Meet the Faculty

Maryann B. Tebben
Emily Fisher Faculty Fellow
French
Division: Languages and Literature
Appointment: 2000

Liebowitz 205
413-528-7219
mtebben@simons-rock.edu

Education:

BA, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, University of Notre Dame;
PhD, University of Southern California. Intensive summer program at Università per Stranieri, Perugia, Italy;
Yearlong study abroad program at Université Catholique de l'Ouest, Angers, France.

Professional History:

Previously taught at Syracuse University and SUNY-Oswego.

Areas of Interest:

French language and literature (general) • Food studies • Renaissance and 17th-century French literature • Renaissance Italian literature • Women writers • Conversation as a literary genre

Research Interests/Professional Service

• Dr. Tebben's dissertation, "Wordy Women: Conversation and Power in the Age of Louis XIV" traces the rise and fall of the 17th century French salonnière and female author.
• She is also fluent in Italian, and has presented numerous conference papers on French and Italian literature of the 16th and 17th centuries.
• Dr. Tebben has recently focused on food history in her research, presenting papers on French and Italian food in its literary context. In 2006 she attended a symposium on food studies at the Université François-Rabelais in Tours, France sponsored by the European Institute for the History and Culture of Food. She regularly teaches a course in French on French food culture.

Publications/Book Chapters/Exhibitions/Performances:

• “French fries et identité française: la frite et les fries en tant qu’objets littéraires et culturels” in La Pomme de Terre de la Renaissance au XXIe siècle, Presses Universitaires de Rennes/Presses Universitaires François Rabelais de Tours, 2011.
• “French Food Texts and National Identity: Consommé, Cheese Soufflé, Francité” in You Are What You Eat: Literary Probes into the Palate, Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008.
• “‘French’ Fries: France’s Culinary Identity from Brillat-Savarin to Barthes,” Convivium Artium, February 2006.
• “Writing the Ineffable: Du Bellay’s Olive,” French Review 78:3 (February 2005).
• “A Transgressive ‘Female’ Space: Moderata Fonte’s Il merito delle donne,” NEMLA Italian Studies, Volume XXV (2001), published September 2004.
• “Speaking of Women: Molière and Conversation at the Court of Louis XIV,” Modern Language Studies Volume 29.2 (Fall 1999), published Fall 2000.

Grants and Awards

• Named Emily Fisher Faculty Fellow, 2011.

Other Activities:

• Project: to oversee the inaugural year of programming for the Liebowitz Center for International Studies.
• Faculty organizer of the annual summer study program in Tours, France