Courses Taught
Cecilia Francis teaches the following Francophone literature courses and French language, literature and civilization courses at St. Thomas University:
FREN 1026. Langue française 2
FREN 1556. Introduction aux textes
FREN 2326. La composition
FREN 2113. Découverte de la prose et du cinéma
FREN 2306. Textes 2 : la francophonie
FREN 3613. Civilisation francophone 2 : Amérique française
FREN 3623. Civilisation francophone 3 : Maghreb
FREN 4543. Tout feu tout flamme
FREN 3653. La nouvelle francophone
FREN 4523. Les meilleures nouvelles des 20e et 21e siècles
Dr. Francis has supervised and mentored students as fourth-year Honours Thesis Director for FREN 4996. Thèse de spécialisation. She has been nominated by her students for The John McKendy Memorial Teaching Award on three separate occasions during her career at St. Thomas University.
She served as Chair of the Department of Romance Languages (2012-2015) and acts as Majors and Honours faculty advisor (2012-2015, 2016-2019), coordinator for French Monitors (2012-2015, 2018-2019), Troubadours (2012-2015) and the Certificat de compétence en français.
Dr. Francis is the coordinator for the Canada Council Arts funded annual Francophone Guest Writer series. In conjunction with colleagues teaching in neighbouring universities, she has assumed leadership in hosting the following internationally and nationally acclaimed writers: Dany Laferrière, Kim Thúy, Abla Farhoud, Suzanne Jacob, France Daigle, Hérménégilde Chiasson, Emma Haché, Jacques Savoie, Nicolas Dickner, Perrine Leblanc, Jocelyne Saucier, Diane Léger, Rose Després.
Cecilia Francis reflects on her university-level teaching:
In developing my courses, I investigate innovative ways that can assist students in their understanding of complex ideas and concepts. In my classes, students discover a wide range of literary and cultural works stemming from the French-speaking world that are provocative and challenging, while at the same time remaining accessible.
I devise teaching and mentoring strategies so as to help students develop their critical thinking skills and provide them with motivation in order to achieve strong literacy and communication levels in French. Yearly pedagogical events include meeting francophone writers in a classroom setting and visiting the Centre communautaire Sainte-Anne in Fredericton.
Some of my favorite teaching moments are when I am explaining the Djamila Boupacha affair involving Gisèle Halimi and Simone de Beauvoir, occurring during the Algerian War of Independence, and lecturing on literary works by Anne Hébert, Michel Marc Bouchard, Malika Mokeddem, Tahar Ben Jelloun and Dalila Kerchouche. In the way of culture, my students have enjoyed studying topics ranging from the history of Montmartre and the Lumière brothers’ cinematographic discoveries to literary movements and aesthetics such as Négritude and Souffles.