction].” In Z pour Zombies, eds. Samuel Archibald, Antonio Dominguez Leiva and Bernard Perron. Montreal: Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 2015: pp. 101-113.

“Blankness, Alienation, and the Zombie in Recent Francophone Fiction.” International Journal of Francophone Studies 17.2 (June 2014): pp. 177-197. 

“Digging Up the (Living) Dead: The Roots of Antillanité and Créolité.” In Antillanité, créolité, littérature monde. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013: pp. 137-147.

“Zombie Nation?: The Horde, Social Uprisings and National Narratives.” Cincinnati Romance Review 34 (Fall 2012): n.p. http://www.cromrev.com/volumes/vol34/002-vol34-swanson.pdf

Translations

“André Martin, Inventor of Animation Cinema: Toward a History of Terms,” Hervé Joubert-Laurencin (translation). In Animating Film Theory, ed. Karen Beckman. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014: pp. 85-96.

“The Twelfth Floor” and “Blood and the Sea,” dramatic excerpts by Gary Victor (translation). Performed at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The City University of New York Graduate Center, November 12, 2012.