Stéphanie Boulard
Director of French Program, Professor of French Literature and Visual Arts
- School of Modern Languages
- ADVANCE IAC
- Atlanta Global Studies Center
Overview
Stéphanie Boulard, Ph.D., is Professor of French literature and visual arts in the School of Modern Languages at Georgia Tech, where she directs the French and Francophone Studies program and the Center of Excellence in French and Francophone Studies.
Professor Boulard’s research bridges literature, visual arts, media, feminine writing, and contemporary critical theory. It examines how artistic and literary practices move across genres, media, and historical periods, with particular attention to the dynamic relationship between the visible and the readable. Across her scholarship, the aesthetic gesture emerges as a key site for rethinking how we experience and interpret art. A specialist in French literature from the nineteenth century to the present, Professor Boulard is an internationally recognized expert on Victor Hugo. Her co-authored monograph, Hugographies: Rêveries de Victor Hugo sur les lettres de l’alphabet (Hermann, 2022), written with Pierre Georgel, offers a groundbreaking exploration of visual and alphabetical imagination in Hugo’s work. She is also the author of Rouge Hugo (Septentrion, 2014), the first comprehensive examination of the guillotine in Hugo’s writings and drawings through the political and poetic dimensions of the color red.
She has also made significant contributions to contemporary French literary studies, publishing widely on writers such as Pascal Quignard, Hélène Cixous, and Claude Louis-Combet. Her work explores the notions of creation and transgression through collaborations between writers and artists, as well as the intersections of literature, philosophy, dance, and performance. Her publications include Ententes – à partir d’Hélène Cixous (PSN, 2019) and Visions/visitations/passions: en compagnie de Claude Louis-Combet (Corlevour, 2008). Her recent co-translation of Pascal Quignard’s The Answer to Lord Chandos (Wakefield Press, 2024) received the French Voices Award for Best Translation, was featured in The New Criterion, and was a co-finalist for the 2025 French-American Foundation Translation Prize. Her current research focuses on representations of the female body in cinema, literature, and the visual arts, as well as on animal studies, environmental humanities, and social justice. Professor Boulard’s scholarship has appeared in MLN, Cahiers de l’Herne, Classiques Garnier, Dix-Neuf, Revue des Sciences Humaines, Littérature, Parade sauvage, Tangence, Nineteenth-Century French Studies, Contemporary French & Francophone Studies, and Feminimo/s.
An award-winning teacher, Professor Boulard has created more than twenty undergraduate and graduate courses that explore literature, film, media, and the arts as frameworks for engaging questions of identity, global challenges, and contemporary culture. She regularly collaborates with artists and filmmakers, bringing creative practice into the classroom. Integrating research with pedagogy, she directs the Vertically Integrated Project “Birds in Arts and Media” and is developing the student-produced magazine Plumage, fostering collaborative and experiential learning.
She has played a central role in advancing Georgia Tech’s global learning mission through the development of innovative study abroad programs, including the Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS) program at Georgia Tech-Europe, the Language, Environment, and Arts in France (LEAF) program, and the LBAT France program in Paris. Her institutional leadership also includes the establishment of a Fulbright Memorandum of Understanding with Canada. Since 2007, she has curated the French Speaker Series, bringing leading international writers, artists, and scholars to Georgia Tech. She co-curated the Global Media Fest (2017–2025), a film festival that convenes filmmakers and scholars around environmental and social issues, strengthening connections between academia and the public sphere.
Professor Boulard’s contributions have been recognized with numerous national and international honors, including the French Voices Award (2021), the Ivan Allen College Faculty Excellence in Research Award (2023), and the distinction of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques (2024), one of the French government’s highest honors for contributions to education and culture.
