CURRICULUM VITAE

WILLIAM C. MITCHELL

Department of Comparative Literature

University of Washington

wcmitch@u.washington.edu

You may also download my CV as a PDF here.

EDUCATION

PhD, Comparative Literature

University of Washington, June 2011

My dissertation, Making France Visible: Visual Technologies of Nationalism, seeks to determine how visual technologies developed in the nineteenth century came to produce a new visual field on which the French state and its citizens struggled to reconstruct the social and political fabric of the nation following the Revolution.

Committee: Doug Collins (Chair, French), James Tweedie (Comparative Literature), Phillip Thurtle (Comparative History of Ideas)

Master of Arts, Comparative Literature

University of Washington, June 2005

Thesis: “Nation and the Individual in Midnight’s Children”

Thesis Director: Yomi Braester (Comparative Literature)

Bachelor of Arts, English and French

University of Georgia, May 1999

TEACHING AND RESEARCH INTERESTS

Nineteenth century French cultural history; visual culture and intermedial texts; nineteenth century French and English Literature; nationalism and literature of empire; urbanism; history of technology and science; modernism; American expatriate literature in Paris; travel writing.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Acting Instructor, English Department

University of Washington (Present)

Americans in Paris

English 200 (Fall 2011)

From Jefferson to Baldwin, this class examines the relationship between a group of expatriate American writers and the city that inspired them. The course attempts to understand how the shared experience of living in Paris, with its feeling of liberation and limitation, shaped some of the most important American literature of the early twentieth century.

Instructor, Division of French and Italian Studies

University of Washington (Present)

Intermediate and Advanced French

French 200 and 300 level classes (Fall 2011)

Instructor for French language classes at intermediate and advanced levels. Responsible for planning, instruction, and evaluation of language courses with an introduction to literature and French history.

Teaching Assistant, Department of Comparative Literature

University of Washington (2006-2011)

Culture, Politics and Society from the Religious War to the Revolutions, Teaching Assistant

French 376 (Fall 2010)

Responsible for discussion sections and all evaluation of student work. Will lecture on Rousseau, Voltaire and the Revolution.

Literature of Emerging Nations, Teaching Assistant

Comparative Literature 351 (Spring 2010)

Responsible for discussion sections and all evaluation of student work. Delivered lectures on the work of Benedict Anderson, Ernest Renan, Ernest Gellner, Etienne Balibar and Assia Djebar.

Alone in the Crowd: Alienation in Modern Short Fiction (see the syllabus), Instructor

Comparative Literature 240 (Fall 2009)

Responsible for creating and executing content of this composition course centered on the theme of alienation and modernity in modern European short fiction.

Mapping the Americas (see the syllabus), Instructor

Comparative Literature 321 (Winter 2009)

Designed and instructed course. The principle theme of the class—mapping—draws from a broad range of texts in order to ask how authors from diverse locations have represented place in fiction and how those manifestations of locality create and deconstruct a literature of the Americas.

Paris in the Fall Program, Instructor

Comparative Literature (Fall 2008)

Responsible for teaching a French conversation class to students participating in a departmental study abroad program. This included work on both linguistic and cultural competency and was conducted in a classroom setting. Responsibilities included weekly group excursions to sites around Paris.

Violence, Myth and Memory: Asia at the Crossroads of Modernity, Teaching Assistant

Comparative Literature 350/ Humanities 208 (Spring 2008)

This course was part of the “Difficult Dialogues” initiative sponsored by the Ford Foundation designed to provide a platform for students to engage in interdisciplinary work. The class used film and text to explore ideas of violence, narrative, and global modernity in U.S. relations with Viet Nam, the Philippines, and Indonesia. I was responsible for discussion sections, maintenance of a course website, and the creation of group theatre projects leading to a year-end performance at an event that brought together projects from the other five courses that comprised the initiative.

Imperial Field and Practices: Technology and Culture in the Making of Contemporary Empires, Teaching Assistant

Comparative Literature 432/ History 483 (Winter 2008)

As part of the “Difficult Dialogues” initiative sponsored by the Ford Foundation, this class drew together a diverse cross-section of students and engaged them in a discussion on sensitive issues. Part of a four-person team directed by two faculty members, I led discussion sections, was responsible for the creation and maintenance of the course website, and worked with students in all stages of a comparative project dealing with American empire across the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico.

Floor 7 ½ and Other Stops on the Way to Identity (see the syllabus), Instructor

Comparative Literature 240 (Winter and Spring 2007)

Responsible for designing and instructing this composition course centered on readings of 20th century texts, films, and secondary sources.

Themes in World Literature: Parents and Children, Teaching Assistant

Comparative Literature 350 (Fall 2006)

Assisted students in writing analytic papers focusing on films and literature presented in a large lecture setting.

Teaching Assistant, Department of French and Italian Studies

University of Washington (2003-2011)

Elementary and Intermediate French, Instructor

French 100 and 200 level classes (2003-2006, Fall 2007, Spring 2009, Summer 2010)

Instructor for French language classes at beginning and intermediate levels, including summer intensive programs (2003-2004: 100 level classes; 2005-2006: 200 level classes). Responsible for planning, instruction and evaluation of French classes.

Special Topics in French: Translation, Instructor

French 472 (Summer 2007)

Responsible for creating course curriculum and leading students in translation workshops. The course focused on various documents, including instruction manuals, newspaper articles and literature. Course also included workshop with professional translator concerning careers and technologies available to translators.

Additional Teaching Experience

English Teaching Assistant

Lycée Emile Zola (Aix-en-Provence, France, 2000-2001)

Taught English as a second language to post-baccalaureate students ages 18-25 training to enter tourism, professional and small business management programs.

Lycée Carnot (Dijon, France, 1999-2000)

Taught various high school conversation classes in conjunction with principle instructors. Created lessons and led conversation activities for classes of 5-28 students ages 13-17.

English Instructor Université de Bourgogne (Dijon, France, 2000)

Designed and taught intensive English course for post-graduate students in nutritional and dietary sciences research.

Counselor Village Camps (Leysin, Switzerland, Summer 2000, 2001)

Group leader for international high school students participating in Leadership Training Camp.

CONFERENCE ACTIVITIES

Idea of France: Interdisciplinary Conference (University of Pittsburgh, 2011)

Presenter: Restoring the Nation

Working Papers Colloquium: Department of Comparative Literature (University of Washington, 2009)

Presenter: Culture on Display: Inventing the Public Museum

Canadian Comparative Literature Association (University of British Columbia, 2008)

Presenter: Between Technique and Technology: The Problematic Development of Representation in Photography

Annual Colloquium: Division of French and Italian Studies (University of Washington, 2008)

Presenter: Colonizing Paris: Representation and the Making of a New France

Graduate Conference for Interdisciplinary Studies (University of Washington, 2007 and 2006)

Organizer: Led the conference organizing committee. Responsibilities included fundraising, panel organization, publicity and logistics.

Boston College International Graduate Conference on Romance Studies (2007)

Presenter: Bringing Empire Home: Visual Economy and Virtual Colonialism

University of Michigan Charles F. Fraker Conference (2007)

Presenter: The Righteous Violence of Differentiation

Graduate Student Conference for Interdisciplinary Studies (University of Washington, 2005-2006)

Presenter: Picturing a Memory Archive: Terror and the Rhetoric of Integration in YB's Allah Superstar

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE AND AFFILIATIONS

American Comparative Literature Association, member
Modern Language Association, member
Visual Praxis Collective, Collaborator
Graduate Student Senator for the Department of Comparative Literature (2007-2008)
Graduate Student Representative for the Department of Comparative Literature (2006-2007)