Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures

Education: Ph.D., University of Illinois

Research & Teaching Interests: Dr. Spencer has taught and published extensively on eighteenth-century French literature; the teaching of foreign languages; contemporary French and Quebecois cultures and institutions; the French press; women and politics in France, Canada, and Quebec; and the Francophone world and institutions. Her articles and reviews on these subjects have appeared in The American Review of Canadian Studies, Contemporary French Civilization, The Eighteenth Century: A Current Bibliography, Etudes sur le XVIIIe siècle, Francophonie vivante, Eighteenth Century Studies, The French Review,The Journal of Canadian Culture, The Canadian Modern Language Review, Le Journal Français d'Amérique, The National Bulletin of the American Association of Teachers of French, The Proceedings of the Western Society for French History, Quebec Studies, The Southern Humanities Review, and Women in French Studies. Her most recent article, “La campagne de Ségolène Royal: bilan et perspectives,” is due to appear in the April 2010 issue of The French Review.

Department & Other Appointments: In addition to her responsibilities in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Dr. Spencer is appointed by the Government of France to serve as Honorary Consul of France in Alabama. Additionally, she is the Editor of XVIII New Perspectives on the Eighteenth Century; and serves on the Board of the Southeastern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, the Editorial Board of Women in French Studies, and the Reading Committee of The National Bulletin of the American Society for French Teachers. She also serves as Secretary-Treasurer of the Alabama Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of French.

Awards:

• Alumni Professorship Award (Auburn University)
• Castanoli Professorship Award (Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures)
• Officier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques (Government of France)
• Outstanding Teacher Award (Post Secondary) (Alabama Association of Foreign Language Teachers) (award was received twice)
• Outstanding Teacher (Panhellenic Council)
• Prix d'Excellence (American Association of Teachers of French, Alabama Chapter)
• Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques (Government of France)
• Best Secretary-Treasurer Award (American Association of Teachers of French)
• Faculty Award for Outstanding Achievements in the Humanities (College of Liberal Arts)
• Outstanding Faculty Member Award in the Humanities (Student Government Association)
• Inclusion in Who's Who Among America's Teachers, Who's Who of American Women, and 2000 Outstanding Scholars of the Twentieth Century

• The French Enlightenment (2 volumes), in the series Dictionary of Literary Biography, Editor and Contributor (2005, Thomson-Gale)
• The Feminist Encyclopedia of French Literature, Co-Editor and Contributor (1999, Greeenwood Press)
• Foreign Languages and International Trade: A Global Perspective, Editor and Contributor (1987, The University of Georgia Press)
• French Women and the Age of Enlightenment, Editor and Contributor (1984 and 1993, Indiana University Press)