Summary
Edgington earned her Ph.D. in French Literature from Indiana University – Bloomington in 2013. Since then, she has taught French language and literature at Queen’s University Belfast, the University of Michigan, and the University of Nevada, Reno, where she has also held appointments as the assistant director and, later, associate dean of the Honors College.
A specialist of 19th-century French literature and art, Edgington is the author of Fashioned Texts and Painted Books: Nineteenth-Century French Fan Poetry (North Carolina, 2017) as well as articles on the works of Stéphane Mallarmé, Théophile Gautier, Edmond de Goncourt, Octave Uzanne, and language pedagogy. Her current book project, under contract with McGill-Queen’s University Press, reconsiders the tumultuous career of 19th-century French-Canadian poet William Chapman against the backdrop of turn-of-the-century (literary) politics and the rise of industrial capitalism and cultural patronage. Her research in the field of honors education includes book chapters on internationalizing the honors curriculum and the role of contract courses in the honors experience and an edited volume on honors advising.
Born and raised in Reno, Nevada, Edgington is passionate about making the richness and diversity of world languages and cultures accessible to University of Nevada, Reno students and to residents of her home state more broadly. With colleagues in French, she was recently awarded an Empowering French and Francophone Studies grant to integrate Open Educational Resources into the fourth-semester French language course in order to reduce textbook costs for students and increase enrollments in French. In addition, she oversees a burgeoning concurrent enrollment program that offers coursework in French, Japanese, and Spanish at over 20 high schools across the state. Other current advocacy efforts include serving as the president of the Professional Language Association of Nevada, an organization that brings together K12 and post-secondary world languages educators, and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Alliance Française of Reno.
Research interests
- 19th-century French and French-Canadian poetry
- Visual and material culture
- Second language pedagogy
Selected publications
Publications in French and Francophone Studies
Books
- Fashioned Texts and Painted Books: Nineteenth-Century French Fan Poetry. North Carolina Studies in the Romance Languages and Literatures, no. 312, University of North Carolina Press, 2017.
Book Chapters
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“The Elective System, Honors Degrees, and Academic Advising.” Advising for Today’s Honors Students, edited by Erin E. Edgington, NCHC, 2023.
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“Something Borrowed, Something New: Honors College Faculty and the Staffing of Honors Courses.” With Linda Frost. Honors Colleges in the 21st Century, edited by Richard Badenhausen, NCHC, 2023.
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“Making the Global Familiar: Building an International Focus into the Honors Curriculum.” With Daniel C. Villanueva. Internationalizing Honors, edited by Kim Klein and Mary Kay Mulvaney, NCHC, 2020.
Articles
- “The Poet and the Philanthropists: William Chapman’s Improbable Bid for the Nobel Prize.” Nottingham French Studies, vol. 60, no. 1, 2021.
- “Re-Orienting the fête galante in Mallarmé’s éventails.” Nineteenth-Century French Studies, vol. 44, nos. 1–2, 2015–2016, pp. 128–143.
- “Introducing Students to Pre-Nineteenth-Century Poetry in the Language Classroom.” The French Review, vol. 88, no. 2, 2014, pp. 171–184.
Publications in Honors Education
Edited Volume:
- Advising for Today’s Honors Students, National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC), 2023
Courses taught
- FREN 111
- FREN 112
- FREN 211
- FREN 309
- FREN 410
- FREN 477
- WLL 280
Education
- M.A. in Educational Leadership, University of Nevada, Reno, 2018
- Ph.D. in French Literature, Indiana University – Bloomington, 2013
- M.A. in French Literature, Indiana University – Bloomington, 2010
- B.A. in French Language and Literature and Sociology, University of Nevada, Reno, 2008