Renee Gosson

Renée Gosson is Professor of French and Francophone Studies and Director of the Bucknell en France program for which she has served as Faculty-in-Residence in Tours for nine total semesters. She teaches courses on French Caribbean literature, culture, history, memory and tourism, in addition to the legacies of the transatlantic slave trade and slavery on both sides of the Black Atlantic.

A recipient of the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching (May 2018), Professor Gosson especially enjoys accompanying students in their experiential learning to France and to U.S. slavery memory sites including the African Burial Ground in NYC, the NMAAHC in Washington, D.C., and James Madison’s plantation estate in Montpelier, VA.

As the David Morton & Leanne Freas Trout Professor of French & Francophone Studies (2019-2024) and a Dean’s Fellow (2016-2019), she has conducted funded research in the French Caribbean and France where she has co-organized four international conferences on the representations of slavery in European, Caribbean, African, and American museums.

She has served as Associate Dean of Faculty (Arts and Humanities) in the College of Arts & Sciences, director of French & Francophone Studies, and departmental representative for the Humanities Council, in addition to being an elected member of the University’s Curriculum Committee and Committee on Faculty Development.

Education Background

• Ph.D. French Literature, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• M.A. French Literature, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• B.A. French and English, Linfield College

Faculty Research Interests

• Memorialization and museography of the transatlantic slave trade, colonial slavery, and abolition in France and in the French Caribbean
• Decolonial museum studies
• Black France

Recent and Representative Publications

• “Ruins, Rhizomes, Palimpsests and Traces-mémoires: Guadeloupe’s Mémorial ACTe and the Art(s) of Representation.” Contemporary French Civilization, vol. 41, no. 4, 2021, pp. 415-438.
• “Breaking Museal Tradition: Guadeloupe’s Mémorial ACTe and the Scenography of Slavery.” Histoire Sociale/Social History, vol. 53, no. 107, 2020, pp. 179-194.
• “‘Tous ceux sans qui la France ne serait pas la France’: The Case for a French National Museum of Colonial Histories.” French Cultural Studies, vol. 29, no. 2, 2018, pp. 120-137.

Recent Courses Taught

• “Memories and Material Traces of Slavery in the Black Atlantic” [Integrated Perspectives course co-taught with Professor Jonathan Scholnick]
• “Colonialism, Slavery and Tourism in the French Caribbean”
• “Remembering and Representing Slavery: France, U.S., and the Caribbean”

Awards and Honors

• David Morton & Leanne Freas Trout Professor of French & Francophone Studies
• Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching
• Associate Dean of Faculty, Arts and Humanities; College of A&S