Meet Dr. A-B!

Dr. Andia Augustin-Billy, commonly called Dr. A-B by her students, is Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Centenary.

Andia Augustin-Billy received her M.A. and Ph.D. in French language and literatures from Washington University in St. Louis and also earned a certificate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies as part of her graduate training. Her research interests include analysis of gender and sexuality in 19th and 20th century French literature, travel literature, and themes of migration and exile in Francophone African and Caribbean literatures and cultures.

Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 3-4 PM
Phone number: 318.869.5251
Office location: Jackson Hall, 306C
Email: aaugustinbilly@centenary.edu

About Dr. Andia Augustin-Billy

Education

Washington University in St. Louis

  • Ph.D., French Language and Literatures, May 2015. Dissertation: “Bodies in Transgression: Exploring Same-Sex Relations in Contemporary Francophone Caribbean Literature.” Director: Professor Seth Graebner
  • Certificate in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, May 2015. 
  • M.A., French Language and Literatures, August 2009.

 

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

  • M.A. student in French Literature, University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2006-2008).

Lee University, Cleveland, TN

  • B.A., French Language and Literature, May 2002.

Courses Taught

Centenary College of Louisiana

  • CU351, Haiti: Killing with Kindness, May 2017, May 2018 
  • English 391, Independent Study: Sun, Sand, Sex in Caribbean Literature, Spring 2018.
  • FLNG 391, Sun, Sand, Sex in Caribbean Literature, Summer 2017 (cross-listed in English and Gender Studies).
  • French 101, Elementary French I, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018.
  • French 190, Paris Noir: Black America in the City of Light, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018.
  • French 102 A-B, Elementary French II, Spring 2017, Spring 2018.
  • French 304, Rethinking the Meaning of Home in Haitian Texts, Spring 2018.
  • French 306, The Literature of Children and Young Adult in the Francophone World, Spring 2017.
  • French 308, Introduction to Literary Texts: Love, Sex, and Lies in French Literature, Fall 2015, Fall 2018.
  • French 402, Gender and Sexuality Studies in the Francophone World, Fall 2016 (cross-listed in Gender Studies).
  • French 408, Postcolonial Power and the Rape of the Atlantic World, Fall 2017 (cross-listed in Gender Studies).
  • French 493, Independent Study: Women in Contemporary French Literature, Fall 2015.

Washington University in St. Louis

  • French 101, Elementary French I, Fall 2008.
  • French 102, Elementary French II, Spring 2010, Spring 2011. 
  • French 105, Advanced Elementary French, Fall 2009. 
  • French 201, Intermediate French, Fall 2010, Fall 2014.
  • French 307, Advanced French, Fall 2011. 
  • French 385, Cultural Differences,Washington University Summer Institute in France, Summer 2010. 
  • French 4211, The Novel of the 1930s: The Human Condition and the Meaning of Life, Spring 2012. Undergraduate preceptorial for Prof. Pascal Ifri’s seminar. 
  • Independent Study: Haitian Creole for Health Care Professionals, Spring 2010. 
  • WGGSS 100, Intro to Women Gender Studies, Fall 2012. 
  • WGSS 206, Sexuality and the State: Introduction to Sexuality Studies, Spring 2015 (T.A.)

University of North Carolina at Greensboro 

  • French 101, Elementary French I, Spring 2008. American University of the Caribbean in Les Cayes, Haiti
  • English as a Second Language (ESL) I Instructor, (2002-2004). 
  • English as a Second Language (ESL) II Instructor, (2002-2004).

Conferences

  • “‘Tu es ridicule!’: When Women Finally Speak Out in Ferdinand Oyono’s Novels,” 68thAnnual Mountain Interstate Foreign Language Conference, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, October 2018.

