Professor of French
Dr. Powers’ primary field of research is in contemporary literature of Québec. His publications explore the representation of animals, ecofeminism, and the ethics of meat consumption and hunting in works by Jean-François Beauchemin, Julien Gravelle, Louis Hamelin, Marc Séguin, Gaétan Soucy, and Audrée Wilhelmy. His most recent publications include the following:
Entre proie et prédateur : un récit de chasse dans la littérature québécoise. Co-edited with Julien Defraeye. Special volume of Voix plurielles: vol. 21, no. 2. 143pp. December, 2024. https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/voixplurielles/issue/view/259
“Repenser l’éthique de la chasse à l’aune des pratiques autochtones dans deux récits de Julien Gravelle.” In Voix plurielles vol. 21, no. 2. (2024) : 69-86.
“L’écoféminisme d’Audrée Wilhelmy: le “devenir-animal” de la femme dans Le Corps des bêtes (2017).” In Animal et animalité : Stratégies de représentation dans les littératures d’expression française. Eds. Sara Buekens et Julien Defraeye. Classiques Garnier. 277-96. 2022.
“Violence and Eating Meat in L’Immaculée Conception and Music-Hall!: Reading Gaétan Soucy through the lenses of Animal and Vegan Studies.” Dalhousie French Studies 119 (2021): 93-109.
“Secularity, the Animal Other, and the ‘Fragilized’ Text in the Works of Jean-François Beauchemin.” Québec Studies 69 (2020): 109-29.
“‘Tu n’as pas à te sentir coupable d’être’: A Multiversal Approach to Guilt in Gaétan Soucy’s L’Acquittement.” Studies in Canadian Literature 43.1 (2019): 46-68.
Dr. Powers has also published several articles in leading academic journals on French Literature, namely on the topics of evil, secularization, anti-Semitism, medicine, and September 11. He has edited a volume entitled Evil in Contemporary French and Francophone Literature (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011), and authored the monograph Confronting Evil: The Psychology of Secularization in Modern French Literature (Purdue University Press, 2016). Dr. Powers is also interested in Foreign language pedagogy. In 2016, he co-authored the ninth edition of the textbook Interaction: Langue et Culture (Heinle, 2016) and has published articles in the MLA Approaches to Teaching World Literature Series.
Located in Combs Hall – Room 225
Email: spowers@umw.edu.