As the list of my publications and papers (see below) indicates, my research interests cover a wide variety of areas.  My specialty in graduate school was the French novel of the Twentieth Century, with a major emphasis on fiction published after WWII.  I was one of the first doctoral students at the University of Wisconsin to focus on the development of a theory and methodology of feminist literary and cultural criticism,  and I have continued throughout my career to refine feminist theories in literature and in other areas as well.

While my published research in French literature has focused largely on two authors-- Monique Wittig and Colette-- I spend much of my time refining my courses, which entails reading criticism and new authors.  I have developed some expertise in Québecois literature in connection with Cornell's course in Québec.  My interest in feminist utopian literature has led to several publications and papers, and a course for the Women's Studies program.  During my sabbatical (Spring, 1999) I researched French fiction of the late twentieth century.

I have been engaged in Women's Studies since 1973, when I attended the first conference organized by the early Women's Studies programs.  I have taught courses in Women's Studies beginning in 1976 while still in graduate school.  I co-founded Cornell's Women's Studies program, taught the first courses offered in WST, and developed all the core courses.  I have published and given papers on feminist theory, pedagogy, French feminist movements, and feminist semiotic theory.  In recent years, I have become very interested in the relationships between feminist theory and sexuality theories (lesbigay and queer theories).  I teach a senior seminar devoted to current issues in feminist theories, in which we look at the latest developments and how they apply to social movements.  Questions raised by that seminar have led to my work on lesbian body presentation, and on the relationships between postmodernism, feminist movements and queer theory.

Of necessity, my professional research also includes developing software and manuals for use in French language courses, and the use of the Internet for teaching in all courses.  I spent much of the summer of 1998 exploring software and Internet resources for use in our new multimedia classroom and am currently working to implement my findings.  As an avocation, I enjoy reading mysteries and have reviewed many for the Lesbian Review of Books.

The following list of publications and papers/lectures is arranged with the most recent first in each category.  Published works should be available through libraries or interlibrary loan.  Unpublished papers marked with an asterisk are available directly from me, for the cost of photocopying and postage.  Items posted on the Web will have an interactive link you can click on to access them.  You can e-mail me by clicking here dcrowder@cornellcollege.edu or you can write me at Cornell College, Languages, 600 First St. W., Mt. Vernon, IA  52314, U.S.A.

"Amazons." The Feminist Companion to French Literature, ed. E. Sartori. Westport, CT: Garland Press, 1999.Reprint of

"Lesbians and the (Re/De)Construction of the Female Body." in Queer Looks, ed. D. Atkins. New York: Haworth
Press, 1998.

"Amazons." The Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage, ed. C. Summers. Chester, CT: New England Publishing Associates,
1995.

"Lesbians and the (Re/De)Construction of the Female Body." Reading the Social Body, Eds. C. Burroughs and J. Ehrenreich.
Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1993: 61-84.

Translated Colette Guillaumin, "The Constructed Body." Reading the Social Body, Eds. C. Burroughs and J. Ehrenreich.
University of Iowa Press, 1993.

"Separatism and Feminist Utopian Fiction." Sexual Practice/ Textual Theory: Lesbian Cultural Criticism, Eds. J. Penelope
and S. J. Wolfe. Oxford, Eng. & Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell, 1993: 237-250.

 "Monique Wittig." Fifty French Women Writers, Eds. E. Sartori and D. Zimmerman. Greenwood Press, 1991.

"Sapho à l'école." AHLA Vol. 4, 1 (Montréal, 1985): 45-50.

"Une armée d'amantes: L'image de l'amazone dans l'oeuvre de Monique Wittig." Vlasta #4 (Paris, 1985): 79-87.

"Amazones de... demain? La fiction utopique féministe et lesbienne." AHLA Vol. 2, 4 (Montréal, March 1984): 19-33.

"Culture, langage, écriture: entretien avec Diane Crowder." Bulletin des archives de recherches lesbiennes (Paris, June
1984): 30-39.

"Amazons or Mothers?: Monique Wittig, Hélène Cixous and Theories of Women's Writing." Contemporary Literature Vol.
24, 2 (1983): 117-144.

"Semiotic Functions of Ideology in Literary Discourse." Bucknell Review Vol. 27, 1 "Literature and Ideology" (1982):
157-168.

"Image Structures, Codes and Recoding in Colette's The Pure and the Impure." Co-author J. A. Cothran. In Colette: The
Woman, The Writer, ed. E. Eisinger and M. McCarty. Penn State University Press, 1981.

Contributed to French entries in Women Writers in Translation: An Annotated Bibliography, 1945-1980. M. Resnick and
I. de Courtivron, eds. Garland, 1981.

Book reviews in The Lesbian Review of Books, Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, Motherroot Journal, Sistersource,
and Belles Lettres.

French 205: Lectures. [Reader for intermediate French 2] Cornell College: 1990.

CALIS computerized grammar exercises for French 101, 102, 103. Created 1985, revised 1987, 1989, 1993, 1997.
 

1996    * "'Hell is Hetero': Wittig's Virgile, non as Utopian Fiction." Panel discussion with Monique Wittig, Kentucky Foreign
                    Language Conference, Lexington, KY, Apr. 20, 1996.

1994    * "From Gay to Queer: Notes on Political Movement."
            Moderator: " Small College/ Small City: The Lesbigay Experience." Both at InQueery/InTheory/InDeed: Sixth North
                    American Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Studies Conference, University of Iowa, Nov. 17-20.
1991    * "Genderbending in [Colette's] The Pure and the Impure." MLA
            Consultant to Women's Studies Program, Wittenberg University

1989     "Sex, Gender, Sexuality: Some Questions of Definitions." Cornell College, Pauley Lecture series.

1988     Session Leader, "Being 'Out' in the Profession." MLA

1986     "Feminist Scholarship in the Humanities." Two-day workshop, Luther College.

1984    "Integrating Feminist Scholarship into the Liberal Arts Curriculum." Two-day workshop, Grinnell College.
            "La sémiotique du sexe en linguistique et littérature." Address to seminar "Anthropologie et sociologie des sexes," N-C
                    Mathieu, director. Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris.
             Informal workshop on semiotics and the theory of feminist criticism, Institute for Research in Women's Literature,
                    Tulsa University.
              Panelist, "Humanities," Iowa Conference on Women in Research, University of Iowa.

1983     "Utopia is a Feminine Noun." Convocation, Cornell College. Broadcast KCCK-FM (Cedar Rapids, IA).

1982     "Revolutionary Sexts: French Feminism Today." Grinnell College and University of Iowa.

1981     "An Army of Lovers: The Image of the Amazon in Wittig." New York, MLA.

1979     "Teaching Twentieth Century French Women Writers in Translation." Lawrence, KA, National Women's Studies
                    Assn.
             "The Semiotic Functions of Ideology in Literary Discourse." Semiotics Society of America.

1979     Organizer and Moderator, "Feminist Utopian Literature." MMLA and MLA

1978    "Integrating Women into the Literature Curriculum." Associated Colleges of the Midwest Conference.
            "An Optical Thirst for Invisible Water." (on Colette). New York, MLA.

1977     "Pedagogical Problems in Teaching Women Writers." MMLA.
            "The Signs of the Times." MLA
            "The Use of Semiotics in Foreign Language Teaching." Iowa Assn. of Teachers of German
            "The Semiotics of Sex." Cornell Honors Lecture.

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