Profile

Susan Kenney received her Ph.D. in French from Rutgers University in 2020. Her dissertation (under the direction of François Cornilliat) explores the notion of hedonism in the spiritual poetry of Gabrielle de Coignard, a sixteenth-century poet from Toulouse, France.

Dr. Kenney received her B.S. in French at Radford University. During her undergraduate studies, she spent a semester abroad in France and participated in volunteer service projects in Belgium. She has also studied abroad in Canada and Switzerland. Upon receiving her undergraduate degree, Dr. Kenney became an English teaching assistant in France for one year. She then went on to complete an M.A. in Foreign Languages, Cultures, and Literatures at Virginia Polytechnic Institute while also teaching French to undergraduate students. Just prior to pursuing her Ph.D. at Rutgers University, Dr. Kenney enjoyed a summer teaching ESOL to Bhutanese and Haitian refugees in Virginia.

Dr. Kenney has taught a variety of francophone language, literature, and culture courses, both in person and on-line. In 2018, she received the Rutgers University School of Arts and Sciences Award for Distinguished Contribution to Undergraduate Education. Dr. Kenney has also been an exchange student at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris for a year and has twice been afforded the opportunity to be an instructor and assistant-coordinator for the Rutgers Summer in Paris program.

Research and Teaching Interests

Dr. Kenney’s research interests lie in poetry, pleasure, philosophy, religion, women’s and gender studies, and pedagogy. She is continually exploring pedagogical approaches aimed at bringing linguistic, literary, cultural, and historical content to life for students while also fostering compassion, curiosity, and critical thinking.