Dr. Dorothy Stegman
<b>Department: </b>Modern Languages and Classics<br><b>Research Area: </b>The 16th century French writer, Michel de Montaigne and his discourse on memory
Department: Modern Languages and Classics
Research Focus: My main focus is on the 16th century French writer, Michel de Montaigne and his discourse on memory which offers a paradox which can be elucidated in adopting a flexible, corporally-based notion of memory and non traditional rhetoric. The memory in his 3 books of Essais is inextricably linked to the narrator's textual and actual body creating a consubstance which is evident in such essays as "Des cannibales" and "De !'experience. This text has a connection as well to eating, food metaphors and alimentary vocabulary, so my research also involves culinary history and the creation and frequence of cooking terms. I am currently looking into the development of the French term for "turkey" (poule d'lnde >dindon) as it moved from a reference to the bird from the Americas to mean "fool" for which I am consulting dictionaries, recipes, natural and culinary history texts and literature. I also study eating, food metaphors and alimentary vocabulary in authors such as Frani;ois Rabelais and Cyrano de Bergerac.
Potential Student Project(s):
- Bibliographical searches and compilations of articles and books on Food history and Renaissance literature and history
- Creation of Power Points
- Retyping and/or formatting of papers
Attributes/skills/background sought in undergraduate:
- Some knowledge of French preferred, but not required Attention to detail
- Good typing skills Power Point skills
- Some knowledge of Humanities
Mentoring Plan: This participation would entail applying prior knowledge to a new area of research and summarizing the results. The student would learn about original texts and reference sources on such sites as Gallica, the online collection of the National Library of France and how to search for original texts and images. This would be followed by compiling the various results and summarizing articles. Then, there would be the creation of Power points to be presented at academic conferences and then conclude with the student presenting an aspect of the research conducted.
Contact: 765-285-1361, NQ 182