bmartin@williams.edu
At Williams since 2004
Contact Information:
Brian Martin
Williams College
Department of Romance Languages
North Academic Building
85 Mission Park Drive
Williamstown, MA 01267 USA
FACULTY 
Brian Martin
Assistant Professor of French and Comparative Literature
Assistant Professor of French and Comparative Literature
Areas of Expertise and Interest
- Nineteenth-Century French Novel
- Twentieth-Century French Fiction and Film
- Gender, Sexuality, and Queer Studies
- Nordic Literature from Scandinavia to Québec
Courses Taught (RLFR)
- Introduction to French Language and Francophone Cultures
- Intermediate Studies in French Language and Francophone Cultures
- War and Resistance: Two Centuries of War Literature in France, 1804-2004
- Paris on Fire: Incendiary Voices from the City of Light, 1830-2005
- Sexuality and Seduction in Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century France
- Desperate Housewives and Extreme Makeovers: Novel Approaches to the
Nineteenth-Century Novel - Contemporary Queer Cinema in France
- Formidable French Film: Recent Cinema from France, Morocco, Québec
- Nordic Lights: Literary and Cultural Diversity in Modern Scandinavia
Education
- A.B. (1993) Harvard,
French and English Literature. - M.A. (1996) UCLA,
Comparative Literature (French, English, Scandinavian). - A.M. (1999) Harvard,
French Language and Literature. - Ph.D. (2003) Harvard, French Language and Literature.
Conference Presentations
- “Napoleonic Friendship and Colonial Conquest,” Nineteenth-Century French Studies Colloquium (NCFS), Vanderbilt University, October 2008. (Upcoming)
- “Fraternité forestière: l’imaginaire littéraire du bûcheron au Québec,” American Council for Québec Studies (ACQS), Québec, Québec, November 2008. (Upcoming)
- “Bûcheron Butch: Bear Culture, Lumber Lore, and Francophone Fantasy,” ‘Rhetoric of the Other,’ University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne, March 2008.
- “Sympathetic Sergeants and Bivouac Bedfellows: Napoleon’s Campaign in Russia,” Nineteenth-Century French Studies Colloquium (NCFS), Mobile AL, October 2007.
- “Desert Passions and Colonial Sexploitation: Balzac and Napoleon in Egypt,” ‘Queer Exoticism,’ Hofstra University, October 2007.
- “Family Vacations and Seaside Romance: Queer Families in Contemporary French Film,” Twentieth and Twenty-First Century French Studies Colloquium, Texas A&M University, March 2007.
- “Terroristes ou patriotes: guerre et résistance cinématographiques au Québec,” American Council for Québec Studies (ACQS), Cambridge MA, October 2006.
- “Pères de familles: origines cinématographiques de la paternité homosexuelle,” ‘Hypervisibité(s) queer,’ Université Concordia, Montréal, Québec, June 2006.
- “Cavalry Couples and Military Mates: Balzac’s Napoleonic Veterans,” French Nineteenth-Century Colloquium Series, New York University’s Maison Française, April 2006.
- “From ‘Gay Paris’ to ‘Gay Famille’: Emerging Queer Families in New French Film,” American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), Princeton University, March 2006.
- “Napoleon Wept: Military Friendship and Masculine Affection in France,” Nineteenth Century French Studies Colloquium (NCFS), University of Texas Austin, October 2005.
- “Balzac in Baghdad: Military Adaptation and Imperial Conquest,” American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), Pennsylvania State University, March 2005.
- “Corporal Affairs: French Military Fiction from Zola to Proust,” The Future of Beauty, ed. Daniel Meyer-Dinkgrafe (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2005) 103-122.
- “From Balzac to Iraq: Soldiers, Veterans, and Military Adaptation,” The Comparatist 30 (May 2006): 68-80.
- “Sympathetic Sergeants and Bivouac Bedfellows: Napoleon’s Campaign in Russia,” Nineteenth-Century French Studies Colloquium (NCFS), Mobile AL, October 2007.
- “Brothers,” Routledge International Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities, ed. Judith Kegan Gardiner et al. (New York and London: Routledge, 2007).
- “Combat Couples and Military Mates: from Revolutionary Fraternity to Napoleonic Friendship,” Gender and Sexual Deviances in France at the End of the Long Eighteenth Century, ed. Rudy de Mattos (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009). Forthcoming.
- “Panthers, Palms, and Desert Passions: Balzac and Napoleon in Egypt,” Queer Exoticism, eds. David A. Powell, Tamara Powell, Matthew J. Sobnosky (2009). Forthcoming.
- “The Bright Side,” Book Review of The Meaning of Life, by Terry Eagleton. Consciousness, Literature, and the Arts (2009). Forthcoming.
- “Beyond the Femme Fatale: Leading Women in New French and Francophone Film,” Film Festival, Images Cinema, 2006.
- “In the Best of Families: Domestic Dramas in New French and Francophone Film,” Film Festival, Images Cinema, 2007.
- Berkshire Institute for Lifelong Learning (BILL), Spring Course, “Introduction to Scandinavia,” co-taught with Magnus Bernhardsson, 2006.
- Williams College Dively Committee, 2004-2008.
- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Advisory Committee, 2004-2008.
- Women’s and Gender Studies Advisory Committee, 2005-2008.
