Katarzyna Stempniak

 Kasia Stempniak’s areas of teaching and research include French literature and culture in the 19th and 20th centuries, with specific interests in visual and material culture. She has published on Gustave Flaubert in Nineteenth-Century French Studies and on fashion and architecture in French Historical Studies.

She earned her doctorate in Romance studies (French) from Duke University in 2019.

Recent Courses Taught

Communication in Francophone Cultural Contexts: Intermediate French I
Introduction to French Literature II: Writing the City
What’s New? Improving Oral Communication in French
À la mode: Fashion and the Body in French Literature and Culture, 1800 to Present 
Écocritique: Environmental Literature in French
Elementary French I

Research Interests

French Cultural Studies
19th & 20th Century French Literature
Fashion Studies
Intersections of Fashion and Architecture
Museums and New Media
Women’s and Gender Studies

Distinctions

Dr. Edgardo Yordán Humanities Faculty Research Grant, Hamilton College, 2021
Creative Arts & Technology Grant, Hamilton College, 2020
New York Public Library Research Grant, 2019-20
Creative Arts & Technology Grant, Hamilton College, fall 2020
Wellin Museum Grant for Innovative Teaching, fall 2019 and spring 2020
Naomi Schor Memorial Award (for best graduate essay), Nineteenth-Century French Studies Colloquium, 2016

Select Publications

• “‘C’est le pays de la toilette:’ Fashion and Space in Flaubert’s Le Château des cœurs.” Nineteenth-Century French Studies. 50.1-2 (Autumn-Winter 2021): 103-118. 
• “Dressing the Eiffel Tower: Fashion and Architecture in fin-de-siècle Paris.” French Historical Studies. 43:2, (April 2020).
• “On Display: Fashioning Fame through the ‘mannequin.’” Dix-Neuf. 23:2, 104-117.

Appointed to the Faculty

Educational Background

Ph.D., Duke University
B.A., George Washington University