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Overview

Dr Geraldine Crahay

Lecturer - French


Affiliations
AffiliationTelephone
Lecturer - French in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures+44 (0) 191 33 44352

Biography

I come from Liège, in the French speaking part of Belgium. As an undergraduate, I studied Romance languages and literature at the University of Liège. I spent one semester as an Erasmus student in Padua (Università degli Studi di Padova). I studied for a M.A. in French literature at the University of Liège, with a special focus on the nineteenth-century. Following this, I completed a teacher training degree at the same university and taught French in a Belgian secondary school for a year.

 

In 2011, I undertook a Ph.D. in French studies at Bangor University whilst working as a graduate teaching assistant. My research focused on the representation of a masculine malaise, sexual and gender ambiguities in narratives of the July Monarchy (1830-48) and scientific texts of that time.

 

In 2015, I started to work at the Centre for Foreign Language Study at Durham University as an Assistant Teaching Fellow in French. I have been teaching a variety of levels and students since then.

 

I have been a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy since 2015 and a Senior Fellow since 2025.

 

In 2019, I have launched the project Ballet workshops in French, which has been funded by the first DCAD collaborative grant.With French colleagues from the CFLS, MLAC and other universities (St Andrews, King's College London and Royal Holloway), I have co-founded the network CREATE to promote creative writing in language learning and teaching.

 

I am also a member of the network Les linguistes atterrée.s, which aims to thwart the overwhelmingly pessimistic discourse about the state of French language and inform the general public about linguistics.

Research interests

  • Creative writing in language learning
  • Gender identities
  • Grammar
  • Language learning and dancing
  • Language teaching and literature

Publications

Authored book

Chapter in book

Journal Article