PhD, University of Pennsylvania (2012). Dr. Lucy Swanson is Associate 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 has published in journals including Small Axe, the Journal of Haitian Studies, Palimpsest: A Journal on Women, Gender, and The Black International, and SITES: Contemporary French and Francophone Studies. She is the author of The Zombie in Contemporary French Caribbean Fiction (Liverpool University Press, forthcoming March 2023), which explores how contemporary writers and artists reinvent the iconic folkloric figure. Listen to her speak about her book here: https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-zombie-in-contemporary-french-caribbean-fiction.
Recent Articles and Chapters
“Haitian Origins,” co-written with Sarah Juliet Lauro, in The Palgrave Handbook of the Zombie, edited by Simon Bacon. Palgrave, 2025: 1-17.
“Polyvocality, Agency, and Memorialization in What Storm, What Thunder,” Palimpsest: A Journal on Women, Gender, and the Black International 13, vol. 1, Spring 2024: 123-135.
“(Re-)Framing the Midwife: Female Resistance and Discursive Agency in Évelyne Trouillot’s Rosalie l’infâme,” Journal of Haitian Studies 28, no. 2, Fall 2022: 142-165.
“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.