FRIT is lucky to have a versatile and talented cohort of graduate students. Each of our graduate associates makes a difference in the lives of undergraduate students and in the Department culture, whether that be through teaching world languages, tutoring students, researching French, Francophone, and Italian topics, or just contributing every day to the Department's commitment to promoting and being interculturally competent. In this edition of Frontiere, we will spotlight the work of one of our French & Francophone Studies PhD candidates, Holly Engel.
Holly graduated from The College of Wooster with a B.A. in English and French and Francophone Studies, as well as a minor in music. She spent a semester of her junior year studying in Nantes, France, where she grew to love film studies. During her senior year at Wooster, she devoted most of her time to her Independent Study thesis, "Sinister Cinema: Depictions of Evil in the WWII and Postwar Thrillers of Alfred Hitchcock and Henri-Georges Clouzot," a comparative study analyzing how cultural conceptions of good and evil influenced themes in French and American films during a turbulent time of war and reconstruction.
Holly’s interest in film studies continues to inform her work at OSU. In May 2023, she received her M.A. in French and Francophone Studies from OSU and is now a PhD candidate working on her dissertation, currently titled "Possessed, Haunted, and Bitten: Constructing Gender Through Monstrosity in French Horror." Her research investigates the relationships between movie monsters and the culture that produces them, specifically considering how the Devil, the revenant, and the vampire in French horror each interact with, reinforce, and/or trouble concepts of masculinity and femininity in French culture. She plans to spend the upcoming year furthering her research. When Holly isn’t researching monsters, she enjoys reading, watching movies, ghost hunting, being outdoors, and spending time with family and friends. Her favorite French horror movie this year is either Julia Ducournau’s Titane or Jean Rollin’s Le frisson des vampires .
Some of Holly’s recent accomplishments include:
- Representing FRIT in the Council of Graduate Students and co-chairing CGS’s Arts & Culture Committee
- Leading the French and Italian Graduate Student Association as president (2023-present)
- Presenting her research on French Revolution films and national identity, “The Cinema of the Republic,” at the 20th and 21st Century French and Francophone Studies International Colloquium in 2024
- The publication of her article about the student experience in French and Francophone studies, “Ending the Existential Crisis”
