The new academic year brings with it the arrival of new academic staff across the department, and today we meet Maxime Malet and Estelle Jardon, who have come to Modern Languages and Cultures to work as lecteurs for this academic session. Maxime and Estelle are working with students in all years to improve different aspects of their spoken French, and here they tell us a little about themselves.
Maxime
I have two degrees; a licence in English literature and civilization, and a degree in art. During my year in Liverpool, I want to explore the Walker Art Gallery and Tate Liverpool, as well as get to know more about British culture, and use this combined knowledge of art and British culture when I return to France. I see this year in Liverpool as an essential experience, since I have always wanted to teach in a university, and I eventually plan to take a PhD on Victorian pre-Raphaelite paintings and illustrations and their relationship with literature.
Even though my two favourite painters are the French classical artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard and the contemporary Japanese watercolourist Yoshitaka Amano, I am particularly interested in Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt and Ford Madox Brown, whose work is exhibited in Liverpool. More than the pictorial quality of these pieces, my interest in these works lies in the multifaceted meanings and criticisms that they put forward. I look forward to exploring these in more detail during my year in Liverpool.
We’re looking forward to making the most of our year in Liverpool, not only to have this teaching experience but also to meet the students and get to know something of the city.
Estelle
Having recently graduated with a BA in English from the Université de Lorraine (Nancy) in 2016, I am now pursuing my studies with an MA in Anglophone Studies alongside my work at the University of Liverpool. I have always been a passionate reader of detective novels and my research interests lie mainly in crime fiction. I am particularly interested in American hard-boiled detective novels and in the works of the author James Ellroy, who I had the pleasure to meet at the Nancy Literary Festival last September. I would like to devote my MA dissertation to a comparative study of the writing processes involved in different examples of crime fiction. I am looking forward to exploring the many resources in the Sydney Jones Library, which I am sure will quickly become my second home!
My enthusiasm for intercultural exchange naturally prompted me to apply for the position of lectrice in French in the department of Modern Languages & Cultures. Undertaking a year abroad in Liverpool is also a great opportunity for me to enhance my English and to get to know more about British culture. Even though Scouse is not always easy to understand, I am getting used to it and I have only met very friendly people here so far.