Karen Turman

Teaching: I integrate diverse perspectives and topics in my curriculum design and aim to build the classroom community through student engagement with speakers outside the classroom. I enjoy exploring interdisciplinary connections through exposure to diverse voices and fields of interest in French, including environmental issues, human rights, and the industries of fashion, music, and dance performance.

I also optimize experiential learning through real-world interactions inside and outside of the classroom. After discovering the rich cultural presence of French-speaking immigrant communities in Boston and the surrounding areas, I have integrated Community Engagement Scholarship into the curriculum for my intermediate and advanced French language courses. Ernest L. Boyer describes this methodology as essentially connecting academic and civic cultures in an effort to“enlarge the universe of human discourse and [enrich] the quality of life for all of us.”For example, students in my French 20 course develop their final project around a cultural experience that involves participation in an activity of their choice with a local Francophone community. Activities range from Senegalese dance classes to learning Haitian culture and Creole language at the Everett Haitian Community Center. In order to bring Francophone guest artists, musicians, and dancers into the classroom to engage with the students, I have been awarded the Elson Family Arts Initiative Fund to support the integration of arts into the Harvard French language curriculum annually since 2020.

Roles: Course head for French 20: Francophone Culture in Local Communities; French 50: Justice, Equity, Rights, and Language; and French 62: Exploring Sustainable Practices in French Industry—Fashion, Cuisine, and Music.

Research:

In Second Language Acquisition, my research and practice include community engagement scholarship in addition to topics of social justice and sustainability in the language curriculum. My most recent publication is entitled “Francophone Pacific Topics in French Language Programs: Teaching Transcultural Competence and Sustainable Literacy” (French Review). This work showcases pedagogical initiatives highlighting sustainability literacy, environmental justice, and Indigenous perspectives in the French-speaking Pacific region. The materials and resources for these course topics originated from curriculum development research trips I have taken to French Polynesia (Ma’ohi), New Caledonia (Kanaky), and Réunion island thanks to the Bacon Grant.

An avid jazz roots dancer for several decades, I am also currently developing research on experiential learning through dance pedagogy in the French language curriculum. Each semester I integrate dance lessons into the intermediate language classes as a method of developing transcultural competence while learning language through body movement.

My scholarly fields of interest also include 19th-century Bohemian Paris, the Jazz Age in Paris, fashion studies, musicology, and popular culture studies. My other recent publications include an article entitled “Prince’s Innovative Style : A Minneapolis Icon,” featured in the Berg Encyclopedia of

World Dress and Fashion (volume 3, Fall 2022). In addition to an invitation as keynote speaker for the Costume Society of America’s national conference in Minneapolis, MN (2022), I have been invited to speak on these topics in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, London, Manchester, Spain, and France.