Dr. M. Catherine Jonet, Assistant Professor of Women's Studies

Professor Jonet

Office:  Science Hall, Rm. 289 

Email: mjonet@nmsu.edu

Office Hours: Online and by Appointment

Academics:

Education:  Ph.D., English (Critical Theory and Cultural Studies) with a Graduate Minor in Women's Studies, 2007 (Purdue University); M.A., English with a Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies, 2001 (Indiana State University); M.A., The Humanities, 2000 (Indiana State University); M.A., French Language and Literature, 1995 (Indiana State University); B.A., French Language and Literature, 1993 (Indiana State University)

Teaching Interests: Critical Theory (gender/feminist, queer, postcolonial, critical race, postmodern); Cultural Studies (Digital Humanities, Graphic Narrative, Music Cultures, 20th and 21st century Literatures, Experimental Texts by Women, the Aesthetic, Visual Studies)

Courses Taught: Feminist Theory; Gender, Feminism, and Popular Culture; Gender and Graphic Narrative; Cyberfeminisims: Feminist Digital Cultures; Postmodernism and Gender; Feminist Aesthetics; Introduction to Women's Studies

Research: I use critical theory to understand and unpack cultural representations in creative media.  My work analyzes literature, film and visual cultures, and other forms of culture produced by female artists.

Research:

Select Publications

• "Reconfigurations of The L Word." with Laura Anh Williams. Televising Queer Women 2nd Ed. Edited by Rebecca Beirne. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming
  
• "Our Graphics, Ourselves: Graphic Narrative and the Gender Studies Classroom" Critical Approaches to Teaching Graphic Narratives in the Literature Classroom Edited by Lan Dong, forthcoming
• "At the Interstices of Diaspora: Queering the Long Story Short in Caribbean Literature by Women" in Contemporary Essays on the Postcolonial Short Story Edited by Paul March-Russell and Maggie Awadalla,  in progress
• "'Everything else is the same': Configurations of The L Word" (with Laura Anh Williams).  Televising Queer Women. Ed. Rebecca Beirne. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007

• "'She Doesn't Know the Truth About Me': 'The shaping presence' of the Closet in Amma Darko's Beyond the Horizon. Critical Essays on Gender and Sexuality in African Literature and Film. Ed. Ada U. Azodo. Trenton: Africa World Press, 2006
• "'Divan of Tamarit' by Federico García Lorca." in Comparative Criticism Vol. 22. Ed. E.S. Shaffer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000

Select Paper Presentations:

2009-2012

• "Deneuve, Junon: Constructing Adult Motherhood in Un Conte de Noël and Après Lui." Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association, Albuquerque, NM, February 2012
  
• "Fear, Dread, and Girlhood in Hadzihalilovic's Innocence and Breillat's Barbe Bleue." Joint meeting of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association and Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association, San Antonio, TX, March 2011.
• "Grief of the Mother: The Incomprehensibility of Loss in Graphic Narrative by Lilli Carré and Megan Kelso." Annual Cultural Studies Association Conference, Chicago, April 201l.

• "Electra Becomes Queer Mourning: Grief and the Father in Bechdel's Fun Home and Gottlieb's Jokes and the Unconscious" The Third Biennial International Conference of the Contemporary Women's Writing Network In Collaboration with San Diego State University, July 2010
• "Of the Domesticity of Queers: Reimaging Family in Stacey D'Erasmo's A Seahorse Year" 8th Annual Cultural Studies Association Conference at Berkeley, California, March 2010.
• "Revolutionary Assemblages: Riot Grrrl and the Making of Postmodern Feminist Culture," Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association, Boston, MA, November 2009.

Teaching Honor

The Teaching Academy at NMSU has selected Dr. Jonet's teaching philosophy to be featured on their website.

Creative Work:

An experimental conceptual artist at heart, Dr. Jonet's creative work intersects playwriting, sound and visual art, poetry, and translation. She has won awards from the British Comparative Literature Association/British Centre for Literary Translation as well as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts through the American College Theater Festival (Region III).  Her work has been featured in film festivals, conferences featuring creative media, and she is a produced playwright.  E. S. Shaffer, editor of Comparative Criciticsm: East and West Comparative Perspectives, Vol. 22, states about the Lorca translation: "This new translation of Lorca's beautiful poem, by Catherine Jonet, [. . .] is worthy to take its place among the many attempts at the impossible."

Select Honors, Performances, and Awards:

Short Film (co-director, music)

• Third Prize Audience Award for Best Short Film, Indianapolis LGBT Film Festival for film, A Field Guide, 2006.
• TransRex: Drag Kinging and Camp, Concurrent Film Festival, Trans/Positions: A Conference on Feminist Inquiry in Transit, Purdue University, IN, 2005
• Threads, Concurrent Film Festival, Trans/Positions, 2005
• Building on Stonewall: Queer Activism in the Bush Years, American Studies Symposium, Purdue University, IN, 2004 
• Chainsaw: Technologies of Gender and Horror, Women's Studies Lecture Series, Purdue University, IN, 2003 

Translation

• Translation of poetry collection, Divan of Tamarit by Federico García Lorca.  Published in Comparative Criticism Vol. 22. Ed. E.S. Shaffer by Cambridge University Press in 2000.
• Third Prize (joint), British Comparative Literature Association and the British Centre for Literary Translation, Cambridge University in 1998 for translation of Lorca.

Sound Art/Music

• "Cinematica," in Chance, a multi-media program of music, dance and video.  No Strings Attached Theatre Company, Black Box Theater, Las Cruces, NM, June 2010.
• "Sounding Off: History and Third Wave Praxis," Women's Studies Noon Lecture Series, Purdue University, IN, 2001 (sound art)
• "Third Wave, Sound Wave," Colloquium on Sex and Gender, Indiana State University, IN, 2001 
• "Virtual Real: Sound Art, Feminist Art," Fifth Annual Undergraduate/Graduate Research Showcase, Indiana State University, IN, 2001 
• "End Credits, Dead Air: Gender, Sexual Violence, and Experiencing Film," Colloquium on Sex and Gender, Indiana State University, IN, 2000 (sound/visual)

Critical Theory

Some of Dr. J's favorite texts.

Favorite Quote About Teaching: A teacher's purpose is not to create students in her own image, but to develop students who can create their own image. ~Author Unknown

Favorite Quote: «Si le monde était clair, l'art ne serait pas.» --Albert Camus (trans: "If the world was clear, art wouldn't exist")
Favorite Quote from a Student: Dr. Jonet is the gateway professor to Women's Studies.