Jena Whitaker
(She/Her)
whitak87@msu.edu
(517) 432-0713
B230 Wells Hall
619 Red Cedar Rd
East Lansing, MI 48824
FacultyRomance and Classical Studies
Assistant Professor
French
Biography
Jena Whitaker holds a BA in French and Music from Rollins College, a MA in French Language and Literature from Florida State University, and a Ph.D. in French Language and Literature from Johns Hopkins University. Additionally, she was a pensionnaire étrangère at the École Normale Supérieure (rue d’Ulm, Paris). Dr. Whitaker’s fields of interest include translation theory, nineteenth and twentieth-century French poetry, the birth of modernity, theories of technology, and the intersections of philosophy and literature.
Degrees:
Ph.D., 2018, Johns Hopkins University
M.A., 2011, Florida State University
B.A., 2009, Rollins College
Courses
FRN 201: Second Year French I
FRN 202: Second Year French II
FRN 310: Stepping into the 20th Century and Beyond
FRN 320: Self-Expression in Writing
FRN 321: Oral Expression
FRN 340: Introduction to Reading French Literature
FRN 350: Connecting with the Cultures of the Francosphere
FRN 415: Introduction to French Studies I: Metropolitan France
FRN 420: French for Professional Uses: Translation
FRN 425: Advanced Studies in French Language
FRN: 440: Perspectives in Literature and the Arts of the Francosphere
FRN 800: Reading French
FRN 840: Madness, Hallucination and Hypnosis in 19th Century French Literature
IAH 206: Self, Society, and Technology: From Brave New World to Black Mirror
Awards and Honors
NEH Summer Institute Grant Participant
Kent State University. Institute for Applied Linguistics
2015
“What is Gained in Translation? Learning How to Read Translated Texts.”
Denis Family Graduate Curatorial Fellowship
2015
Exhibition Title: Edgar Allan Poe in Baltimore and Beyond: Highlights from the Susan Tane Collection.
Albertine Cinémathèque Film Festival Grant
Face Foundation
2022-2023 and 2024-2025
Albertine Cinémathèque is a program of FACE Foundation and Villa Albertine, which aim to promote French-American cultural exchange in education and the arts on American college and university campuses.
Publications
“Introducing French Literature through Translation.” In Teaching Literature in Translation: Pedagogical Contexts and Reading Practices eds. Brian James Baer and Michelle Woods, Routledge, 2022, pp. 253-261. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003105220-32/introducing-french-literature-translation-jena-whitaker
“Michel Deguy, translation, and the primary chiasmus.” Modern Language Notes, vol. 136, no. 6, Sept 2021, pp. 13-30. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/842560
Book Review: Les voix du lecteur dans la presse française du XIXe siècle by Elina Absalyamova and Valérie Stienon (review) Nineteenth Century French Studies, vol. 48(2020). https://ncfs-journal.org/whitaker-absalyamova-and-stienon-eds-2018
“Les parenthèses – un temps d’écriture, un temps du dehors: Blanchot, Derrida, Mallarmé.” in Léçon d’économie générale: l’expérience limite chez Bataille-Blanchot-Klossowski (Ed. Alain Milon) Presses Universitaires de Paris Nanterre, 2019, pp. 175-189. https://books.openedition.org/pupo/21497?lang=fr
“Désir de lire, désir de traduire.” Modern Language Notes, vol. 132, no.4, Sept. 2017, pp. 821-828. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/681379
“Histoires Extraordinaires: World-Wide Fame.” Edgar Allan Poe in 20 Objects from the Susan Jaffe Tane Collection, edited by Gabrielle Dean and Richard Kopley, Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University, 2016, pp. 121-125.
“Gérard de Nerval”. The Literary Encyclopedia. Ed. Nigel Harkness. First published 27 July, 2015. http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3322
Book Review. Écrivains contemporains lecteurs de Flaubert Herschberg Pierrot, Anne. Œuvres & Critiques XXXIV Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, (review) Nineteenth Century French Studies (2013). https://www.ncfs-journal.org/jena-whitaker/whitaker-herschberg-pierrot-ed-2009
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