Staff profile

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.

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

Authored book

• The Hermaphrodite, the Effete and the Butch: Sexual and Gender Ambiguities in Nineteenth-Century French Narratives
  
  Crahay, G. (2022). The Hermaphrodite, the Effete and the Butch: Sexual and Gender Ambiguities in Nineteenth-Century French Narratives. Peter Lang.

Chapter in book

• French creative theatre in a course for beginners: The case of Finissez vos phrases! by Jean Tardieu
  
  Crahay, G. (2020). French creative theatre in a course for beginners: The case of Finissez vos phrases! by Jean Tardieu. In A. B. Almeida, U. Bavendiek, & R. Biasini (Eds.), Literature in Language Learning: New Approaches. (pp. 77-84). Research-publishing.net. https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2020.43.1098
• ‘“Voyez les femmes les plus hommasses, ces viragines audacieuses”: La domestication de la femme masculine dans les traités savants de la première moitié du dix-neuvième siècle’
  
  Crahay, G. (2018). ‘“Voyez les femmes les plus hommasses, ces viragines audacieuses”: La domestication de la femme masculine dans les traités savants de la première moitié du dix-neuvième siècle’. In S. (ed.) Leroy (Ed.), Medicine and Maladies: Representing Affliction in Nineteenth-Century France (pp. 19-40). Brill Rodopi. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004368019

Journal Article

• Théophile Gautier: Mademoiselle de Maupin
  
  Crahay, G. (in press). Théophile Gautier: Mademoiselle de Maupin. The Literary Encyclopedia.
• Victor Hugo: Han d'Islande [Han of Iceland]
  
  Crahay, G. (in press). Victor Hugo: Han d’Islande [Han of Iceland]. The Literary Encyclopedia.
• Developing Multilingual Gender-Inclusive Language Guidelines for Teaching and Assessment
  
  Carlini Versini, D., Crahay, G., Huang, J., Reimann-Dawe, T., & Umezawa, K. (2025). Developing Multilingual Gender-Inclusive Language Guidelines for Teaching and Assessment. Enhancing Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 3, 23-35. https://doi.org/10.62512/etlhe.22
• The benefits and challenges of creative writing assessment in French: Un geste pour un autre by Jean Tardieu
  
  Crahay, G. (2024). The benefits and challenges of creative writing assessment in French: Un geste pour un autre by Jean Tardieu. Enhancing Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 1, 5-20. https://doi.org/10.62512/etlhe.3
• ‘Serenity’s Operative and Les Misérables’s Inspector Javert: The Masculinity of Scrupulous Civil Servants’
  
  Crahay, G. (2017). ‘Serenity’s Operative and Les Misérables’s Inspector Javert: The Masculinity of Scrupulous Civil Servants’. Slayage the On-Line International Journal of Buffy Studies., 15(1).
• ‘“Oh! non, je ne pourrai jamais te le dire… j’aime un homme!”: Hermaphrodite et l’esthétisation de l’homosexualité dans Mademoiselle de Maupin'
  
  Crahay, G. (2016). ‘“Oh! non, je ne pourrai jamais te le dire… j’aime un homme!”: Hermaphrodite et l’esthétisation de l’homosexualité dans Mademoiselle de Maupin’. Nineteenth-Century French Studies, 45(1-2), 17-32. https://doi.org/10.1353/ncf.2016.0014
• ‘Valorising Genitalia: Homosexuality and Hermaphroditism in French Scientific Writings in the Nineteenth Century
  
  Crahay, G. (2013). ‘Valorising Genitalia: Homosexuality and Hermaphroditism in French Scientific Writings in the Nineteenth Century. Harts & Minds, 1(2).