Martha van der Drift
Education
Ph.D. Romance Language and Literatures - French and Francophone Studies, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC. 2014.
M.A. The Ohio University, Athens, OH. 2007.
B.A. The Ohio University, Summa Cum Laude, Athens, OH. 2005.
About Professor van der Drift
Martha van der Drift is a dual national (Swiss and American) who has taught French since 2005 in the United States. She lived and worked in international business in Geneva, Switzerland, and Paris for thirteen years and served as Assistant Director for Ohio University's study abroad program at the Université d'Avignon.
Dr. van der Drift's research interests lie at the intersection of Francophone literature, history, and the Arts. She is particularly interested in depictions of marginalization, resistance, memory, and nature in 20th and 21st-century French and Francophone writers and artists. To this end, she organized a week-long, inter-institutional and -disciplinary conference at UNC and Duke in 2013 to examine the role of the arts in intercultural understanding with two distinguished guests, 2008 Nobel Laureate Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio and Mauritian scholar Dr. Issa Asgarally (“Interculturality and the Arts”).
She is passionate about engaging her students with the visual, performing, and cinematic arts to examine socio-cultural themes. In her language teaching, she seeks to engage her students across all levels with methods such as: Communicative: competency in communicative skills + grammar accuracy within context; discussion-based learning (culture, film, arts, current events); collaborative learning; integrated reading and writing.
Publications, Articles, & Presentations
Keynote address: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGNz-tjdRvQ
Awards & Honors
2017. Teaching Excellence Recognition, Duke University
2013. Graduate School Dissertation Completion Fellowship, UNC
2012. Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award, UNC Romance Languages
Typical Courses
High beginners (105)
Intermediate French (203, 204)
Advanced: writing and grammar workshops
Advanced: culture, film, and literature