Academics Boukary Sawadogo - French

Contact Boukary Sawadogo

Boukary Sawadogo, a native French speaker from Burkina Faso in West Africa, comes to Marlboro with additional experiences of North American Francophone culture and literature through the French heritage in southern Louisiana.  He also has experience with student-faculty projects that feature diversity in the Francophone world.  As an example, for two years he was involved in planning an event for a recent La Journee International de la Francophonie, which celebrated the diversity inherent in the French-speaking world.  He plans to continue to organize such events, including cinema soirees, at Marlboro.  In addition to teaching language courses, Boukary may offer courses in the literatures and cultures of the contemporary French-speaking world, and advanced work on sexuality, gender, and Francophone cinema.

Teaching Philosophy

Boukary notes that his five previous years as a French instructor at the college level "has steadily deepened and refined my commitment to two liberal arts education ideals: first, that true learning is a collaborative and reflexive process; and second, that language education serves that process when it leads to intellectual inquiry and understanding of different cultures of the world."  In addition, he believes that close student-faculty interaction is a key component of undergraduate liberal arts education.

Scholarly Activities

Boukary's current research focus is on homosexuality and innovative representation of women in Francophone West African cinema.  He explores, through the medium of cinema, the role of sexuality and gender in cultural representations and distribution of power in African societies.  He also explores the condition of marginalized groups in society more broadly through literature and cinema in the Caribbean and North Africa.

Selected Publications

• Les Cinemas francophones ouest-africains.  Paris: L'Harmattan, February 2013.  Print.
• “A Venture from Guadeloupe to Paris: Autobiography of Therese Parise Bernis in Film and Text”. Anna Rocca and Kenneth Reeds. ed. Women Taking Risks in Contemporary Autobiographical Narratives, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, forthcoming.
• “Up-close: African Teachers of French in Cajun Country.” Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Louisiana Studies Conference, Louisiana Folklife Center Publications, 2011, 190-193.
• Film Review of Souvenirs encombrants d’une femme de ménage. Nouvelles Etudes Francophones 25.1 (Printemps 2010): 300-303, Print.
• Film Review of  Tasuma. ed. Blandine Stefanson. Intellect Books (Directory of African Cinema): to appear in book format in August 2013, currently available at http://www.worldcinemadirectory.org
• Film Review of  Commissariat de Tampy. ed. Blandine Stefanson. Intellect Books (Directory of African Cinema): to appear in book format in August 2013, currently available at http://www.worldcinemadirectory.org
• Film Review of  Woubi Chéri. ed. Blandine Stefanson. Intellect Books (Directory of African Cinema): to appear in book format in August 2013, currently available at http://www.worldcinemadirectory.org

Selected Conference Papers

• “Humor as Subversion in Taafe Fanga”. 35^th West Virginia University Colloquium on Literature and Film, September 13-15, 2012.
• “Up-close: African Teachers of French in Cajun Country.” 3rd annual Louisiana Studies Conference, Northwestern State University, Louisiana. September 23-24, 2011.
• “Représentations de la marginalité: Perception et réalité du fou dans les films  Delwendé de Pierre Yaméogo, et Sia, le rêve du python de Dani Kouyaté.” 25th Annual Interdisciplinary Conference in the Humanities, University of West Georgia. November 11-13, 2010.
• “Guerre des sexes: Images et visages des homosexuels africains dans les films Dakan et Woubi Chéri.” International conference on French Cultures of Embodiment, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton. March 25-27, 2010.
• “Développement du cinéma national en Afrique de l’Ouest: le cas du Burkina Faso.”  23^rd Conference of the Conseil International d’Études Francophones, New Orleans, LA, June 24, 2009.

B.A., University of Dakar, 2001; M.A., University of Northern Iowa, 2008; Ph.D., University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2012' Marlboro College, 2012 -