- Ph.D. French Literature, Emory University
- D.E.A. French Literature, Université de Paris 8 | Vincennes – Saint-Denis, France
- M.A. French Studies, Université de Lille, France
- B.A. Spanish Studies, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
- B.A. French Studies, Université de Lille, France
Distinctions:
- French-American Foundation Translation Prize Finalist, 2025
- Honor Roll CIOS Award, 2025
- Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques / Knight of the Order of Academic Palms, 2024
- CIOS Award Student Recognition of Excellence in Teaching, 2024
- Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts Faculty Excellence in Research Award, 2023
- French Voices Award, 2021
- Award Faces of Inclusive Excellence, 2019
- SPAG: Global Media Film Festival - Sustainability Across Languages and Cultures, 2018-2019
- IAC GTF Travel Award, 2018
- Class of 1940 Course Survey Effectiveness Award, 2017
Interests
- French and Francophone cinema, from the New Wave to the present
- Environmental humanities
- Theories of the image
- Interdisciplinary approaches to literature, visual culture, and critical theory
- Word-image relationships in literature, art, cinema, and popular media
- Aesthetics and artistic theory
- Environmental humanities
- Animal studies
- Film and Philosophy
- Communities, Places, and the Environment
- French
- Literary and Cultural Studies
- Media Studies
Focuses:
- Europe
- Environment
- Gender
- Aesthetics
- Cinema Studies
- Documentary
- Drama and Theater Studies
- Feminism
- Film History and Theory
- Francophone Studies
- Literary Theory
- Literature
- Media
- Modernity
- Performance
- Philosophy
- Poetry
- Psychoanalysis
- Translation
- World Literature
Courses
- FREN-2001: French Culture I
- FREN-2002: French Culture II
- FREN-2005: LBAT Culture & Language: Contemporary French Culture
- FREN-3001: French Lit 1800-1900: Contes de la Guillotine
- FREN-3001: French Lit 1800-1900: Monstres et Machines
- FREN-3002: French Lit 1900-Present
- FREN-3004: Drama Workshop
- FREN-3017: Paris: Modernity Today
- FREN-3500: Field Work Abroad
- FREN-3501: Sustainable Communities
- FREN-3697: Paris/Cinema
- FREN-3697: Paris/Cinema: Cinema in Paris / Paris in Cinema
- FREN-3833: Special Topics
- FREN-4005: Contemporary French Lit
- FREN-4011: French Art
- FREN-4013: Literature & Visual Arts
- FREN-4089: Food, Arts & Media
- FREN-4241: French Cinema I
- FREN-4242: French Cinema II
- FREN-4242: French Cinema II: The French New Wave and its Filmmakers
- FREN-4245: Women In Film
- FREN-4246: Fren./Franc. Films/Media
- FREN-4250: Reading Les Miserables
- FREN-4500: Intercultural Seminar
- FREN-4695: French Internship
- FREN-4699: Undergraduate Research
- FREN-6013: Literature & Visual Arts
- FREN-6252: French Domestic Internship
- FREN-6500: Intercultural Seminar
- FREN-6510: Language Practicum
- FREN-6511: Lang Practicum Abroad
- FREN-6696: French Internship Abroad
- FREN-8803: Special Topics
- FREN-8803: Special Topics: Women in Literature
Publications
Recent Publications
Books
Journal Articles
- Filmer le féminin: corps et topographie de l’érotisme dans Portrait de la jeune fille en feu
In: Revue Démiurges
Date: 2023
Chapters
- Agnès Varda’s The Gleaners and I: From Waste to Wonder—A Cinematic Odyssey on Food Loss and Gleaning
In: A Global Humanities Approach to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals: Understanding Planet, People, and Prosperity
Date: 2024
- Le rêve ailé
In: Cahier de l’Herne Pascal Quignard
Date: 2021
Translations
All Publications
Books
- Hugographies: Rêveries de Victor Hugo sur les lettres de l'alphabet
Date: 2022
- Ententes - À partir d'Hélène Cixous
In: Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle
Date: 2019
- Dictionnaire Sauvage Pascal Quignard [articles: Chateaubriand, Hiems, L'Éphémère, Les Ombres errantes, Messiaen, Michaux, Nuit, Oiseaux, Ombres, Rêve, Ritournelle]
In: Calle-Gruber, Mireille & Anaïs Frantz (Eds.)
