Mary Jane Cowles joined the Kenyon faculty in 1989, after teaching both French and Spanish for a number of years at St. Mary's College of Maryland. In addition to courses in French language and culture, she has taught courses in her major area of expertise, nineteenth-century French literature. Other courses have focused on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century literature, film, drama and literary theory.

Among her research interests are French Romanticism, French film and psychoanalytic theory. In 2004-05, she served as on-site directory of the Sweet Briar College Junior Year in France.

Areas of Expertise

Nineteenth-century French literature and Romanticism, French film studies and film theory, psychoanalytic theory.

Education

1986 — Doctor of Philosophy from Princeton University

1978 — Master of Arts from Princeton University

1975 — Bachelor of Arts from Mount Holyoke College, Phi Beta Kappa