Philippe Chavasse Headshot

Philippe Chavasse

Associate Professor

Department of Modern Languages and Cultures
College of Liberal Arts

585-475-3156
Office Location

Philippe Chavasse

Associate Professor

Department of Modern Languages and Cultures
College of Liberal Arts

Bio

Dr. Philippe Chavasse holds a PhD in French and Francophone studies from the University of Oregon and a DEA (French equivalent of PhD comprehensive exams) in Stylistics from the University of Lyon in France. Dr. Chavasse has taught at four other universities in the U.S. prior to joining RIT in 2006. He has taught all levels of the French curriculum, including graduate courses about French literature and civilization. Dr. Chavasse's research focuses on 19th and early 20th century French and Francophone literature. He has published numerous articles in top tier journals such as Nineteenth-Century French Studies, Excavatio, and The Journal of Haitian Studies. He is currently working on a book project on Belgian naturalism and a series of articles on De Tocqueville and other French intellectuals' travel narratives on American society.   

585-475-3156

Areas of Expertise

Select Scholarship

Invited Keynote/Presentation
Chavasse, Philippe. "Queer Enchantment and Fecal Matter as a Form of Resistance in the Novels of Jean Genet." 2023 NEMLA Convention. University at Buffalo. Niagara Falls, NY. 24 Mar. 2023. Conference Presentation.
Chavasse, Philippe. "Enchantement queer et matière fécale comme formes de résistance dans les romans de Jean Genet." 2023 Kentucky Foreign Language Conference. University of Kentucky. Lexington, KY. 20 Apr. 2023. Conference Presentation.
Chavasse, Philippe. "Tocqueville dans le désert." 48th Annual Nineteenth-Century French Studies Colloquium. Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore, MD. 10 Nov. 2023. Conference Presentation.
Chavasse, Philippe. "La figure de l’aristocrate roué dans quelques œuvres du belge Georges Eekhoud." 47th Annual Nineteenth-Century French Studies Colloquium. George Washington and Georgetown Universities. Washington DC, DC. 10 Oct. 2021. Conference Presentation.
Chavasse, Philippe. "Queer Rediscovery of the Work of Georges Eekhoud." 42nd Annual Nineteenth Century Studies Association Conference. Virtual Conference. Pittsford, NY. 11 Mar. 2021. Conference Presentation.
Chavasse, Philippe. "Le Horla: Une nouvelle antisémite ?" 2021 Kentucky Foreign Language Conference. University of Kentucky. Lexington, KY. 22 Apr. 2021. Conference Presentation.
Chavasse, Philippe. "“Sursanguinité belge, patriotisme et style coruscant”." 43rd Annual Nineteenth-Century French Studies Colloquium. University of Virginia. Charlottesville, Virginia. 11 Nov. 2017. Conference Presentation.
Chavasse, Philippe. "“Des communions divergentes de Georges Eekhoud à Michel Onfray”." 20th-21st Century French and Francophone Studies International Colloquium. Washington University. Saint Louis, Missouri. 19 Mar. 2016. Conference Presentation.
Chavasse, Philippe. "“De la terre à la terre promise”." 42nd Annual Nineteenth-Century French Studies Colloquium. Brown University. Providence, Rhode Island. 29 Oct. 2016. Conference Presentation.
Chavasse, Philippe. "“A Francophone Addiction to Shakespeare’s Time. The case of Georges Eekhoud”." 46th Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association. Northeast Modern Language Association. Toronto, Ontario. 3 May 2015. Conference Presentation.
Chavasse, Philippe and Xavier Beauvois. "Introduction to 'Of Gods and Men'." Conable Film Series. RIT. Rochester, NY. 11 Jan. 2012. Address.
Journal Paper
Chavasse, Philippe. "Terre, amour et morts dans L'Autre vue de Georges Eekhoud." French Forum 47. 1 (2022): 91-107. Print.
Chavasse, Philippe. "Dévoiements romantiques chez George Sand et Germaine de Staël." George Sand Studies 39-40. (2021): 119-40. Print.
Chavasse, Philippe. "Two Visions of Happiness According to Nature in the Works of Camille Lemonnier and Georges Eekhoud." Quêtes littéraires 11. (2021): 99-122. Print.
Chavasse, Philippe. "“Georges Eekhoud et son terroir incarné”." Excavatio: Emile Zola and Naturalism 25. (2015): 11 pages. Web.
Chavasse, Philippe. "“Le Cosmopolitisme antisémite de Georges Eekhoud dans La Nouvelle Carthage”." Nineteenth-Century French Studies 38. (2009): 97-112. Print.
Chavasse, Philippe. "“Frédéric Marcelin, auteur nationaliste et résistant bourgeois”." Haitian Studies Journal 13. 1 (2007): 61-82. Print.
Chavasse, Philippe. "“Martyrologe d’un genre nouveau: le dénouement d’Escal-Vigor de Georges Eekhoud”." Nineteenth-Century French Studies 34. (2006): 371-86. Print.
Peer Reviewed/Juried Poster Presentation or Conference Paper
Chavasse, Philippe. "Naturist Utopia in the Works of Camille Lemonnier and Georges Eekhoud." Proceedings of the Kentucky Foreign Language Conference. Ed. University of Kentucky. Lexington, KY: n.p..
Chavasse, Philippe. "Dissidence and Universal Harmony in the Work of Georges Eekhoud." Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference of the Nineteenth-Century Studies Association. Ed. Nineteenth-Century Studies Association. Rochester, NY: n.p..
Chavasse, Philippe. "Utopie contestataire chez Camille Lemonnier et Georges Eekhoud." Proceedings of the Association Internationale Zola et Naturalisme 30th Anniversary. Ed. AIZEN. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama.
Chavasse, Philippe. "47th Annual Nineteenth-Century French Studies Colloquium." Proceedings of the Approche transversale de la vieillesse dans Les Amoureux de Sainte-Périne et deux traités médicaux de la même époque. Ed. Nineteenth-Century French Studies Association. New York, NY: n.p..