Date: 2016
- Rouge Hugo
Date: 2014
- Visions/visitations/passions : en compagnie de Claude Louis-Combet
Date: 2008
Journal Articles
- Filmer le féminin: corps et topographie de l’érotisme dans Portrait de la jeune fille en feu
In: Revue Démiurges
Date: 2023
- Hugo/Rimbaud: Voyelles
In: Parade sauvage. Revue d’études rimbaldiennes
Date: 2020
- L’Œil de Victor Hugo
In: L’Œil du XIXe siècle, actes du VIIIe congrès de la SERD
Date: 2020
- Hélène Cixous : 1968, Vincennes ou l’université rêvée (L’Invention de Vincennes en trois épisodes)
In: Contemporary French and Francophone Studies: SITES 23 :2
Date: 2019
- To Write or To Paint the Monstrous? The Case of Claude Louis-Combet
In: SITES. 22.5
Date: 2019
- Le foudroiement perpétuel : Hélène Cixous / Adel Abdessemed
In: SITES
Date: 2018
- Du feu et des cendres. Sur le nom de Sybille et le Requiem de Pascal Quignard
In: Tangence 115
Date: 2017
- Liminaire. Traversées de Pascal Quignard
In: Tangence 115
Date: 2017
- Claude Louis-Combet : (re)lire Augias(se)
In: Nouvelles Francographies
Date: 2015
- Rouge: Victor Hugo ou la couleur en perspective
In: Polysèmes
Date: 2015
- Trace(s). Fragment(s). Remain(s). (Introduction)
Date: 2014
- Ego Hugo (Introduction)
In: Revue des Sciences Humaines 302
Date: 2011
- Signé Hogu
In: Revue des Sciences Humaines 302
Date: 2011
- Jean Genet: nouvelle perspective sur la guillotine
In: SITES. 14.3
Date: 2010
- Lettres capitales: Du monstre dans Les Travailleurs de la mer de Victor Hugo
In: Monstres et monstruosités : Cahiers Kubaba X
Date: 2007
- Ce qui (se) rêve sous le livre:" Rêver d'oubli et de rêve " dans Les Rêveries de la femme sauvage d'Hélène Cixous
In: Feminismo/s 7
Date: 2006
- Esquisse de cartographie, étude de la figure de l’Ouroboros dans l’œuvre de Claude Louis-Combet
In: Roman 20-50 37
Date: 2004
- Nouvelle enquête sur La Fille aux yeux d’or
In: Paroles Gelées 20.2
Date: 2003
- Tête-à-tête avec les monstres de Henri Michaux
In: Equinoxes 1
Date: 2003
- De l’Ombilic aux limbes : la figure de Mélusine dans l’œuvre de Claude Louis-Combet
In: Littérature 126
Date: 2002
- Sine Nomine - autour du Petit Œuvre poétique
In: Revue L’Œil de Bœuf 16
Date: 1998
Journal - Editors
- Traversées de Pascal Quignard (co-edited with Stella Spriet)
In: Tangence
Date: 2017
- Trace(s), Fragment(s), Reste(s) (co-edited with Christophe Ippolito)
In: SITES Contemporary French and Francophone Studies
Date: 2014
- Ego Hugo
In: Revue des Sciences Humaines
Date: 2011
Chapters
- Agnès Varda’s The Gleaners and I: From Waste to Wonder—A Cinematic Odyssey on Food Loss and Gleaning
In: A Global Humanities Approach to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals: Understanding Planet, People, and Prosperity
Date: 2024
- Le rêve ailé
In: Cahier de l’Herne Pascal Quignard
Date: 2021
- Claude Louis-Combet-Rembrandt: Bethsabée, naguère et à jamais
In: Les Colloques secrets de Claude Louis-Combet
Date: 2020
- Printemps
In: Ententes – à partir d’Hélène Cixous
Date: 2019
- Sub re/sub umbrâ: les doubles fonds des Travailleurs de la mer
In: Écrire l'illustration: le rapport à l'image dans la littérature des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles
Date: 2019
- Révolution flamenco
In: Gestualités/Textualités en danse contemporaine
Date: 2018
- Victor Hugo : « ex-il ». Sur un dessin qui dit tout
In: L’exil et l’errance. Le travail de la pensée entre enracinement et cosmopolitisme
Date: 2016
- Attention transgression ! Science et perversité dans Augias de Claude Louis-Combet
In: Jules Verne. La science: jusqu'où explorer ?
Date: 2015
- Diane Ducruet: Photographic Constellations
In: Diane Ducruet - Mother and Daughter
Date: 2015
- Les Oiseaux de Pascal Quignard
In: Pascal Quignard. Translations et Métamorphoses
Date: 2015
- Fantasmes, possession et métamorphoses : l’éros-animal chez Claude Louis-Combet
In: Animaux d’écriture, le lien et l’abîme
Date: 2014
- Allers-retours: du corps à l'écrit – pour une relecture de L'Homme qui rit
In: Aller(s)-retour(s): ninetenth century France in motion
Date: 2013
- Fantasmes du mythe chez Claude Louis-Combet : Gorgô ou la transposition de la terreur
In: Présence et usages du mythe dans le roman français et francophone depuis les années cinquante
Date: 2013
- Déchirer, mordre, écrire: l’art de l’écriture de Claude Louis-Combet
In: Fluence et influence. Claude Louis-Combet
Date: 2012
- Langage, tangage : le vent de folie de l'écrire dans l'œuvre de Faïza Guène
In: Qu'en est-il de la littérature beur au féminin?
Date: 2012
- Dadomorphoses
In: Visions/visitations/passions : en compagnie de Claude Louis-Combet
Date: 2008
- Ecrire après Lascaux: Pascal Quignard écrivain
In: Ecrivains de la préhistoire
Date: 2004
Interviews
- Pascal Quignard, un écrivain politique
In: SITES 18.3
Date: 2014
Translations
Other Publications
- Diane Ducruet: Photographic Constellations
In: Mother and Daughter
Date: 2015
Updated: Mar 20th, 2026 at 12:19 PM