Peadar Kavanagh received his doctorate in French & Francophone Studies at the Department of Romance Languages & Literatures in 2024. For his dissertation, he investigated the function of satire during the consolidation of power in the early reign of Louis XIV. His research returns to satire, both as a mode of intervention in seventeenth-century France and as a concept in modern French and Francophone cultures. Out of this research, he is currently translating Cyrano de Bergerac’s short works in prose (Œuvres diverses [Lettres diverses, satiriques et amoureuses], 1654), towards critical and pedagogical editions. In the future, he hopes to treat this collection of fictional letters of praise and blame as a case study, to reconsider the relationship between the practices instituted at Jesuit secondary schools (collèges) and the production of literature during the long Counter-Reformation. As an instructor, he seeks to guide students in the range of critical practices that inquiries like these demand.
Recent courses in RLL
- FREN 10200 Beginning Elementary French II (Autumn 2020)
- FREN 10300 Beginning Elementary French III (Winter 2021)
- FREN 23522 Introduction à la satire en France (Autumn 2024)
- FREN 23725 La querelle des femmes (Spring 2025)