Sophia Khadraoui-Fortune, Ph.D.

Education

• Ph.D. The Pennsylvania State University (2014)

• M.A. The Pennsylvania State University (2009)

• M.A La Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris III, France (2005)

Expertise

As a scholar, my work focuses on 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-century Francophone studies, with an emphasis on postcolonial history, visual culture, gender and trauma studies, and literary theory. More specifically, my research examines how France’s colonial and imperial pasts are memorialized, negotiated, and contested in contemporary public space through the analysis of monuments, memorials, and visual interventions in French and Francophone cityscapes.

Anchored in public art, art history, and theories of collective memory, my work explores how nations and communities narrate traumatic histories, debating not only what is remembered, but also how, where, and why. I argue that these public commemorative practices often mediate, or even subvert, official, state-sanctioned narratives, allowing “proscribed” or marginalized memories to emerge alongside, or in tension with, “prescribed” forms of remembrance.

Publications

Khadraoui-Fortune, Sophia. “Her Body, Their Freedom: The Black Woman and the Performance of National Virtue in France’s Abolition Landscape.” Suite Française, vol. 8, 2025, pp. 217-247.

Khadraoui-Fortune, Sophia. “General Alexandre Dumas: A Century-Long Tale of Memorials.” Contemporary French Civilization, vol. 50.4, 2025, pp. 389-409.

Khadraoui-Fortune, Sophia. “Solitude, Monument Prothétique.” Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, vol. 27. 3, 2023, pp. 417-425.

Khadraoui-Fortune, Sophia. “The Abolition of Slavery.” in Postcolonial Realms of Memory, book edited by Étienne Achille, Charles Forsdick, and Lydie Moudileno, University of Liverpool Press, 2020, pp. 195-203.

Grant Funding

ALLICE - Advancing Language Learning and Internationalization through Curriculum Enhancement. 2023-2026. (U.S. Department of Education). Federally funded grant under the Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language (UISFL) program supporting international education and foreign language study. Co-director with Dr. Rafaela Fiore Urizar (PI) and Dr. Ryan Medders.

• Objective 1: Expansion of Study Abroad and Cultural Immersion Opportunities
• Objective 2: Professional Development for Language Learners
• Objective 3: Promotion of International Studies and Language Learning