The latest edition of CAS News profiled one of our new full-time faculty members – Jennifer Cazenave! Read the full interview below.

Department and Title: Romance Studies, Assistant Professor of French 

Hometown: Bordeaux, France

What is your educational background?

BA in Creative Writing and Literature from Bard College; Dual Ph.D. in Comparative/French Literature and Film from Northwestern University and Université Paris Diderot (Paris 7)

What will you be working on this academic year?

I just completed my first book, An Archive of the Catastrophe: The Unused Footage of Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah, which is forthcoming in June 2019 from SUNY Press. I am now working on a second book project, tentatively titled The Cinema of Wandering Souls: Itinerant Filmmaking and French Imperial Remains, which reframes French colonial history and its legacies through the lens of amateur films. The book investigates in particular missing images in this historical narrative, from nuclear testing to disabled bodies in the colonies.  

Why did you go into your field of study?

I have always been fascinated by the two sides of film as a medium of memory and loss, archiving and omission. As a result, in my work on film archives, I am deeply invested in exploring and recovering missing images, whether through a study of outtakes or little-known footage.

What excites you the most about working at CAS? What has been most rewarding?

As a scholar and a teacher, I am very excited about the College’s deep commitment to interdisciplinarity. My research has been enriched by the connections I have made through my affiliation with other departments, programs, and centers on campus. I also benefited from the rich experiences and perspectives of colleagues across CAS upon completing a BU Hub course development workshop last summer. I look forward to teaching my first BU Hub course, Cinéma-Monde: Mapping French Film, in the fall of 2019!

What are your favorite hobbies?

Moviegoing and traveling—and, whenever possible, seeing a film in a cinema in whichever city I am visiting.

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