Dr Alexandre Burin, PhD (Durham)

Profile

I am a graduate of the University of Paris X Nanterre-La Défense, where I completed my BA and MA in English Language, Literature, and Civilisation, with Francophone Literature. I did my doctoral studies at Durham University, funded by the AHRC (Northern Bridge DTP, 2020). My thesis explores new poetic, cultural, and media practices that challenged gender assumptions in the Belle Époque (1871-1914), creating a pre-Butlerian reading of gender trouble, with a focus on the life and works of scandalous writer-journalist Jean Lorrain (1855-1906). My new project is about Music, Language, and Society. I want to show how a music-mediated experience in FFL can broaden the students’ perspectives on the Francophone imaginary, as well as developing their language skills and interpersonal and collaborative competences in a global society. My intention is to develop further creative teaching and research initiatives across disciplines, using music.

Before joining Queen Mary in 2023, I was a Teaching Fellow in French and Year Abroad Support Coordinator at Durham University and the University of Manchester, where I taught on a wide range of language and content modules. For several years, I worked as a French Lecteur and Language Tutor at King’s College London and the University of Oxford. I was also PG Officer of the Society for French Studies (2018-2019) and ECR Rep of the Society of Dix-Neuviémistes (2021-2023). I became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2023.

Teaching

My interdisciplinary research into French and Francophone literature and cultural history informs my teaching philosophy, which involves cultivating empathy and curiosity through engagement with intercultural communication, animating primary material through transmedial approaches – most particularly music. I became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2023.

Level 4 Year 1 French I Speaking
Level 4 Year 1 French I Listening
Level 5 Year 2 French II Advanced Speaking
Level 5 Year 2 French II Advanced Reading & Writing
Level 6 Year 4 French III Advanced Argumentative Skills
Level 6 Year 4 French III Translation into English

Research

Publications

Edited Volume

‘The Return of the Author’, guest editor for the special issue of *French Studies Bulletin* (Oxford UP), 41 (2020)

Journal Articles

‘Monsieur, Je jours mon personnage: Jean Lorrain, construire sa propre légende’, Savoirs en prisme, 12 (2020): 235-252

‘Hyper-Toussaint: Poetics of the Intermedia in J.-P. Toussaint’s *M.M.M.M.*’ (Introduction), in ‘The Return of the Author’, French Studies Bulletin (Oxford UP), 41 (2020): 17-19

‘The Poison of Literature: On the Social and Literary Construction of Baron Adelswärd-Fersen’s Black Masses Scandal’, in Volupté: Interdisciplinary Journal of Decadence Studies, 1 (2018): 56-80.

Book Chapters

‘Saint Oscar: Revenances de Wilde dans la revue *Akademos*’, in N.G. Albert and P. Cardon (eds.), Akademos, mode d’emploi: la première revue homosexuelle française (1909) (Bibliothèque GayKitchCamp, 2022): 410-419

‘La poétique arlequine de Jean Lorrain à l’époque du Chat Noir’, in C. Crépiat, D. Saint-Amand, J. Schuh (eds.), Poétique du Chat Noir (1882-1897) (Paris Nanterre UP, 2021): 171-184

‘Lettres d’un ami mourant’, Postface, in Maurice de Guérin, Lettres à Barbey d’Aurevilly (L’Harmattan, 2018): 57-70

[With Pascal Noir] ‘Naissance du Rapsode’, Preface, in Jean Lorrain, Le Sang des dieux (L’Harmattan, 2017): 7-26

‘Greffer le mot de l’étranger dans la langue: le cas du français d’Oscar Wilde’, in J. Barda and D. Finch-Race (eds.), Textures. Processus et événements dans la création poétique moderne et contemporaine (Peter Lang, 2015): 119-134

Interviews

[With Ariana Saenz Espinoza] ‘Une cosmogonie de l’horreur’. Interview with Argentine author Mariana Enriquez, in La Quinzaine littéraire, 1252 (April 2023): 9-10