Esther is a joint Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature and Romance Languages and Literatures (French & Francophone Studies). She holds an M.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in Comparative Literature, French & Francophone Studies, and Political Science from Bryn Mawr College.
Esther’s work explores the intersections of multilingualism, diaspora, translation, and postcolonialism across French, Modern Standard Arabic, Tunisian darija, Korean, and Tamazight literary spaces. Arguing for a move beyond traditional postcolonial pairings, her research challenges the colonizer-colonized dichotomy to offer new methodological frameworks for studying diasporic literatures across continents. Her current dissertation project, a comparative analysis of Maghrebi and Korean diasporic literatures, illustrates how multilingual authors navigate their linguistic repertoires to reshape identity, re-articulate memory, and forge new form to cultural expression.
Selected Publications
- “Subverting the ‘Original’: Self-Translation in Mohamed Choukri's Al-Khubz al-Ḥāfi.” Under Review.
- “Le youyou dans la littérature maghrébine : L’amazighité au cœur de la réappropriation littéraire et multilingue.” Expressions Maghrébines, vol. 23, no. 2, Dec. 2024, pp. 109–29.
Recent Courses in RLL
- FREN 10200 Beginning Elementary French II (Spring 2025)
- FREN 20100 French Language, History, and Culture I (Autumn 2025)