Recent publications

BOOKS:

1.  Politiques du symbole: l'humanisme critique dans la tradition romantique et moderne.  (Politics of the Symbol: Humanism and Critical Mind in the Romantic and Modern Tradition)  (in French).  Editions Kimé, Paris 1993. ISBN 2-908212-58-7.

2.  Tocqueville et le devenir de la démocratie: la perversion de l'idéal.  (Tocqueville and the Becoming of Democracy: Perversion of an Ideal) (in French). Editions L'Harmattan, Paris 1999.

ISBN 2-7384-7645-7

3.  Pourquoi Bataille?  Trajets intellectuels et politiques d'une "négativité au chômage"  (Why Bataille?  Intellectual and Political Journeys of an "Unemployed Negativity")  A monograph of the French thinker Georges Bataille (in French).   Editions Kimé, Paris 2000.  ISBN 2-84174-181-8.

ARTICLE:

1.  "The Modernity of Mysticism: Bataille and Sartre" (in English), Diacritics, Fall 1996.

Research Interests

1.  Literature and Religion: arts and literature as a substitute to the sacred after Nietzsche's "death of God."

2.  Modern critical / social theory: the weakening of the critical discourse as a result of mass communication.

3.  Linguistic and/or symbolic nature of the democratic "social bond" in Western culture.

Honors and Awards

1.  March 2000 –   Award and medal from the Cultural Center of the West, Nantes (France)

2.  February 2002 –   Promotion to the rank of "Officier dans l'ordre des Palmes académiques" by the Attaché Culturel from the French Embassy.

Sample Courses

FREN 341 – Francophone cultures and literatures.

FREN 675 – Main critical currents in the 20^th century.

FREN       - The idea of democracy from Tocqueville to September 11, 2001.