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Anna Keefe

Pronouns: she/her/elle/la
Associate Professor
Global Cultures & Languages University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

Anna Keefe's office hours

Tuesday
2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Wednesday
1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

Remote office hours offered: No appointment necessary. If these times don't work for your schedule, e-mail me to set something up.
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Anna Keefe Pronouns: she/her/elle/la

Associate Professor

Global Cultures & Languages

Specialty area(s)

Contemporary French and Francophone cultures, film studies, postcolonial studies, African studies, disability studies

Brief biography

I teach all levels of French, from language courses to upper-level courses focusing on film and literature, culture and civilization, and phonetics. I aim to draw students' attention to diverse communities and cultural productions from beyond the Hexagon, especially in West Africa. Come see me! I love meeting with students and am excited to talk with you about your study of French, study abroad, and the TAPIF program.

I completed my Ph.D. at the University of Virginia. Specializing in Film Studies and Francophone Studies, my dissertation, Self-Conscious Francophone Sub-Saharan African Cinema, argues that French-language West African filmmakers have been "thinking cinema," both aesthetically and historically, since its very beginnings. My current research project focuses on genre television series from Senegal. 

When I'm not engaged in teaching or research, you can find me hiking and baking with my son, reading, and gardening.

Current courses at UWL

FRE 101: French in a Global Society I

FRE 201: French Language and Cultures in Action I 

FRE 301: Sound, Speech & Proficiency

FRE 450: Intern Program

Education

Ph.D., French, University of Virginia

M.A., French Literature, Boston College 

Pensionnaire Étrangère, École Normale Supérieure de Paris 

B.A., French, University of Minnesota, Morris 

Career

Teaching history

FRE 101: French in a Global Society I

FRE 201: French Language and Cultures in Action I

FRE 227: French for International Relations

FRE 300: Visual Encounters

FRE 301: Sound, Speech, and Proficiency

FRE 305: Exploring the Story

FRE 395: French Literary Voices in English, a GenEd (GE07) film and literature course in translation, taught as "Voices from the Margins"

FRE 322: French without Borders

FRE 351: French Cinema

FRE 403: Studies in French and Francophone Literature, "Voix de femmes"  

FRE 430: French Connections (capstone course)

Research and publishing

Publications

 "Supernatural Crime Series Made in Senegal for International Streaming: The Intersection of Genre, the Occult, and Cultural Hybridity in Sakho & Mangane," Special issue of French Screen Studies (Under review) 

"Alain Gomis (1970-)." The Art of Directing: A Concise Dictionary of France's Film Directors, edited by Michaël Abecassis, Marcelline Block, and Felicity Chapman, Peter Lang, 2023.

"The Unspoken Languages of Alain Gomis's Cinéma-Monde: Space, Sound, and the Body." Contemporary French Civilization, vol. 47, no. 1, 2022, pp. 67-88.

"African cinema and its 'ancestor': local encounters in Jean-Marie Teno's Lieux Saints." Contemporary French Civilization, vol. 43, no. 1, 2018, pp. 91-108.

Conferences

20th & 21st-Century French and Francophone Studies International Colloquium, Philadelphia, PA, 22-24 February 2024. "High Fashion Through the Lens of Mati Diop: Art and Commerce in In My Room (2020) and Tokyo Trip (2023)."

Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association (RMMLA) Annual Convention, Albuquerque, NM, 13-15 October 2022. "Decentering French Cinema: Viewing Mati Diop's Atlantique in Senegal and Beyond." 

(42nd) Cincinnati Conference on Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures, virtual, 7-9 April 2022. Roundtable on New Directions in Cinéma-Monde. 

CFC Intersections Inaugural Conference, virtual, 24-25 September 2021. "Screening Possibility: Disability in Djibril Diop Mambéty's La petite vendeuse de soleil."

Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Seattle, WA, 6-9 January 2020. "The Auteur Cinéma-monde of Alain Gomis: Focus on Félicité (2017)."

African Studies Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL,16-19 November 2017. "Screening the Text: Creation and Resistance in Juju Factory."

World Cinema and Television in French, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, 9-10 September 2016. "Questioning African Cinema: Jean-Marie Teno's Lieux Saints."

African Literature Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, 6-9 April 2016. "Chaplin and Silent Comedy in Francophone Sub-Saharan African Film."

Conseil International d'Études Francophones, San Francisco, CA, 29June-5 July 2014. "Vers un nouveau mode de production filmique: l'allégorie cinématographique dans Les Saignantes de Jean-Pierre Bekolo."

Book Reviews

Review of Franco-America in the Making: The Creole Nation Within, by Jonathan Gosnell. Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature, vol. 44, no. 1, 2020.

Review of Cultural Diversity in the French Film Industry: Defending the Cultural Exception in a Digital Age, by Sarah Walkley. Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature, vol. 43, no. 2, 2019.

Kudos

presented

Anna Keefe, Global Cultures & Languages, presented "Supernatural Crime Series Made in Senegal for International Streaming: Genre and the Occult in Sakho & Mangane" at 20th & 21st Century French and Francophone Studies International Colloquium on March 28 at University of North Carolina Greensboro. This paper examines :Sakho & Mangane" — the first francophone African series to stream on Netflix — in the era of global streaming.

Submitted on: May 5

presented

Anna Keefe, Global Cultures & Languages, presented "High Fashion Through the Lens of Mati Diop: Art and Commerce in In My Room (2020) and Tokyo Trip (2023)" at 20th and 21st Century French and Francophone International Studies Colloquium on Feb. 23 in Villanova University.

Submitted on: Mar. 4, 2024