Currently Teaching

MLFR-301
3 Credits
This is the first course of a two-course sequence at the intermediate level. The sequence provides students with the tools necessary to increase their ability to function in French. Communicative activities, contemporary texts, vocabulary study, and grammar are used to expand all communication skills, especially oral proficiency. This sequence continues to address issues of contemporary French life and culture as well as the cultures of the Francophone world.
MLFR-302
3 Credits
This is the second course of a two-course sequence at the intermediate level. The sequence provides students with the tools necessary to increase their ability to function in French. Communicative activities, contemporary texts, vocabulary study, and grammar are used to expand all communication skills, especially oral proficiency. This sequence continues to address issues of contemporary French life and culture as well as the cultures of the Francophone world.
MLFR-315
3 Credits
This course trains students to read and write in French at an advanced intermediate level of competency. Through gradual presentation and recognition of French grammar forms and vocabulary, students learn to comprehend, discuss, and analyze a wide variety of French texts, including songs, scripts of movies and TV series, comic books, skits, news items, canonical narratives, as well as some technical and scientific materials. Students also learn to write and express their ideas in grammatically correct French and to explore different genres and forms of writing. The course also expands students’ knowledge of French and Francophone cultures. Conducted in French.
MLFR-351
3 Credits
A comparative study of French films and their American remakes from the 1930s to the 21st century to determine what these films reveal about the cultural and cinematic contexts from which they emerge. The course examines differences as well as similarities in the construction of identities in France and the United States. Devotes particular attention to the (re)construction of race, space, gender, and national histories. Conducted in English.
MLFR-352
3 Credits
Heritage films are central to the French cinematographic production. They enable the transmission and the reevaluation of a tradition that lies at the core of French cultural identity. This course examines a selection of French films adapted from both canonical and non-canonical texts representative of major events, trends, social issues, and artistic movements that contributed to shaping modern France. Students will become familiar with world-renowned French novels, short stories, comic books, and films. The course deals with topics such as aristocratic culture, racial identity in France, the myth of the resistance and the legacy of the Second World War, France’s rural past, the French colonial experience, women and bourgeois culture, the long-standing tradition of comic books and comedy in France, the Tradition of Quality, the French New Wave, and heritage films. The course also examines the interconnectedness of French culture and the cultures of the United States, England, and former French colonies. It notably explores how the French colonial experience informed the development of French cinema, and how French heritage films were both inspired and reinterpreted by British and American cinematographic industries to reflect the cultures and values of those societies. Conducted in English.