Danielle Marx-Scouras earned a B.A. in French-Honors from Simmons College, an M.A. in French from Boston University, and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.  She also studied and did research at the Universities of Louvain, Milan, Paris VII and VIII (Vincennes), and the International Center of Semiotics and Linguistics of the University of Urbino. She came to Ohio State in 1990, after having taught French and Italian at Brandeis University. Previously, she taught French literature and culture at Reid Hall (Columbia University), American civilization at l’Ecole Nationale d’Administration (l’ENA), and Italian at  L’Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et l’Administration Economique (l’ENSAE) in Paris. She served as Resident Director for the CIC (Big Ten and University of Chicago Consortium) summer program at Laval University in Quebec from 2001-03 and 2010-12, and designed and directed the OSU program there from 2013-17. She also designed and directed two unique OSU study abroad trips to France and surrounding countries: "Ex-centric France" (2012) and "France Beyond Borders" (2017).  Danielle served as associate editor of Research in African Literatures from 1992-2011. 

Danielle works in contemporary French and Francophone (Maghreb, Quebec, ethnic minorities in France) literatures, theory, intellectual history, and popular music.  She is the author of La France de Zebda 1981-2004, Faire de la musique, un acte politique (Paris: Editions Autrement, 2005); The Cultural Politics of Tel Quel: Literature and the Left in the Wake of Engagement (Penn State University Press, 1996) and guest editor of “Dissident Algeria,” Research in African Literatures (1999). She has published over fifty articles and book chapters on authors and topics such as Albert Camus, Driss Chraïbi, Julia Kristeva, Elio Vittorini’s Politecnico, Jean Sénac, Assia Djebar, Yamina Mechakra, Evelyne Accad, Leïla Sebbar, Algerian women bomb carriers, Tel Quel, French and Maghrebian theory, Mehdi Charef, Hélé Béji, Rachid Boudjedra, and French popular music. Her articles have appeared in such journals as Yale French Studies, L’Esprit Créateur, the minnesota review, and Research in African Literatures. Her research has been funded by grants and fellowships from the American Philosophical Society, ACLS, and the Camargo Foundation. She has lectured and published in fourteen countries in Africa, Europe, and North America. Danielle is currently working on a book project, "Rock the Hexagon: Popular Music and Identity Politics in France Today," for which she was awarded an OSU Seed Grant for Innovation in the Arts and Humanities. She recently published “Kristeva Telle Quelle: A Seductive Encounter” in Understanding Kristeva, Understanding Modernism, ed. Maria Margaroni, Bloomsbury Press 2022.

Danielle received the College of Humanities Rodica C. Botoman Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching and Mentoring in 2004, the College of Arts and Sciences Honors Faculty Service Award in 2010, and the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2019. She was also one of five Arts and Humanities faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences awarded the inaugural Ronald and Deborah Ratner Distinguished Teaching Award in 2014.

This website was created to preserve the unique study abroad experience that resulted from the Ratner award.

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