Dr Fransiska Louwagie

Biography

Originally from Belgium, I completed a PhD on French post-Holocaust literature at the University of Leuven and held post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Leuven and Lessius University College. I joined the University of Aberdeen as Senior Lecturer in French and Francophone Studies in August 2022. I previously held a post as Associate Professor of French at the University of Leicester. As part of a research project on self-translation I also undertook a three-month research stay at Harvard University in 2010 supported by a Fulbright Visiting Fellowship.

My research combines literary studies with a range of interdisciplinary perspectives. I have in particular worked on survivor narratives and the representation of the Holocaust in contemporary Francophone fiction and bande dessinée. My research also focuses on issues of migration, bilingualism and translation. As part of my work, I have undertaken various research collaborations in the field of drama and the visual arts, particularly graphic novels, post-Holocaust art and political cartooning.

I am the author of Témoignage et littérature d’après Auschwitz (2020) and have co-edited several volumes and thematic issues, including:  Un ciel de sang et de cendres. Piotr Rawicz et la solitude du témoin (2013); Ego-histories of France and the Second World War: Writing Vichy (2018, co-edited with Manuel Bragança); Tradition and Innovation in Franco-Belgian bande dessinée (2021); Migration, Memory and the Visual Arts: Second-Generation (Jewish) Artists (forthcoming 2023).

I am the PI of ‘Covid in Cartoons’ (AHRC, 2021-2022 350k), an interdisciplinary research project conduced with Dr Di Levine (University of Leicester), Shout Out UK and Cartooning for Peace. I’m also currently leading a BA/Leverhulme research project with Manu Braganca on The Future of WWII France in Academia.

External Memberships

I am currently Vice-Chair External Engagement and Communications for the University Council of Modern Languages. I'm a member of the Editorial Board of Modern and Contemporary France and of the AHRC Peer Review College. I have been part of the Executive Committee of the AUPHF+ as membership secretary from 2018 until 2021.

Prizes and Awards

• 'The Future of WWII France in Academia: Contemporary Research Paradigms, Trajectories and Challenges' (BA/Leverhulme Small Grant, £4,772.90), PI, with Dr Manu Bragança, 2022-2014 - with further funding from MHRA, UCML, IMLR, SFS, SSFH. 
• 'Covid in Cartoons' (AHRC-funded (£352054 at 100% FEC and £296928 at 80% FEC), PI, in partnership with Dr Di Levine (LIAS) Cartooning for Peace and Shout Out UK, 2021-2022. 
• ‘Political Cartooning and Global Challenges: Maximising impact across settings and stakeholders’, 'ESRC IAA funding, £9,996.8), with Sarah Weidman and Kara Blackmore, University of Leicester ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, Large Rapid Response scheme, 2021-2022.
• Design Methodology Hub, (Research England Fund for Participatory Research, £10,000), with Dr Di Levine and the University of Nairobi, 2022.
• 'Political Cartooning and Peace-Building in Conflict and Post-Conflict Contexts (GCRF IRDF ODA Block Grant (£9676), PI, with Dr Di Levine, 2021-22. With further College Research Development Fund support (data analysis ‘Social cohesion with a pencil stroke’ – political cartooning in Ivory Coast), 2021-2022 (£3,270.80)'
• Across the Seasons: Memory Matters Today' (Toni Schiff Memorial Fund, £9,132.90), PI, with Caroline Sharples (UCLan) and CCM Theatre, 2015-2016.
• 'France, Vichy and me', (BA/Leverhulme Small Grant, (£6,266.30), Co-I, with Manu Braganca (Queen's University Belfast), 2014-2016. With further grants and support (£6,265) from the SSFH, the SFS, the ASMCF, the Stanley Burton Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the School of Modern Languages at the University of Leicester, the Centre for Collaborative Research in the Humanities at Queen’s University Belfast, the QUB Research Initiative Fund. 

Funding and Grants

• 'The Future of WWII France in Academia: Contemporary Research Paradigms, Trajectories and Challenges' (BA/Leverhulme Small Grant, £4,772.90), PI, with Dr Manu Bragança, 2022-2014 - with further funding from MHRA, UCML, IMLR, SFS, SSFH. 
• 'Covid in Cartoons' (AHRC-funded (£352054 at 100% FEC and £296928 at 80% FEC), PI, in partnership with Dr Di Levine (LIAS) Cartooning for Peace and Shout Out UK, 2021-2022. 
• ‘Political Cartooning and Global Challenges: Maximising impact across settings and stakeholders’, 'ESRC IAA funding, £9,996.8), with Sarah Weidman and Kara Blackmore, University of Leicester ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, Large Rapid Response scheme, 2021-2022.
• Design Methodology Hub, (Research England Fund for Participatory Research, £10,000), with Dr Di Levine and the University of Nairobi, 2022.
• 'Political Cartooning and Peace-Building in Conflict and Post-Conflict Contexts (GCRF IRDF ODA Block Grant (£9676), PI, with Dr Di Levine, 2021-22. With further College Research Development Fund support (data analysis ‘Social cohesion with a pencil stroke’ – political cartooning in Ivory Coast), 2021-2022 (£3,270.80)'
• Across the Seasons: Memory Matters Today' (Toni Schiff Memorial Fund, £9,132.90), PI, with Caroline Sharples (UCLan) and CCM Theatre, 2015-2016.
• 'France, Vichy and me', (BA/Leverhulme Small Grant, (£6,266.30), Co-I, with Manu Braganca (Queen's University Belfast), 2014-2016. With further grants and support (£6,265) from the SSFH, the SFS, the ASMCF, the Stanley Burton Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the School of Modern Languages at the University of Leicester, the Centre for Collaborative Research in the Humanities at Queen’s University Belfast, the QUB Research Initiative Fund.