  • “Photography, Work, & the Birth of Modern Shreveport: A Collection of Readings,”
  • Meadows Museum of Art, Centenary College of Louisiana, Shreveport, Louisiana, March 2018.
  • “Interpreting Get out: Race in Contemporary America,” [Invited] Black History Month Series, Robinson Film Center, Shreveport, Louisiana, February 2018.
  • “Literature and Gender: How I Read as a Woman,” [Invited] English Department Colloquium, Centenary College of Louisiana, Shreveport, Louisiana, November 2017.
  • “C’est pas Dieu qui abandonne le nègre: Reimagining Exclusion in Selected Haitian Novels,”29th Haitian Studies Association Conference, New Orleans, November 2017.
  • “‘Entre deux mondes’: l’anticolonialisme réimaginé dans Le Vieux nègre et la médaille de Ferdinand Oyono, African Literature Association, New Haven, Connecticut, June 2017.
  • “French Connection: Louisiana and France.” [Invited] French Film Week, Robinson Film Center, Shreveport, Louisiana, November 2016.
  • “Unité et Diversité Unity and Diversity: A Conference on Louisiana French,” Natchitoches, Louisiana, September 2016.
  • “M pral beat sissy sa!: Pour une homosexualité évidente et impossible,” Caribbean Studies Association, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, June 2016.
  • “La voix d’un masisi depuis la diaspora: Le cas d’Assotto Saint,” Haitian Studies Association,  Université de Montréal, Québec, Canada, October 2015.
  • “Haiti: Myths and Truths,” [Invited] Meadows Museum of Art, Centenary College of Louisiana, Shreveport, Louisiana, October 2015.
  • “Contemporary French Culture.” [Invited] French Film Week, Robinson Film Center. Shreveport, Louisiana, October 2015.
  • “Migration of Pain: Women’s Tales from Saint-Domingue to New Orleans,” Caribbean Studies Association, New Orleans, Louisiana, May 2015.
  • “Vos papiers, s’il-vous-plaît?: Undocumented Haitian Women in Guadeloupe and the Economy.” 12th Annual Yale Bouchet Conference, New Haven, Connecticut, April 2015.
  • “Haiti is not Home Anymore: In Search of Home in Assotto Saint’s Works.” 26th Haitian Studies Association, Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana, November 2014.
  • “Ré-imaginer la ville: Classe, race, et désir dans le Port-au-Prince de Dany Laferrière.” 56th Midwest Modern Language Association, Detroit, Michigan, November 2014.
  • “‘The Impossible Black Homosexual’: Blurring Identities and Homes in the Works of Assotto Saint.” Spring 2014 WGSS Graduate Student Workshop Series. Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri, March 2014.
  • “Changing Boys into Men: Aspects of Masculinity in French Algeria,” Society for the Study of French History 27th Annual Conference, Cardiff University, Cardiff, U.K., June 2013.
  • « Lavi nan Gwadloup: Des femmes commerçantes haïtiennes en Guadeloupe, défis et survie », 24th Haitian Studies Association, Jamaica, Queens, New York, November 2012.
  • “They so big bout their sexiness!: Regulating Female Sexuality in  Jamaica Kincaid’s Lucy and Oonya Kempadoo’s Buxton Spice,“ Caribbean Studies Association, Le Gosier, Guadeloupe, May 2012.
  • “Gendering Revolt: Desire and Resistance in Marie Vieux Chauvet’s Amour, Colère, Folie,”61stAnnual Mountain Interstate Foreign Language Conference, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, September 2011.
  • “Pimping the Self: Negotiating Freedom through the Mulatto Woman’s Body,” Caribbean Studies Association, Willemstad, Curaçao, May 2011.
  • “The Disabled Body in the Fabliaux,” 40th Annual Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association Conference, St. Louis, Missouri, March 2010.
  • Discussant, “The Neo-African American: The Mutual Effects on Communities of Americans & Immigrants of the African Diaspora.” Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri, April 2010.
  • Respondent, Sara Potter’s “Does She or Doesn’t She?: Politics, Erotism, and Desire in Juan García Ponce’s Inmaculada, o los placeres de la inocencia” and Britta Anderson’s “‘Cargar la nada’: presence as resistance in Cecilia Vicuña, Veronika Zondek, and Heddy Navarro Harris.” Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Graduate Student Workshop. Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri, October 2010.

Publications

“The Disabled Body in the Fabliaux.” Postmedieval: A Journal of Medieval Cultural Studies 3.2, Summer 2012.

Ayiti pa lakay ankò: Assotto Saint’s Search for Home.” Journal of Haitian Studies, Spring 2016.

“A Conversation with Lavar Munroe.” Devil in a White City: A Painting Series by Lavar Munroe (Shreveport: Publications of The Meadows Museum of Art, 2018). 38-41.

Service + Awards

Centenary College of Louisiana

  • Chair, Convocations Committee, Fall 2017-Present.
  • Member, Diversity Committee, Fall 2016-Present.
  • Faculty advisor, Le Quartier français, LLC, Fall 2015-Present.
  • Member, Search Committee for English Literature and Creative Writing, Fall 2017.
  • Invited speaker, International Student Orientation, Spring 2017.
  • Member, Convocations Committee, Fall 2016-Spring 2017
  • President, Faculty Club, Fall 2016-Spring 2017.
  • Invited speaker, Open House, Fall 2016.

 

  Department of Foreign Languages

  • Faculty advisor, La Légion d’honneur Louisiannaise, Spring 2017-Present.
  • Faculty advisor and organizer, La Table française, Fall 2015-Present.
  • Conseiller de la direction, Le Tintamarre French Language Newspaper, Fall 2015-Present.

 

Professional and community service

  • Comité de rédaction et de direction, Les Éditions Tintamarre, Centenary College of Louisiana, 2016-Present.

Workshops

  • Faculty of Color Uniting for Success Institute through Associated Colleges of the South (ACS), Southwest University, June 10-15, 2018.
  • “Professional French,” Louisiana State University, in cooperation with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the U.S., the Consulate General of France in Louisiana and the Paris International Chamber of Commerce, June 4-8, 2018.
Notice of Nondiscriminatory Policy As To Students The insitution does not discriminate in its educational and employment policies against any person on the basis of gender, race, color, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, or on any other basis proscribed by federal, state, or local law.